WJXT Jacksonville reports from Florida. "In the latest byproduct of the widening global financial crisis, Citigroup Inc. will acquire the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. -- the second largest bank in Florida. As details of its takeover unfolded, Wachovia shares plunged 91 percent to 94 cents. Wachovia's problems stem largely from its acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp. in 2006 for roughly $25 billion at the height of the nation's housing boom. With that purchase, Wachovia inherited a deteriorating $122 billion portfolio of Pick-A-Payment loans, Golden West's specialty, which let borrowers skip some payments."

From Bloomberg. "On a May 2007 conference call, Wachovia Corp.'s then-CEO Ken Thompson trumpeted the $24 billion acquisition of Golden West Financial Corp., a California lender that specialized in payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages. 'I think that 12 months or so from now people are going to look at the acquisition of Golden West as one that produced great success for Wachovia,' Thompson said."

"'Golden West was the beginning of the end' for Wachovia, said Anat Bird, a former Wells Fargo & Co. executive. Golden West 'had lousy assets, lousy liabilities and they paid a fortune for it.'''

"On his May 2007 conference call, Thompson said that 'credit quality is not an issue' and the option ARM product line would 'hit the ball out of the park.'''

"'There have been some issues with housing depreciation in California and Florida, where a lot of our loans were made,' said Wachovia spokesman Don Vecchiarello."

The Orlando Sentinel. "Slumping home markets in Central Florida and elsewhere across the country had begun to show some signs of bottoming out, but that could change if Congress fails to approve a bailout, said Hank Fishkind of the Orlando-based economic-forecasting company Fishkind and Associates. 'Housing, along with everything else, is going to get a lot worse,' Fishkind said. 'Let's hope they [lawmakers] reconsider their foolish actions, quickly.'"

"So far, most of the country's home foreclosures have been because of bad loans, said Sean Snaith, an economics professor at the University of Central Florida. And as the housing market slid further, he said, credit markets began tightening and potential home buyers have had a tougher time getting mortgages approved. But the next wave of foreclosures, he warned, would involve people with ordinary loans who would lose their homes after losing their jobs."

The Ledger. "'It's a challenge to correctly predict with any precision where the bottom is going to be. The bottom is going to occur when we get a better balance of supply and demand,' Sean Snaith, economist for the University of Central Florida, told The Ledger. "We're still seeing a glut of housing right now related to the credit crunch.'"

The Miami Herald. "Longtime mortgage broker Javier M. Noriega said lately lenders have been steadily tightening rules even for people with medium to strong credit. They want higher credit scores and larger down payments, which many customers just don't have. Without the bailout, things could just get worse, he said."

'''Right now, what I am getting is nothing,' said Noriega, VP of First Southeast Mortgage in Hollywood. 'I just don't see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point. We were hoping that this package would at least alleviate some of the problem.'''

"To understand how the credit crisis is hitting home in South Florida, consider the plight of Teresa and Hoover Encalada. The couple found a two-bedroom condo they loved at the Plaza on Brickell. At $434,000, the price was right. Their credit was good. Friday, they got the bad news: The lender wants 45 percent down on a five-year loan with an initial interest rate of 7.8 percent. Now Encalada, a 39-year-old administrative assistant, and her husband, an Ecuadorean banana grower, are waiting on a second bank offer requiring only 40 percent down before they proceed."

"The Encaladas thought they'd have no problem. At most they planned to put 30 percent down, leaving enough money to buy new furniture. 'Now, I can only get the place,' Teresa Encalada said. 'Furniture and improvements will just have to wait.'''

"She was only 21 when she decided to become a mortgage broker. A newlywed, Michelle LaPiana felt that her own broker had misled her and her husband during the daunting purchase of their first home in Hialeah. The closing costs were nearly double what the couple previously had been told. By the time they sat with a title agent to sign the loan documents, it was too late to walk away without losing thousands of dollars."

"In 2001, she joined Fieldstone Mortgage's subprime division as a wholesale account executive. She would hold the same position at a string of other wholesalers over the next six years, specializing in high-cost and highly profitably subprime mortgages. 'Subprime loans were the hot commodity of Wall Street. That's all everybody wanted,' LaPiana said."

"In the peak years of the boom, she says she did an average of five deals a day. Sometimes, her biweekly paychecks topped $20,000. 'I still have the pay stubs,' LaPiana said ruefully, adding she couldn't toss them because she hopes to once again earn such a handsome income."

"Almost as fast as the subprime industry itself, LaPiana's life went into a tailspin. She went from making great money to collecting unemployment. Her savings were eaten up by an expensive adjustable-rate loan, a car payment and the cost of supporting a family of four."

"In July, she woke up one morning and found her Jeep Commander missing from the driveway. It had been repossessed. 'I knew it was going to happen,' she said. LaPiana made her last mortgage payment in May. The lenders are hounding her out of her half-million-dollar dream. She's had to borrow money from friends. 'I feel I was a victim, but I feel government is not going to help people like me,' LaPiana said."

The Dayton Daily News. "Look for the U.S. housing market crisis to be deeper, longer and scarier if the legislative deadlock continues. 'If they don't do something, they're going to shut down real estate completely,' said Richard Shuman, a Florida real estate agent and mortgage broker."

"Though falling prices make homes more affordable, potential buyers don't qualify for a mortgage unless they have the best credit. 'How many people are going to sit down and say: 'You know honey, it's a good time to buy a house?' asked Thomas Lawler, a housing economist in Virginia."

The Palm Beach Post. "At this year’s Florida Association of Realtors gathering...Tony Macaluso, a broker and real estate instructor from Palm Beach Gardens, told Realtors he blames the 'evil media.'"

"Real estate consultant Jim Sherry, meanwhile, offered this bit of analysis: 'The media is still after us.'"

"Macaluso said in a more lucid moment: 'Was it a surprise that properties were overvalued? It shouldn’t have been to any of us.'"

"A real estate investor and a mortgage broker have admitted their roles in a scam fleecing lenders of millions of dollars in home loans. In a deal for a home in Wellington, investor Ralph Michel arranged for an inflated appraisal that doubled the value of the house, then took a $650,000 kickback at closing, only to stop making payments on the loan, prosecutors said. In another deal in Versailles, Michel got a $600,000 kickback."

"Lauren Jasky of Compass Mortgage Services in Boca Raton, meanwhile, collected at least $200,000 in mortgage brokerage fees from the deals, federal prosecutors said. The mortgage fraud ring also enlisted straw buyers, such as the part-time Publix cashier whose income on loan applications was inflated from $13,000 to $344,000 so she could qualify for $1.3 million in loans on a Boca Raton home, prosecutors said."

"Experts say plenty of help is available to those who are threatened with foreclosure of their home but that homeowners need to seek assistance early and often. And they shouldn't expect it to be easy. 'Stay in your home as long as possible. 'Until you get kicked out,' says Stephanie Porta, head organizer for the Orlando branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. If you move out and the home is vandalized, the bank can charge you to repair the damage."

"'Unfortunately, sometimes saving the home is not the right thing to do for the person in the long run,' said Anita Lynn Lapidus, a staff attorney for the housing unit of Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida. 'Sometimes buying the home in the first place was just totally the wrong move.'"

The Sun Sentinel. "'The worst thing you can do is abandon that home,' even if it is in foreclosure, said Marcia Oban, of New Visions CDC. Homeowners typically can remain in the house for six or seven months, she said; time to save the money not paid on the mortgage. 'Save the money toward moving out,' Oban said."

The News Press. "I was sitting in a meeting earlier this week when I noticed a text on my cell phone from one of my listing clients. 'Quick question,' he said. 'Is there any way in this market that we can slightly increase our asking price?'"

"My wit has been known to outrun my brains, so my initial thought was to respond, 'Are you nuts?'"

"I told him if we had multiple offers we could talk about raising the price. However, since we haven't had an offer in six months, nor has there been a recent sale in his neighborhood in almost a year, we should be talking about lowering the price, not raising it."

"His final response? 'Not comfortable with lowering the price. Should we take it off the market and wait for better days?'"

"He then closed our cyber conversation by asking the question that every agent and seller should be asking each other, 'Do under-motivated sellers belong in this market?'"

"Declining home values have Palm Beach County commissioners contemplating changing affordable housing rules imposed on developers during the real estate boom. The county's $164,000 to $304,000 price range was set in 2006, based on median home prices that hovered near $400,000. In August, the county's median price for existing single-family homes was $323,300, according to the Florida Association of Realtors."

"'We don't know what affordable is,' Commissioner Burt Aaronson said about the slide in the real estate market."

"Juan Del Busto, the regional executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Miami Branch, briefed the 120-plus attendees about the Miami Branch's role as a local gatherer and distributor of key economic and tourism information. He noted how the federal reserve has hired educators to spread economics knowledge."

"'As we have seen recently, a lot of CEOs, a lot of bankers and a lot of people need to have an economic education,' Del Busto said. Most nodded in agreement."