The Palm Beach Post from Florida. "Homeowner Chentella Harper-Graham fell behind on her mortgage payments after a one-two punch to her pocketbook. Her husband lost his job as a clerk at a law firm, and she became caretaker for her ailing mother. The West Palm Beach woman was among the flood of Palm Beach County borrowers facing foreclosure, but she was able to escape her mortgage default relatively unscathed, thanks to a successful short sale. 'We had to take care of our mortgage and ourselves, and we couldn't do both,' Harper-Graham says."

"In 2005, Harper-Graham paid $131,900 for a 960-square-foot condo in West Palm Beach. In 2006, she refinanced for $153,000 and used the extra cash to buy flooring and cabinets. By late 2007, when lender US Bank filed a default notice, the unit's value had plunged. Harper-Graham sold in March for $90,000 - including the uninstalled flooring and cabinets. US Bank agreed to a $60,000 bath."

"For Harper-Graham, the fallout from a short sale was far less devastating than a foreclosure would have been. 'My credit didn't get hit too hard,' Harper-Graham says."

From Wink News. in Florida. "Thousands of people living in Cape Coral won't have to pay between $10,000 and $15,000 as part of the city's billion dollar utility expansion project. City council voted to postpone hooking up homes located in the southwest six and seven areas. They may be off the hook for now but might have to pay more later on."

"David Plume's neighborhood has really been hit hard by Florida's housing troubles. 'There was about five families on this street and now we are down to three,' says Plummer."

"His street is almost becoming the norm in the Cape. 'You just need to take a ride around the city and count how many vacant homes you are seeing and houses falling into repair problems,' says Councilman Tim Day."

"One burden City Council members won't be putting on the residents who are here, $10,000-$15,000 bill to hook into city sewer and water lines. 'You can't put something else on people who can't pay their mortgage or insurance,' says Day."

The Orlando Sentinel in Florida. "The median sale price of a home in the core Orlando area was still 14.4 percent below the May 2007 median of $250,000. The number of houses and condos available through the local MLS was down 421 for the month and 1.76 percent lower than in May 2007. The 19.6 months of inventory was the lowest by that yardstick since August 2007."

"Orlando resident Bill Butler has had no luck trying to sell his two rental houses, one in Orlando and one in Longwood, despite dropping the prices a number of times. So he's considering auctioning them off to the highest bidders. 'It's about as slow as you can get,' said Butler, who has been buying and selling rental property in Central Florida since 1994."

"He recently dropped the price on his three-bedroom concrete-block home near Clear Lake in Orlando from $169,000 to $151,500 and now is slashing it to $145,000. He upgraded the electrical and air-conditioning systems, added tile and carpet, and now is 'hoping to at least break even. It's move-in ready,' he said."

'His rental house in Longwood has had an asking price of $245,000 for some time now, but Butler said he's now leaning toward auctioning it off 'with bids starting at $189,000.' 'You just have to be proactive,' he said."

"Paul Auslander, a veteran financial planner in Orlando, said he travels throughout Florida a lot and thinks Central Florida's housing market is in better shape than other big metro markets farther south."

"'The Miami market is down, Fort Lauderdale way down, and Palm Beach, where I used to live, is absolutely dead. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for us here. The Realtors I know are not happy, but I think we can pull out of this a lot faster than other [ Florida] locations, especially [coastal] locations where people feel vulnerable to hurricanes,' he said."

The Daily Business Review from Florida. "In South Florida’s tumultuous real estate market, even subsidized housing projects aren’t immune to foreclosures. Yet, Roberto Godoy may be one of the luckiest rookie developers in Miami. City officials are considering using millions of taxpayers’ dollars to rescue him from a construction loan that is in default."

"SunTrust Bank last month cut a deal with city officials, letting them buy the troubled $2.99 million mortgage for $3 million. The city wasn’t the loan guarantor but agreed in principle to the deal to save the affordable housing project."

"The project was to honor his late father, who had bought the land in the early 1990s to build affordable housing. 'All he did before dying in 1995 was talk about building condos for the less fortunate,' Godoy said this week. 'It was his dream … and my nightmare.'"

"Real estate consultant Saul Cimbler said it makes sense for the city to try to save its investment as a second mortgage holder. 'It is not unusual for a second position to buy a first mortgage to protect' its interest, he said."

"Godoy can’t wait for the project to be over. 'It took too long … too many headaches,' he said. 'I would never do anything like this again. It is time to retire.'"

From Access North Georgia. "The water is not the only thing dropping on Lake Lanier. According to the president of the Lake Lanier Association, home prices are also falling about as fast as the lake they border. 'More houses than usual are on the market,' Lake Lanier Association President Jackie Joseph said. 'They are not moving very rapidly.'"

"The blame goes, in part, to the struggling housing market. Many across the country are having a hard time selling regular homes. Expensive lake front property is suffering the same fate. But that means now's the time to jump in if you are looking for a great deal. 'Really big discounts are being offered,' Joseph said. 'Some people who are lake residents are taking those discounts as a way to liquidate their property.'"

The Index Journal from South Carolina. "The housing market is a mess. That much is clear, but what it means for renters is significantly more gray. 'We’re renting more units, but rent hasn’t gone down or up,' said Russell Lawrence, broker in charge at Greenwood Rental Agency."

"Greenwood Rental Agency manages about 2,300 residential units and about 97 percent of those are currently occupied. Lawrence said this is slightly above the firm’s usual occupancy rate of 95 percent to 96 percent. But, he said, the agency and property owners are having to work with tenants more than ever on rent arrangements."

"'Ordinarily, your rent is due on the first of the month. . . . In some cases we are having to split it into two payments, but we’re still getting it,' he said."

"Ted Long, rental property manager at Harrison Real Estate in Greenwood, said he has run specials in a couple of his buildings, but said overall occupancy rates have increased for his company. 'It’s helped our business because people are not able to get a loan for a house,' he said."

"Wilson Bruce, of Town & Country Property Management Inc., said said there have been some problems in the Anderson area. Occupancy rates and inquiries started to slow down there about Feb. 1, Bruce said. To cope, Town & Country has offered incentives and lowered rents, but still most of its properties have 15 percent vacancy rates where the usual is 5 percent to 10 percent."

"Bruce thinks this is because of a combination of factors, mostly the economy and jobs. More people are putting off the obligation of a place of their own and are staying home, moving home, or moving in with friends, because they are uncertain about their financial future."

"Bruce, who is also the president of the Greenwood Property Managers Association, is wary of the future. 'I have begun to see some competitors lowering their rents, and that scares me,' Bruce said. He also has noticed 'traffic,' measured in phone calls and walk-in inquiries about properties, has decreased recently."

"Bill Clark, of Upstate Carolina Real Estate Investors Association Inc., said he has not noticed rent rates decreasing, but he can see how it might be a possibility in the future. 'We’ve got a lower rent base than most already,' Clark said of South Carolina’s rental market. 'The rental base is great if you keep the rent below $850. You get over that and you’ve got a problem.'"

"Clark said he has noticed more properties on the rental market as a result of foreclosures, but he said South Carolina renters are not drawn to the kind of large properties that are being foreclosed on because they can’t afford them. Plus, he said, the number of people coming back to the rental market after losing their homes makes up for the new properties that are coming on the market."

"Heritage Co. VP Van Walters said his company has experienced some downward pressure on rent prices, but he chalked the change up more to normal fluctuation than any trend. 'We haven’t had an extreme influx of new construction in Greenwood,' Walters said of why he thinks rent rates in this area have been stable. In other areas, rent rates were pushed higher by fancy new buildings and when the housing bubble burst, those rates came back down, he said."