The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. "Home prices in South Florida 'easily' could be 20 percent to 30 percent higher by 2013, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Yun called 2008 a 'year of cleanup' and says the second half will be better than the first because mortgage markets are improving nationwide and across South Florida. Foreign investors and Baby Boomers will boost home sales during the rest of 2008, he said."

"Yun said price increases could happen here again as soon as this year. A decade from now, sellers and agents will look back on this as a 'small blip on the radar screen,' Yun said. 'The long-term fundamentals are terrific.'"

"But real estate observers say he is overly optimistic because he works for the national Realtors' group, whose goal is to promote home sales. 'He does his best to present a positive spin on data that's not based on reality or fact,' said Delray Beach housing analyst David Levin."

"'There's no definitive data that says Baby Boomers are going to choose Florida. Florida ain't so cheap anymore,' Levin said."

From Reuters. "There are signs the subprime crisis may be peaking, Lawrence Yun told a meeting of real estate professionals in Coral Gables, Florida. 'I anticipate the subprime delinquency rate to continue to rise for the rest of the year and probably into the first quarter of next year,' Yun said."

"The delinquency rate on subprime loans is running around 20 percent. 'I would not be surprised if it reached even closer to 25 percent,' he said after the speech. 'But the pace of increase will be moderating.'"

"How much, he said, will depend largely on housing prices."

"With U.S. housing market activity at a 10-year low, pessimistic 'psychology' is driving the market, said Yun, who represents the largest U.S. real estate agents group and is known for his optimism despite the worst housing downturn in generations."

"He called Florida's property market turmoil a 'short-term slump' resulting in part from 'gamblers' speculating on real estate, and from a 'short-term oversupply.'"

"At one point during the peak of the market, Miami, a city of about 400,000 people, had 60,000 condo units in some stage of planning or construction. Thousands of those units are due to come to the market in the next 12 months."

"'Location, location, location is making a bigger difference than ever,' he said, forecasting that by 2013 property owners in Miami could see price appreciation of 20 percent or more from today's levels."

The Miami Herald. "Some South Florida borrowers who are in default on their home loans aren't waiting around for their lender to begin foreclosure. They have beaten their lender to the courthouse by filing lawsuits."

"'These [borrowers] are basically sheep among the wolves,' said Frank J. Ingrassia, a Margate lawyer who last week filed about 25 lawsuits on behalf of the borrowers against various lenders."

"Similar suits are being filed around the country, said Ira Rheingold of the National Association of Consumer Advocates in Washington. 'The fact that this was so prevalent shows there was a complete design flaw in the lending process,' Rheingold said. 'All of these borrowers didn't make the same mistake.'"

The Herald Tribune. "In the midst of a residential property craze, the mortgage broker - cell phone memory clogged with lenders - was the one who could make the deal happen, just by knowing which lender was hungry for a deal, which program would work for which borrower, and who could close fastest."

'Since the real estate boom went into reverse, the number of people claiming to be mortgage brokers has shrunk dramatically. Those left are fighting to reinvent their financial lives."

"For six and a half years, Joe Adamaitis had a three-office mortgage broker firm based in Bradenton. He closed the doors this spring.

"'I am losing borrowers left and right,' Adamaitis said recently, before taking a new job in downtown Sarasota."

"Operating as Direct Mortgage, Adamaitas said there were some loans he decided were just too risky to write, but others that he pushed through despite their implausibility."

"'I had young kids coming in to me trying to buy these huge homes,' Adamaitis said. 'I didn't feel good about it. But if I didn't do it, somebody else would.'"

"The relentless rise in foreclosures in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte is still causing problems for borrowers and bankers alike. A total of 2,161 filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- entered the court systems last month. That compared with 1,934 in April and 1,432 foreclosures a year ago."

"'I don't think we've seen the bottom yet,' said Nancy Detert, a former mortgage broker running for state Senate who is pitching a 'community downpayment assistance plan.'"

"'We have so much empty supply,' Detert said. 'It is devaluing the houses owned by the rest of us and devaluing whole neighborhoods. If we took a sponge and sponged up some of the supply, we'd have more demand.'"

"First Priority Bank is certainly not the only local bank suffering from the popping of the real estate bubble and a meteoric rise in foreclosures. But First Priority has been impacted far more than its Southwest Florida peers."

"The bank reported $33.8 million in problem loans at the end of December -- nearly 17 percent of its portfolio."

"'If you look at the occupations of the people on the board: you have a restaurant owner, an orthodontist, a general contractor, a real estate investor,' said John Patterson, a Sarasota attorney and First Priority shareholder. 'They represent a good cross-section of the community, but the one thing missing is someone with real experience in banking.'"

"'There was no one who looked hard at credit, who questioned whether the bank should expand rapidly in a bubble market, who asked tough questions about what would happen if things went wrong,' Patterson said."

"'I don't know if anyone understood the depth of where the economy was going,' said First Priority's chairman, Alan Zirkelbach. 'You look at Countrywide, Bank of America, all the banks. No one understood where this was going.'"

"Rather than slowly building relationships with borrowers, First Priority became a lender of last resort, said John Strickland, Patterson's law partner and another First Priority shareholder. The bank's board also did not understand the depth of the crisis Southwest Florida was falling into after the summer of 2005, he said."

"'Florida is a land of schemers and dreamers,' Strickland said. 'Every time we have one of these bubbles, there are people who believe it is never going to burst.'"

The St Petersburg Times. "In eastern Hillsborough County, the news was almost universally grim for sellers: The selling prices of homes dropped in nine out of 10 areas during the first three months of the year, an analysis of county property records shows."

"'We probably ended up looking at over 30 homes,' said Vickie Levings, who in April bought a home northeast of Tampa with her husband. 'Maybe two times we saw somebody looking at or leaving another house.'"

"The Levingses' real estate agent told them she was lucky to bring one customer a month to a house for sale."

"In Tampa, more than most metropolitan areas in Florida, the home building industry has been fueled over the years by an expanding economy and people moving here for new jobs, says Tony Polito, Tampa Bay director of Metrostudy."

"'The problem is, the 10-year expectation for Tampa was annual job growth of nearly 25,000 new jobs,' Polito wrote in Metrostudy's first-quarter report. 'The actual annual growth was revised to a loss of 17,300 jobs.'"

"Eric Topp bought a house in New Tampa in April. The Topps found two similar houses and initially offered $405,000 for their second choice, Topp said. The counteroffer was $430,000."

"Then they turned to their first choice, priced at $680,000. 'It was a corporate relo that had sat empty for two years,' Topp said."

"They offered $415,000, plus an argument: 'If you don't sell at this price, we will buy the twin house nearby and instantly reset the market price for your house.'"

"It worked, Topp said. 'They responded the same day.'"

The Orlando Sentinel. "It's a familiar story line that is again repeating itself in the Four Corners area: British investors who put down thousands of dollars on vacation homes that haven't been built and end up suing the developer."

"At least four lawsuits have been filed in Polk and Orange counties in the past year against Tierra del Sol Resort, a development that was supposed to have nearly 1,000 condos and town homes. Buyers are suing for about $200,000 in deposits, plus legal fees. Others are demanding the developer build the homes for the original purchase price."

"The homes of David and Sandra Clayton, who currently live near Amsterdam, were supposed to be built by 2007, a year longer than initially promised, their attorney, Matt Firestone, said."

"After putting about $130,000 down for a condo and town house, the British couple filed a lawsuit in Polk County after Tierra del Sol also hiked the prices for proposed homes, Firestone said. The couple want their deposit, plus damages."

"Clayton said he and his wife planned for a busy retirement, traveling after being frugal most of their life. They invested most of their money on Tierra del Sol and planned to rent their homes, he said."

"'We've spent a lot of sleepless nights talking about it and worrying about it,' said David Clayton. 'We expected a comfortable retirement.'"

"At least two other developments aimed mostly at British investors have foundered as the wave of real-estate speculation broke."

The South Florida Business Journal. "A Florida appeals court has upheld a ruling in a precedent-setting lawsuit against Marina Grande Associates, a condo development company in Riviera Beach. The 4th District Court of Appeal has affirmed that buyers cannot cancel condo purchase contracts for rising insurance and utility costs, or for minimal increase in other costs."

"'We hold that the buyer may not cancel the agreement because the challenged amendments to the budget did not materially alter or modify the offering in a manner that was adverse to the buyer,' the court said."

"The ruling was immediately acknowledged and e-mailed around South Florida by attorneys handling hundreds of lawsuits against developers on the same grounds. The original case - D&T Properties vs. Marina Grande Associates - was considered a bellwether test in the collapsed housing market."

The Tallahassee Democrat. "Every home has a story, and across the state many tell a tale about owners who could not make their mortgage payments. The all-too-frequent foreclosure story is how Patrick Coney found his house in eastern Tallahassee. Coney bought his three-bedroom home in January after a bank foreclosed on its previous owner."

"Frustrated with paying rent, Coney started looking for his home last summer - around the same time the mortgage industry began to crumble after homeowners across the country defaulted on their loans. Undeterred, he set out to find a home that would mesh with his salary that is not too far from the county's $43,000 average median income."

"His mortgage payment is more than twice what he paid when sharing an apartment."

"'Even though I'm paying a good deal more, it's my money (and) it's not going to waste because this house will increase in value,' Coney said."