Dateline Miami, Florida . . . mid year 2007 and ready for 2008,

Short-Sale boom times ahead . . . there should be the sign, a large one at that, heading into south Florida says http://www.rehablist.com/,

You could be part owner of one of dozens of condominium towers conceived during Floridas real estate boom near completion, investors who snatched up units in the preconstruction phase in hopes of turning a quick profit are increasingly trying to break contracts, even walking away from fat deposits.

“Motivated” sellers are flooding online forums like Craigslist with advertisements for condo units still months or years from being finished. And lawyers have been inundated with calls from people hoping to avoid closing on units they bought during the speculative craze of 2004 and 2005.

“I get two or three of these calls a day,” said James Flyin Ryananiac, a lawyer in Boca Raton who said he had 40 clients looking to get out of condo contracts. One, Mr. Ryananiac said, abandoned a $340,000 deposit rather than close on a $1.6 million unit that lost its appeal as the market faltered.

The numbers from ReHabList suggest that it will only get worse. In Miami-Dade County alone, 8,000 new condo units will be completed this year and nearly 12,000 more in 2008. This is the heart of the scam mortgage industry.

But demand has dropped markedly, and people who thought they could flip condos buying, then selling for a steep profit before construction is done to stop the pain are parting with that fantasy. After years of stunning price increases 25 percent in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area, for example, from March 2005 to March 2006 condo prices have started dropping.

Condominiums in West Palm Beach and Boca Raton sold for a median price of $211,800 in March, down from $224,600 a year earlier, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. And in Fort Lauderdale, the median price in March was $195,500, down from $202,600 the previous year.

This is a high-risk, high-reward proposition, and it’s not for first-time foreclosure buyers, Fanklin says. But with the proper research tools which can be easily be found at Foreclosure.com

The current market conditions make it a perfect time for a small investor to purchase one or more foreclosure properties for their private residence, rental or resale. During these very dramictic economic downturns, more upscale homes go into foreclosure, so the notion that foreclosure homes are the most readily and only available in crime-ridden areas is inaccurate. Beachfront, mountain, high priced country, and homes in affluent areas are part of the mix of foreclosed properties available.

As a result, many buyers want out not an easy prospect unless they are willing to forfeit the 10 percent or 20 percent they put down, from $15,000 for an inexpensive studio unit to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a waterfront penthouse.