The News Press reports from Florida. "In historic fashion, taxable property values tumbled 12.4 percent across the county compared with last year, which means less money for local governments to spend on services or a tax-rate increase. Preliminary figures released Monday by Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson show taxable values dropped to $84.5 billion, down $11.9 billion."

"Market values, or the value the property would sell for on the open market, also fell 12 percent to $109.9 billion. Last year values increased 6 percent. In 2006 they jumped 40 percent."

"Wilkinson said a drop in taxable value year-over-year has never happened in the last 50 years, and may not only have occurred during the depression."

"'This is the worst I've seen it in 30 years (as a Realtor in Southwest Florida) and I've gone through three recessions,' said Ed Bonkowski, referring to today's lean times as well the economic slumps of the early 1980s and 1990s. 'And we're not out of it yet.'"

"The problem, he said, is the inventory of homes, more than 3,500 of them. 'The lenders will have to sell below market value,' Bonkowski said. 'While (the properties) are out there, it's going to be an albatross on everybody's neck.'"

"Cape Coral took the roughest knock, down 27 percent in taxable value. The Lehigh Acres area is down 23 percent. 'I wasn't surprised,' Wilkinson said. 'It was sort of a gut feeling I was having.'"

"Foreclosures are rocking not just the thousands of homeowners in Lee County, but the homeowners associations that represent them. The reason: Financially strapped residents or, in many cases, the lack of residents because of the growing foreclosures, simply aren't paying their bills."

"Foreclosures hit a record 2,160 in April as home prices collapsed: down 37 percent in April to $200,300 from an all-time high of $322,300 in December 2005."

"In Southwest Florida, non-payment of fees is a problem mainly for newer projects that were built or converted from rentals in the real estate boom that reached its height in December 2005, said Joe Adams, who's in charge of the Becker & Poliakoff office in Fort Myers."

"'It's a huge problem,' he said. 'It's not really just in conversions, but that was the craze in '03 and '04 and '05, and they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.'"

"One of the hardest hit is Renaissance, near the Edison Mall, converted from apartments three years ago at the height of the real estate boom. Foreclosure actions have been filed against 17 of the 112 units and five of those have already been taken back by the lender."

"Bill Davis, a retired banker who lives in Marietta, Ga., bought a condo at Renaissance in February 2006 for $210,900 as a place where he could visit his son and two grandchildren in Fort Myers."

"Now the condo is assessed by the Lee County property appraiser at $133,000, eight other units are listed for sale at $100,000 or less, and Davis said he's not sure what the future will bring."

"The 20 percent response to the special assessment was an eye-opener, he said. So far, foreclosure actions have been filed against the owners of an additional 28 units but many others are headed that way."

"There's no way they can stay in their homes or will stay in their homes, Davis said. 'They're just waiting to get kicked out, waiting for a year before the sheriff kicks them out' after the foreclosure goes thorough."

"Steve Bostwick, a Century 21 Sunbelt Realty agent who bought three Tuscany Gardens units three years ago, said increasing delinquency rates has caused his monthly fees to increase from $233.23 a month for a one-bedroom, one-bath unit up to $411.75 for the largest three-bedroom, two-bath unit. Thirty-four of the 248 units are in foreclosure."

"Stoneybrook residents haven't just sat and waited for their property values to go down as weeds grow on the community's 23 abandoned properties. There have been at least 62 foreclosure actions filed against Stoneybrook residents, 30 of them this year, according to Lee County Clerk of Courts records."

"'The Estates Home Owners Association bought the mulch and the volunteers spread the mulch, trimmed the bushes and made the houses look good,' said Sherry Bucar, who's on the board. But that only goes so far, she added, noting that Gateway Estates only assesses its 694 homeowners an $87-a-year fee. 'We don't have the money to buy more bark mulch.'"

The Herald Tribune. "Jeffrey J. Lauro put almost all the pieces together to build as many as 1,400 condominiums and single-family homes in Charlotte and Sarasota counties during the real estate boom, say people who did business with the 37-year-old entrepreneur."

"'His plans made sense,' said John Kingston, a Lake Suzy mortgage broker who helped assemble building lots for Lauro. 'If he had gone through with them, he would be worth tens of millions of dollars today.'"

"Instead, Lauro is facing criminal charges in Charlotte County for allegedly stealing $198,000 through a construction loan scheme. Two of his companies are in bankruptcy with debts that could amount to more than $20 million."

"In one of the bankruptcy cases, 177 investors from England, Scotland and Ireland are claiming that Lauro took their deposits totaling more than $6 million and never brought the homes and condos he promised out of the ground."

"'It doesn't make sense why he didn't follow through,' Kingston said. 'He had the sales. The Europeans loved his ideas. He just took their money.'"

"Prominent local real estate investors including Trey Desenberg and Greg Band lent him money, as did novice investors like Chiefland residents Lewis and Cherri Prevatt."

"At a 'Get Motivated' seminar in December 2005..(an) associate suggested that the Prevatts attend a three-day seminar in Tampa that focused on 'how to get rich in real estate,' the Prevatts' lawsuit states."

"At that seminar, the Prevatts were persuaded to pay $23,995 to attend a more intensive...seminar on real estate investing. Lauro was one of the key speakers at that March 2006 gathering, and he ultimately persuaded the Prevatts to invest in three homes in North Port, the Prevatts' lawsuit states."

"According to documents...construction was proceeding on all three contracts when the Prevatts 'refused to allow the lender to issue further draws for completion of construction.'"

"The Prevatts, the documents state, 'are simply having buyer's remorse over the investment in real estate in Florida. As is common knowledge, the real estate market in the state of Florida and nationwide has taken a substantial turn downward in the past several years.'"

"Kingston says Lauro owes him $2.275 million for the land he contracted to sell in Deep Creek and Burnt Store Lakes, as well as $212,000 in deposits and $45,000 that Kingston used to buy building lots."

"'Nothing makes sense to me anymore,' Kingston said. 'Lauro had everything he needed to succeed, but he never built anything.'"

"There was a time not too long ago when being a Realtor seemed to be a quick way to riches. When the housing market was hot from 2001 to 2005, the number of agents belonging to the Sarasota Association of Realtors doubled."

"'Many of the people who entered during the boom years felt like this was an easy business and an easy way to make money, and it's not,' said Moe Veissi, a Miami-based spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. 'We drew a lot of people with dollar signs in their eyes.'"

"Nationally, the number of Realtors in 2001 grew by 104 percent by 2005. In Florida, the number grew 113 percent. In Sarasota, their ranks swelled by 69 percent during that same time period."

"Returning to the basics as the market someday returns to a more normal balance of buyers and sellers is paramount, said Kathy Roberts, CEO of the Sarasota Association of Realtors. 'We may have, in fact, seen the bottom of our market and, provided no big crises comes along that nobody expects, we should recover,' she said. 'We just want to get back to a normal market.'"

The St Petersburg Times. "The Tampa Bay area is suffering far worse than the rest of the country in the nationwide slump in auto sales."

"New vehicle registrations in the Tampa Bay area fell 16 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with a year ago. That's more than twice the national decline of 7 percent, according to automotive research firm R.L. Polk."

"The housing crunch has been a double whammy. A lot of people use their home equity to buy cars - and much of that has evaporated, said Jack Nerad, market analyst for Kelley Blue Book."

"Fernando Fernandez, a sales manager at Brandon Honda, said the number of gas-guzzler trade-ins at his dealership has soared recently. 'We just had one customer trade in his (Cadillac) Escalade for a new Civic,' he said."

The Bradenton Herald. "Migrant workers aren't flocking to Manatee County during peak seasons as they've done for decades. Economic conditions have left little work."

"'The overall population of migrants in Florida . . . is certainly shrinking,' said Walter Kates, Florida Fruit and Vegetable director of the Labor Relations Division. 'The number of people at least working in agriculture of migrant background seems to be decreasing every year.'"

"It's difficult for anyone to determine exactly how many migrants have left and not returned. But in the past year, local service providers and activists agree, fewer migrants are calling Manatee County home."

"One clear measure is in Manatee County's schools. In the district's migrant program, funded by grant money apart from the school budget, there are about 1,400 students migrant students enrolled this school year. In the 1980s and '90s, there were an estimated 6,000 migrant students."

The Orlando Sentinel. "Residential real-estate auctions are beginning to rack up some significant numbers and dollars in Central Florida for brokerages handling the growing list of foreclosed properties."

"Coldwell Banker Ackley Realty held two auctions recently that netted 24 sales, including 14 from its own listings, broker-owner Rajia Ackley said. The combined value of the 24 sales: about $5.4 million."

"Ackley said auctions can be a 'win-win' for sellers and buyers in a sluggish market. 'During the real-estate boom 21/2 years ago, the auction concept wouldn't work,' she said. 'Now, with the real-estate market in hibernation, it makes great sense and has helped many real-estate companies liquidate their listings.'"

The News Journal. "After years of often record increases, taxable property values in Volusia and Flagler counties are expected to fall significantly this year as a result of the depressed real-estate market and new, voter-approved tax exemptions."

"'It's kind of an ugly little roller coaster we're on here,' Flagler County Property Appraiser Jay Gardner said."

"According to Volusia County Property Appraiser Morgan Gilreath's projections, Amendment 1 will account for much of the anticipated tax base reduction for most Volusia taxing authorities, other than schools."

"Schools are less affected because their tax base is not included in an additional $25,000 homestead exemption that was part of the amendment."

"Gilreath said the 2008 tax roll is probably the most difficult he's handled. Appraisers are still working neighborhood to neighborhood to try to nail down the values for the July 1 preliminary tax roll, which Gilreath said might reflect somewhat larger decreases."

"'We've never seen values dropping this rapidly, and values have continued to drop into '08, which means next year's roll is going to see this happen again . . . unless we see something happen in '09,' he said. 'At the same time, we had the tax revolt and the Amendment 1 changes.'"