Housing slowdown signs pop up

The St.Petersburg Times reports:

Real estate speculators who grabbed lots last year are having trouble selling their marked-up houses for the prices they want.

An illustration of the investor home glut is Glenapp Drive in Ballantrae, a neighborhood under construction north of State Road 54 between U.S. 41 and the Suncoast Parkway.

On Glenapp, five new but nearly identical 2,657-square-foot houses are for sale. Their owners are asking for an average of $345,000 for houses they bought for between $230,300 and $240,199 in the summer.

No one's buying - not yet anyway. And why should they? KB Home, the model's builder, markets the same house a few miles up the road for less than $300,000.

"We're going into a buyer's market," said Pam Koenig, a Land O'Lakes real estate agent for one of the five Glenapp homes. "It has to be."

Good luck.