The News Journal reports from Florida. "Bob Staake inherited a modest Port Orange home from his parents in April 2007, but he lives in Michigan. So, he put it on the market -- 399 days ago. After steadily dropping the price from $208,000 to $156,000, it finally sold last month. 'We knew a home across the street sold for $250,000 a few years ago. So we thought 'drop it another 20 percent and it should sell,' he said. I must have come down six or seven times to do things regarding the house. It was not fun. It was a risk us being here and the home there.'"

'After a year on the market, Staake changed real estate agents. 'He knew the market better and showed me the real value of the home,' Saake said. 'It wasn't like I was looking at a loss on the home, it's paid for. But, it was a relief to finally sell it.'"

From Florida Today. "Sales of existing homes in Brevard County increased 4 percent in July. The rise wasn't large -- it represented just five more homes sold than in June -- and it was coupled with a decline in median home price."

"Brenda Muh, owner of Space Coast Realty Corp. in Palm Bay, said foreclosure sales are changing the dynamics of the Brevard market. Purchasing a foreclosed home is a great deal for buyers. For the seller?"

"'It's not so good for the seller,' Muh said. 'I tell them if you can hold on for a year or two it will be better.'"

The Palm Beach Post. "Palm Beach County home prices plunged to a four-year low in July, raising new questions about just how far property values can fall. The median price of an existing single-family home fell to $291,300 in July, the Florida Association of Realtors said Monday. That's down 22 percent from July 2007 and off 13 percent from June 2008."

"Since late 2005, home prices have dropped 30 percent. 'It's a massive dip over the past couple years, there's no two ways about it,' said John Mike, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches."

"For months, Realtors have promised that the bottom is in sight and that their phones are beginning to ring with calls from eager buyers. But more skeptical observers say prices have further to fall before they're affordable to middle-income buyers."

"'We've been saying prices were going to go back to 2003 levels,' said Jack McCabe, a housing analyst based in Deerfield Beach. 'Now, I'm starting to think it may be even worse than that. We've probably seen only 30 percent of the foreclosures we're going to see over the next few years.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "Sales of existing homes increased in Broward County last month, but don't call the moving company just yet. Responding to deep price cuts, buyers scooped up 581 houses in July, up 4 percent from 559 a year ago, the Florida Association of Realtors said Monday. The median price of $303,600 decreased 19 percent from $373,700 a year ago."

"During the first half of this year, 23 percent of Broward sellers unloaded their homes at a loss, up from 2 percent in 2006, according to sales data reviewedby the Sun Sentinel. The analysis did not include foreclosure sales."

"Jeff Levine, a South Florida agent, agrees that it's a good time to look for homes, as long as potential buyers aren't skittish about the nation's economy or Florida's worsening job market. 'A lot of what's selling is half the price of what it was at the peak,' Levine said. 'But if you're buying, you've got to be certain of your job or have a lot of money in the bank.'"

The Naples News. "Existing single-family home sales - or resales - grew by 80 percent from a year ago, in the Fort Myers/Cape Coral market. Meanwhile, the median price for a single-family home in Fort Myers-Cape Coral dropped 37 percent to $154,900, from $246,100 a year ago."

"Prices continue to get more affordable in the Naples area too. The median sales price for all homes fell 29 percent to $275,000, from $385,000 a year ago, according to NABOR."

The News Press. "Lee County home sales increased while prices fell, according to statistics. The median price of an existing home sold with the help of a Realtor in July was $154,900, down 10 percent from $172,400 in June. The median price was down 37 percent from a year ago, when it was $246,100."

The Herald Tribune. "Home prices in Sarasota-Bradenton pushed back into March 2004 territory last month. The July median sales price was $230,100, down $5,000 from the previous post-boom low set in June and 17 percent lower than this time last year."

"Charlotte County-North Port, meanwhile, saw a July median of $141,800, 21 percent lower than a year ago. The July price matched levels last seen in November 2003."

"The median is being driven down by banks dumping unwanted foreclosure properties at reduced prices, said Stacy Haas, a Realtor who works in Lakewood Ranch."

"Dave Jarvis, owner of Realty Concepts in Port Charlotte, said that when he does find a buyer, declining sale prices make it difficult to get an appraisal that will satisfy a lender, often resulting in a deal gone bust."

"'Everyone is upside down in their homes and the appraisals come in too low,' Jarvis said. 'The values just aren't there. It is going to turn around. It is just a question of when.'"

"As prices continue to drop, some owners who do not have to sell right now are looking at other options, said Jack Geldi, part of The Geldi Team at Ilene Mirman Realty in Sarasota."

"'Those that aren't in trouble and don't absolutely have to sell are looking to where they'd consider a lease option, or a long-term lease,' said Geldi, who is active in Manatee and Sarasota counties. 'We have a number of properties now where the owners have said, 'I can't afford to drop my price any further, but if you can find a good tenant, that's what I'm going to do until things improve.'"

The Tampa Tribune. "Here - finally - may be some good news for those awaiting evidence of a housing turnaround. But the gleam of hope is coming at the expense of homeowners who can't afford to hang on to their houses. Sales of existing homes bounced a surprising 5 percent in the Tampa Bay area in July compared with the same month a year ago."

"The median sales price, a point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less, fell 18 percent to $176,500. It was $215,600 in July 2007. Compare that to $239,600 in June 2006, when prices peaked locally."

"The uptick is a result of prices falling deep enough to draw bargain hunters, said Chris Lafakis, who covers the state for Moody's. Distressed properties, Lafakis said, make up 40 percent of all sales nationally. 'I expect that number to be much higher in Florida.'"

The St Petersburg Times. "Maria Juhasz, 46, is selling her garden, plant by plant, before the bank forecloses on her home. She bought the 756-square-foot home in 2006 for $153,000. A bank appraiser values it at $113,000."

"The appraisal that she says puts no value on the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours she has put into landscaping. The appraisal that counts only bricks, mortar and comparable sales."

"'Even if I'm selling the plants at 10 or 20 percent of what they cost, I'm getting something back,' she says. 'I've cried over this, but never out here.'"

"This spring, Wayne Croushorn and Stephen King sold modest-sized investment houses less than 2 miles apart in central St. Petersburg. Despite the proximity, though, you might as well be comparing housing markets in Alaska and Alabama."

"Croushorn bought a 1,300-square-foot bungalow on 14th Street N in the Euclid-St. Paul neighborhood for $131,000 in 2004. He managed to sell it for $171,500 this April, a gain of 30 percent."

"King wasn't so lucky. He snatched up a 900-square-foot concrete block house in June 2007 for the recorded price of $89,900 in southern St. Petersburg's Bartlett Park area. This spring he let it go for $77,000, a 14 percent price decline in less than a year."

"'It was a house we probably shouldn't have bought,' King said in hindsight."

"Low- to moderate-income places like Bartlett Park and Highland Oaks in St. Petersburg and southeast Clearwater recorded home price declines of about 40 percent from the peak."

"But higher-than-average price declines are also the scourge of upper-income enclaves like Venetian Isles and Snell Isle, where the median home price has dropped from about $1-million to less than $600,000 this year."

"A spurt of foreclosures can make it seem that prices have slid off the face of the earth. Take Snell Isle, one of St. Petersburg's oldest and most exclusive enclaves. At the sales peak in late 2004, 45 homes sold during a six-month period. But in the first half of 2008, only eight homes sold, at least a quarter of them foreclosures. Prices suffered accordingly."

"Many of the worst-hit neighborhoods are in southern St. Petersburg. The low cost of entry - old, small block and wood frame houses could be had for less than $50,000 - brought out the wolves. 'Wherever speculators were in big time, things are worse,' said Palm Harbor real estate broker Nikki Ubaldini. 'You had shacks that were bought and sold in some of these neighborhoods.'"

"Jerry Sigler has seen the meltdown as a Realtor who specializes in selling foreclosure properties seized by the bank. One of his latest cases is a 600-square-foot house built in 1925 in southern St. Petersburg's 13th Street Heights. It carries a $110,000 mortgage."

"Sigler gave the beat-up house a once-over and broke the bad news to the bank: It's worth $35,000. That's all that the market, absent rampant speculation, can support. 'It looks like fraud. That house wasn't worth $110K to begin with,' Sigler said."

"Stephen King, an investor who has bought and sold 300 to 400 homes in the past decade, says sales won't pick up without 20 to 30 percent price declines."

"'The rise was totally artificial in many of these neighborhoods,' King said. 'The subsequent crash will be even more painful.'"

"In southwest Pasco County's Beacon Square community, the housing decline is reflected in the roster of recent home sellers dumping properties for as little as $50,000: NovaStar Mortgage, Wachovia Bank, Bank of New York."

"Since the housing boom ended in 2006, home prices have plunged 45 percent in Beacon Square. In an analysis of 44,000 homes sales in 35 communities since 2005, not one area in Pasco escaped falling prices. From the peak in the first half of 2006 to the first half of 2008, prices fell off 34 percent across the board. Home sales were down 74 percent from the height of the boom."

"Take Holiday. Energized by furious flipping, the median home sales price peaked at $130,000 in early 2006. By the first half of this year, the median price had hunkered down at $75,000. That's a drop of 42 percent, one of the county's worst."

"'It became investor heaven. Now it's turned into investor hell,' said Greg Armstrong, president of the West Pasco Board of Realtors. 'People didn't want to be left out, but they got burned instead.'"

"In Beacon Square, Oldsmar investors Michael and Evelyn Otto recently snagged a 1,152-square-foot, 40-year-old house for $59,000 from Wachovia Bank. This in a community where a typical house sold for $133,400 just two years ago."

"Michael Otto blames banks for the state of affairs. They should either have held the distressed properties, he said, or else helped owners avoid foreclosure. Huge property insurance premium hikes along the hurricane-prone coast didn't help the market either.'

"'They're selling the houses for $50,000, $60,000 or $70,000,' Otto said. 'We think they will go up in value. You just have to wait.'"