CBS News reports from Florida. "Home appraisers Pam Crowley and Joyce Potts knew the roof was caving in on the housing industry four years ago, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. That's when they noticed their profession being turned on its head. Instead of letting them do their job and figure what a home was worth ... bankers and realtors started telling them what dollar number to hit."

"'The appraiser is not to accept any orders where it's pre-determined what the value should be,' said Crowley, a Florida certified real estate appraiser."

"More and more, appraisers have been told that, to get hired, they have to guarantee a high appraisal - sight unseen. One lender emails appraisers, 'I need at least $210,000.' Another writes: 'I want to know if we can hit a value of 280K.'"

"Some lenders even send out blatant mass e-mails putting appraisers in a bidding war. To 77 appraisers for a home in Arizona: 'whoever can provide the highest [appraisal] will receive the deal.' 'We were blackmailed,' Crowley said."

"We didn't have to look far to see the fallout. Joyce Potts had just been called by a mortgage broker who wanted a high appraisal to refinance this tiny house in disrepair."

"Attkisson asked Potts: 'What was the number they wanted you to appraise this house at?' 'Well, it started at $210, then he says, 'what about $175.' Then, 'how about $150. can you get $150?' she said."

"Potts turned down the job. But while we were there, another appraiser came by. He decided not to look at the house with CBS News cameras there."

"Now under scrutiny, bankers and lenders are starting to adopt new rules to ensure independent, reliable appraisals. The changes are too late for many, including Crowley who's lost her business."

The Herald Tribune. "Foreclosure action in the first two months of 2008 was nearly three times greater than at the same time last year in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties. Distressed properties now account for roughly a quarter of all residential transactions, says Mary Howard, president of Lakewood Ranch's Cornerstone Title."

"'It became prevalent toward the latter part of last year,' Howard said."

"County appraiser Web sites around Southwest Florida are burgeoning with lists of lender-owner properties. 'You can find a list of the properties they own, and I guarantee they want to get rid of them,' said Erik Sconberg of Manatee County's Horizon Realty. 'There's anything you want from Longboat Key to the east side of any city.'"

"Many banks were freely lending during the real estate boom to people without the wherewithal to carry through on their purchases long term. 'You're dealing with many people who weren't truly qualified to begin with,' said real estate analyst Lou Goodkin. 'You had no down payments, you had stretch buying, and we basically had the greatest speculation in the history of housing.'"

"'It was such a distortion, where the appreciation was really artificially created,' Goodkin said. 'Even now, prices are still well above what most people could afford before.'"

"On Thursday, Sconberg was on Longboat Key checking on two properties he has listed, both foreclosed on by Brasota Mortgage, and both formerly owned by the same investor. 'They're both R.E.O.,' Sconberg said, meaning 'Real Estate Owned.' 'Big time flipper got caught.'"

"One is a four-bedroom, three-bath in Country Club Shores with a deep-water dock and a pool. It is five minutes from Sarasota Bay and the price is $1 million."

"'$1.5 million will get you 8,500 square feet, a monster of a place,' Sconberg said of the house. 'Dock on a canal that is hidden from the bay. Huge swimming pool, with a jacuzzi.'"

"'The neighbors are for sale on Bayou for $2.5 million,' Sconberg added. 'Five years from now you will be sitting there going, 'Wow, did I make a killing.'"

The Miami Herald. "For the second consecutive year, Florida ranked No. 1 in the country for mortgage fraud, as the stalled housing market quickly pushed both prevaricating borrowers and seasoned criminals into foreclosure."

"In Miami-Dade County, more than 1,500 cases of suspected fraud have been reported to police since the fall, said Glenn Theobald, chief legal counsel for the department and chairman of Mayor Carlos Alvarez's Mortgage Fraud Task Force."

"'We can't get through them all -- one case turns into five,' Theobald said. The department, he said, has 10 investigators dedicated to mortgage fraud, representing a 'tremendous commitment.'"

"Florida's latest ranking comes despite a new mortgage fraud law passed last year that made mortgage fraud a crime and established stringent criminal penalties. The Florida law mirrors a similar measure passed by Georgia in 2005, which served to dramatically button down fraud in that state."

"'If the [Florida] law is followed diligently and people are pursued and caught and prosecuted, it is going to have an impact because the word will get around. That's what happened in Georgia,' said Merle Sharick, Mortgage Asset Research Institute's national manager of business development."

The Sun Sentinel. "Four kids, three dogs, one bathroom, 900 square feet. This adds up to a problem every weekday morning at Luci and Danny Brito's tiny house in Pembroke Pines. 'There's literally a line, with each one holding a towel and a hairbrush, in our pajamas,' Luci Brito says."

"The value of their small home has shrunk and it is now less than their mortgage. They'd like to refinance their mortgage, but they don't qualify, even though Luci and Danny Brito have good jobs in and good credit."

"The Britos bought their home for $270,000 at the peak of the housing boom and appraisers say now it's worth $250,000. No lender is going to give them a new loan large enough to pay off their current mortgage."

"'It's laugh or cry, you pick,' she said. 'We can't go looking for anything bigger.'"

"'I don't blame the lenders,' said Gene Petrino, a mortgage broker in Pompano Beach. 'But they've gone from one extreme to the other — from everybody gets a loan to nobody gets a loan. There has to be a happy medium.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "The national mortgage crisis continues to hit close to home as Lake County homeowners keep defaulting on mortgages at a record pace, circuit court figures show. Following 2007, when a record 2,080 mortgage foreclosures were filed in circuit court in Lake County, banks and other lenders have sought to reclaim more than 700 properties since the new year began."

"The county didn't pass the 700 mark last year until late June."

"Dale Purcell lost his home in Astatula to foreclosure Thursday, said he couldn't keep up with mortgage payments after they jumped suddenly last year from about $900 a month to $1,700. He said he has painted the house, landscaped it and tried to sell it to save his credit rating."

"'You can't even rent a DVD without a credit card,' he told Circuit Judge G. Richard Singeltary during the court hearing."

"The foreclosed properties range from modest homes to mansions. Just last week, judges in Lake County issued final foreclosure rulings on properties valued together at about $2 million."

"Three other properties, with a combined value of nearly $700,000, were sold at a foreclosure auction Friday at the courthouse. Shannan Buttner, who stood as the lenders' proxy, was the lone bidder. She said she was authorized to drive up the bid to within 85 or 90 percent of the debt."

"She bid just $100 for each, meaning the homes remain the property of the lenders."

"Life was coming at Sam Butler fast last year. His career was going strong, and the time looked right for a bold jump into Chicago. Butler had already found a house for his family in an Illinois suburb, so he placed his Orlando home on the market for just more than he had paid in 2005."

"Then reality hit. The Butlers waited for prospective buyers to arrive. They eventually showed up, but with offers way below the $310,000 the Butlers had thought would materialize. And financing that new home no longer seemed practical."

"'We took the house off the market when we figured out the house in Chicago wouldn't work,' Butler said last week. 'So for now, we are staying here.'"

"Mike Colpitts, editor of a Destin publication that follows housing-market trends, thinks any rebound in housing is still off in the distance and those hoping to get their hands on the equity they thought they had in their homes will have to wait."

"'A lot of people will be stuck in their homes for a lot longer than they ever thought they would be,' Colpitts said recently. 'This situation will probably last until the middle of 2010, and it will be horrible for a lot of folks -- as bad as it gets, really.'"

"Central Florida's supply of unsold dwellings has grown from a one-month inventory in 2005 to more than 28 months' worth as of a month ago."

"Mike and Katie King have discovered that the real-estate market is far different than they thought it was last summer, when Mike King accepted a new job in Vero Beach and the couple put their Apopka house up for sale."

"Nine months later, they are living in a rented town house in Vero -- and their Central Florida residence is still unsold. 'I knew things were kind of bad, but not this bad,' King said. 'We were down here in Vero for three or four months, and nothing was happening with our house, so we lowered the price by $17,000.'"

"That hasn't worked. Now, King said, he is considering leaving his new job and returning to Apopka to live and work. 'Yes, I might consider moving back to Orlando if the house doesn't sell,' King said. 'Right now, we are waiting. I'm committed here until our lease runs out in June. We just keep hoping the house will sell and the noose will be loosened from around my neck.'"

"Renting is another option. But the expanding supply is limiting what they can charge."

"'The downside of renting [is that it] might only cover 70 or 80 percent of a loan payment,' said Bill Murphy, president of Remarc Homes, an Orlando custom-home builder who is renting out some of the properties that he built in the Orlando area during the housing boom."

"'I have about 16 houses that I built and couldn't sell,' Murphy said. 'Like every other builder a few years back, I got up in the morning and just said, 'Let's build.'"

"Murphy has decided that it's better to rent his houses for now than to sell them at deflated prices. 'I think the market has bottomed out,' he predicted, though 'the places I used to be able to rent for $2,200 a month now go for $1,900.'"

"'It used to be no problem selling; if you had a pulse, you could buy one,' he added. 'Now the banks are a lot more careful.'"