WTVJ reports from Florida. "Broward resident Marina Davis has to love her home. She's trapped in it. Like thousands, Davis has seen her real estate investment turn upside-down. In September 2005, Davis paid $550,000. Two months ago, the home was worth $480,000. Now, it is down to $380,000. Even worse, Davis falls farther behind every month. Because she got a risky 'negative equity' loan, her monthly payment of $2,850 isn't even enough to cover the monthly interest of $4,550. She now owes the bank $590,000."

"'There's nothing I can do,' she said. 'I am losing $1,700 a month. I am just going backward. I looked into refinancing, which is impossible.'"

"'That's not a good situation. You are basically stuck,' Realtor Kevin Veilleux said. Loans like this, called negative adjustable mortgage loans, were common before the hard times hit South Florida real estate."

"'The only way people could actually afford to live in and buy property was to do the negative adjustable mortgage,' Veilleux said. 'They really need to unload and get rid of those properties before we get into hurricane season.'"

The New York Times. "Barbara Sanz has never missed a mortgage payment, but the plunge in real estate is punishing condominium owners like her anyway. Four years ago, she bought her first condo in a glassy new Miami tower when the building was filling up. Now nearly one in six residents in the 43-story building is battling foreclosure and their contributions to the building association are shrinking."

"Each of the remaining owners has had to chip in an extra $1,000 assessment and $50 more a month for cable and Internet. That is on top of Ms. Sanz’s $450 monthly maintenance fee."

"Even though she pays more, her building has broken washers and dryers and unusable exercise equipment, and her hallway is spotted with mold. 'It’s not fair,' said Ms. Sanz. 'The first two years, I enjoyed all of the benefits of living in a condo. I’m disappointed now. I hate the way the building looks.'"

From CBS 12.com. "Rampant construction has West Palm Beach going vertical. But if you look closely at all the high rise condos downtown, you may notice some are virtual ghost towns. Realtor Anthony Pizzarelli says, 'If you see a year-old building with half the lights on, half the lights off, chances are half the building is controlled by the developer that built it.'"

"The other reason for the big void: foreclosures. The agent, who's been dubbed 'Mr. Downtown West Palm Beach' says on average prices for condos are down 25 percent or more. On the high end, a Penthouse at posh 'Esplanade Grande' (has) got marble everything and amazing views. It was going for $2.6 million. Now the asking price is only $2 million dollars."

"At 'The Slade,' a 2 bedroom place, complete with a 200 square foot balcony providing a sweeping view of the intracoastal and Palm Beach, is going for $599,000. That's down from $770,000."

"Perhaps the best deal of all if also up for grabs in 'The Slade.' If you are in the market for a 1-bedroom, with full gym access, you can get one originally purchased at $380,000, now in bank foreclosure, going for nearly half at $188,000."

"Barbara and Paul Westhorpe snatched up one of these great deals when they bought their condo at Flagler Landing, just north of downtown West Palm Beach. Their 2 bedroom, plus den, comes with a massive balcony overlooking a marina and its own elevator entrance. It's listed at $600,000. The Westhorpes got it for only $460,000."

"The bottom line: Mr. Downtown says if you want a downtown address, prices could go down even more. 'I think we have up to a 24 months buyer's window,' Pizzarelli says, 'I like to refer to this as the first inning of the true buyer's market.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "The housing crunch rages on, as more South Floridians behind on their mortgage payments are losing their homes in foreclosure sales after failing to work out deals with lenders."

"Scheduled sales in Broward County hit 2,568 last month, more than a fivefold increase over the 426 in April 2007, according to Realestat. In Palm Beach County, there were 785 scheduled sales in April, a 370 percent increase over the 167 from a year ago."

"'Our expectation is that we'll see more repossessions by the banks over the next few months,' West Palm Beach housing analyst Brad Hunter said Wednesday. 'It's not a pretty sight.'"

The Naples News. "Collier Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock said his office recorded 641 foreclosure filings in April. In Lee County, there were 3,425 filings in April, up 357 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from last month."

"Look at the documents recorded with his office, 'which are largely comprised of mortgages,' he said. In February, there were 10,256. In March, 12,035."

"'That’s a considerable jump. A 2,000-document jump,' Brock said. 'We may be seeing an upturn in the real estate market but it is too soon to come to any definitive conclusion. But maybe we have reached the bottom of the real estate debacle. If i didn’t see any more foreclosures, it wouldn’t be too soon.'"

"David Cole, director of business development for Amerivest Realty in Naples, thinks the numbers are higher in Southwest Florida because the real estate market 'was so hot,' with many people hoping to cash in on the 'flipping' craze by buying properties and selling them quickly at a higher price for a quick profit."

"'We had investors and probably a lot of them were not savvy investors,' he said."

"We’ve all read about foreclosures but may not have had the chance to see it up close and personal. Steve is a great guy, a smart guy, hard worker, a local business man, a great boss, father, honest, kind and now, a victim of foreclosure. Bankruptcy is not too far around the corner, either."

"'I never thought I would be one of those people,' he said."

"I visited Steve at his home and he just looked around, at the new hardwood floor he had put in just a few months ago, the new halogen lights in the ceiling and the custom marble floors. I sold him the house about three years ago."

"According to Steve, the 'help line' that his mortgage company has isn’t really a help line. It is no more than a debt collection tip-off line. When he called it, they just started harassing him, not helping him. More effort was made to harass him into the next mortgage payment and track him down to serve him with the foreclosure notice."

"Sadly, the end is near. The American dream of home ownership has turned into a nightmare. The bank will soon own a home with no toilets, fans, light fixtures, wash basins or even light switches."

"So Steve will pack up and move out and probably take a few things that aren’t screwed down so tightly. Steve, thanks for the memories … and the chandelier."

The Herald Tribune. "The Maggi sisters, Kathleen and Linda, are still living daily with the ramifications of their foreclosure by the former Coast Bank of Florida. Kathleen, 65, and Linda, 60, lost their North Port house last year after the interest rate on their mortgage adjusted to more than they could afford. They now rent in Port Charlotte and say their lives have gotten worse."

"Four years ago, the sisters had a nice home and a good credit rating. Today, they are living in a cramped rental with their dogs, hounded by collection agencies for late credit card payments and health care bills."

"'We're getting sued left and right,' Kathleen Maggi said. 'We have no idea how they are finding us, but we had a sheriff at the door just the other day.'"

"The sisters' North Port home -- built by bankrupt builder Construction Compliance Inc. and financed by Bradenton-based Coast (since bought by First Bank of St. Louis) -- was repossessed about this time last year."

"Linda Maggi does not dispute that the sisters owe money, but lenders are not interested in the small payments they can muster. 'I pray every night that I don't wake up in the morning,' Linda Maggi said. 'It's really depressing when you wake up in the morning and have to start it all over again.'"

"Agent Sandra Israelson had bank-owned listings that included a two-bedroom one-bath home on Baldwin Avenue in Sarasota listed for $114,000 and a luxury Siesta Key penthouse in The Pointe that was going for $437,000."

"In both cases, the bank asked that the homes be priced at a point that allowed them to sell within 30 days. Apparently, Israelson struck the right prices. She received four full-price offers for the Siesta Key penthouse within one week, and the pending sale is set to close next month."

The Orlando Sentinel. "Orlando's resale-home market showed a few more signs of improvement last month, though even the local Realtors group described the pace of change as glacial. Another decline in the median sales price, while bad news for home sellers, meant properties were more affordable in April."

"The current inventory translates into a 22.2-month supply at the current pace of sales. That's the eighth-biggest backlog on record."

"Akhtar Hussain, owner of the Village Coffee Pot on Donnelly Street in Mount Dora, thinks it's going to take 'five to seven years' before the Central Florida real-estate market gets back to normal. 'They were building homes like crazy. So there's a surplus,' the owner of the Mount Dora business noted. Now the slowing economy is adding to the region's housing woes."

"Bill Loh, an aviation-industry consultant living in Oviedo, said he figures most people locally would probably do better to rent for another year, until prices show they are stable and not still headed south."

"'It's like when the stock market is going down -- no one wants to catch a falling knife,' he said."

"The Village of Imagine has fallen victim to the local and nationwide housing slump. The project's developer is reconsidering plans to build the mixed-use complex of shops, restaurants and residential units across from the Orange County Convention Center."

"But all that has materialized is a 315-room condominium-hotel -- the recently opened Westin Imagine Orlando -- surrounded by a few retention ponds and barren ground where the rest of the development would have gone."

"The decision to put the Village of Imagine on hold has disappointed those who bought condo-hotel units in the Westin for prices ranging from $270,000 and $650,000 each. Those who have refused to close on their units because the village wasn't built have been told by the developer that the elimination of the village from the project did not constitute a 'material and adverse' change under terms of the condo-hotel sales contracts."

"Realtor Robert Anarumo said he has seven clients with contracts for units in the Westin Imagine. While most of his buyers are closing on their purchases, they're disappointed that the village, with its restaurants, shops and waterways, hasn't been built."

"'The village is what they latched onto,' Anarumo said. 'It was the No. 1 differentiating factor.'"

The News Journal. "A total of 687 foreclosure-related court notices were issued to Volusia County homeowners last month, up from 548 in March and 2 1/2 times the 270 notices recorded a year ago, according to RealtyTrac."

"In Flagler County, 230 notices were sent out last month, up slightly from 226 in March. A year ago, 78 households were put on notice."

"Altogether, about 3,450 area households have come under a foreclosure cloud this year, estimated Larry Glinzman, spokesman for the Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, a Daytona Beach nonprofit agency that provides free counseling."

"'Domestic violence is still our biggest caseload, unfortunately, but foreclosure is running a close second,' he said."

From WOKV.com. "The Jacksonville Area Legal Aid has started holding monthly clinics to help people avoid foreclosure and predatory lenders."

"'People think the crisis is over, that we've already bottomed out, but that's not true,' said Lois Ragsdale, an attorney in JALA's Predatory Lending Unit. 'The number of foreclosures coming down the pike is astronomical.'"

The Times Union. "The decline in existing home sales and prices in Jacksonville continued for the first quarter compared with the same time last year, the Florida Association of Realtors reported Tuesday."

"Single-family home sales by realtors dropped 36 percent to 2,119, while condominiums decreased by 40 percent to 267 sold. Median sales prices weren't up either, with single-family homes selling for 6 percent less at $185,300 and condominiums down 8 percent to $146,800."

"Local analyst Ray Rodriguez said it's largely tied to the economic slowdown."

"'Consumers are going to lower priced items now,' said Rodriguez, owner of the Real Estate Strategy Center of North Florida Inc. 'They're not going after a dream anymore. They're going after what they can afford.'"