I just updated the research that I did in August of 2006 as to our South Florida real estate market. Here's what I found:
 
There are now 963 single family homes for sale in Weston (as compared to 748 in August of 2006 and compared to about 120 prior to Hurricane Wilma).  65 homes have closed in the past 30 days (compared to about 70 in August 2006).  This means that if we assume that not a single house is added to the inventory (which is certainly not the case), IT WILL TAKE ALMOST 2 YEARS FOR ALL OF THE HOUSES IN WESTON TO BE PURCHASED BASED ON CURRENT ABSORPTION (as compared to 1 year in August 2006).  While the amount of homes selling is about the same, the inventory has increased tremendously!
 
There are now 576 condos, townhouses & villas for sale in Weston (compared to about 467 in August 2006 and 35 prior to Hurricane Wilma!).  Only 4 have closed in the past 30 days (and 51 have closed in August 2006).  If no units enter the market, IT WILL TAKE OVER 12 YEARS FOR ALL CONDOS, TOWNHOUSES & VILLA IN WESTON TO BE PURCHASED BASED ON CURRENT ABSORPTION (as compared to about 1 year in August 2006).
 
There are now 663 single family homes for sale in Pembroke Pines west of I-75 (compared to about 555 in August 2006 and  85 prior to Hurricane Wilma).  26 homes have closed in the past 30 days (compared to 82 homes in August 2006)  This means that if we assume that not a single house is added to the inventory (again not probable), IT WILL TAKE OVER 2 YEARS FOR ALL OF THE HOUSES IN PEMBROKE PINES-WEST TO BE PURCHASED BASED ON CURRENT ABSORPTION (as compared to 1 year in August 2006).
 
There are now 579 single family homes for sale in Miramar west of I-75 (as compared to 488 in August 2006).  Only 11 homes have closed in the past 30 days (as compared to 31 in August 2006).  This means that if we assume that not a single house is added to the inventory (again, not likely), IT WILL TAKE OVER 4 YEARS  FOR ALL OF THE HOUSES IN WEST MIRAMAR TO BE PURCHASED BASED ON CURRENT ABSORPTION (as compared to 2 years in 2006)!
 
There are now 495 single family homes for sale on Miami Beach (compared to 350 in August 2006).  Only 7 have closed in the past 30 days (compared to about 7 in August 2006).  This means that if no new houses come on the market, IT WILL TAKE OVER 5.9 YEARS FOR ALL HOMES ON MIAMI BEACH TO BE PURCHASED BASED ON CURRENT ABSORPTION (as compared to 4 years in 2006)!
 
Get a load of this! There are now 4157 condos for sale on Miami Beach (compared to 3009 in August 2006 and less than 1/2 of that prior to Hurricane Wilma).  Only 66 have closed in the past 30 days (compared to 179 in August 2006).  This means (with no new units entering the market) that IT WILL TAKE OVER 5 YEARS FOR ALL CONDOS ON MIAMI BEACH TO BE PURCHASED BASED ON CURRENT MARKET CONDITIONS (compared to 2 years in 2006)! 

There are now 2348 condos, townhouses & villas for sale in Aventura (compared to 1622 in August 2006).  Only 48 units have sold in Aventura in the past 30 days (compared to 55 in August 2006).  Again, assuming no new units entering the market, this means that IT WILL TAKE OVER 4 YEARS FOR ALL OF THE UNITS IN AVENTURA TO BE PURCHASED (compared to 2.5 years in 2006)!
 
The one last item to consider is that this doesn't take into account builder's units and for sale by owner properties.  As an example, The Palace in Weston has over 60 resale units for sale with the builder but they are only listing one unit in each line in the mls.  One can easily gauge how many thousands of builder units will be entering the market by sweeping the skyline for construction cranes.  Additionally, the amount of foreclosures will continue to skyrocket, further contributing to the available inventory.

South Florida's housing market continued to struggle in August. Nationwide, the price for existing homes went down for the first time in 11 years.

She and many other home sellers are by now all too familiar with the languid pace of South Florida's housing market, which continued through August with no end in sight.

''At first I would at least get four or five calls over a weekend,'' said Wells, who is trying to sell the condo for $265,000 after getting married and moving elsewhere. ``Now I am not getting any calls.''

The numbers released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors showed that in Broward, prices for condos and houses were either flat or down from both last month and last year. It was the same story in Miami-Dade, with one exception: Prices for single-family homes were still 6 percent higher than in August last year.

The housing slowdown also continues to play out across the country. For the first time in more than a decade, the national price for an existing home dropped from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.

''We are trying to find the bottom,'' said Mike Pappas, chief executive and president of The Keyes Co., which sells homes in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. ``The sooner we get there, the better we will all be.''

FLAGGING SALES

The broad trend in South Florida remains flagging sales but not steep price drops -- although there are signs of prices weakening. Prices for Miami-Dade condos, a closely watched sector because of concerns about speculation and overbuilding, have dropped in the last two months compared to a year ago.

What was once a sellers' market now favors buyers, as the number of homes on the market continued to rise in August. That number is now four times what it was for houses and condominiums in Broward, for example, and three times higher for Miami-Dade.

A big culprit: sluggish sales.

Sales for single-family homes were down 37 percent in Miami-Dade and 27 percent in Broward from a year ago. Sales for condos were down 30 percent in Miami-Dade and 33 percent in Broward.

The Florida Association of Realtors does not track sales in the Florida Keys.

For prices, the median cost for an existing single-family home in August stood at $378,800 in Miami-Dade. That is up 6 percent from last year and basically flat compared to July. For Broward it was $362,800, down 6 percent from last year and down 4 percent from July.

The median is the point at which half are above and half below.

A median priced condo in August sold for $249,800 in Miami-Dade, down 3 percent from a year ago and flat from July. In Broward, a median priced condo sold for $204,300, up 1 percent from last year and down 2 percent from July.

''It remains to be seen how much further a decline in sales will go,'' said David Dabby, a real estate analyst in Coral Gables who predicted prices will stay stagnant, but the condo market may see price drops.

How long and deep the trough will go remains an open question. The market may cool off further in part because of the size and duration of the boom. But unemployment and mortgage rates remain low. The average fixed rate 30-year mortgage stands at 6.40 percent.

Many observers say prices moved beyond what many buyers could afford and investors and speculators finally pulled out of the market.

Some say primary buyers got spooked and are on the sidelines waiting for the market to settle down.

TAX SHOCKER

For Sherri Wells, however, a willing buyer could not come any sooner. After Wells moved out, her property tax increases for the condo were no longer capped because it was no longer her primary residence.

As a result, she said her property taxes shot up from $890 a year to more than $4,000.

''There is no way I could ever charge enough rent to cover what the mortgage and taxes have become,'' she said. ``They are not making any more waterfront properties, so it would be a great place to keep. But not with the property taxes -- I am trying to sell as soon as I can.''

LENNAR CEO STUART MILLER: 'It doesn't feel like we can identify a bottoming yet. [The downturn in the housing market] happened very quickly, very suddenly.'

The poem -- about a hen that labors to find worms in tough times -- is something of a rite of passage at Lennar, the third-largest home builder in the country. Since 1994, some 4,000 employees have recited the poem to the applause of their peers, with the name, date and place of each performance memorialized on large plaques outside Miller's office.

But these days, the poem is taking on a whole new significance. After a housing boom of more than a decade, the long-awaited downturn has finally hit with a speed and force few anticipated. Home-builder confidence has dropped to its lowest in 15 years. Cancellations are up. And new construction is down to a level not seen in three years.

Perhaps worst of all, it's hard to tell when things will get better.

''It doesn't feel like we can identify a bottoming yet,'' said Miller, who recently downgraded Lennar's earnings estimates for the year. ``It happened very quickly, very suddenly. I can't identify the trigger.''

Or put in the words of The Little Red Hen: ``What's become of all those fat ones is a mystery to me; There were thousands through the rainy spell, but now where could they be?''

A GIANT OF A COMPANY

Despite its scrappy, diminutive mascot, there's nothing little about Lennar. Last year the home builder brought in $13.9 billion in revenue, making it Miami-Dade's biggest company. It also ranks among the top 500 in the world.

Headquartered in nondescript offices in western Miami-Dade County, the company has dabbled in condominiums but largely builds single-family homes across the country. Its areas of concentration are Florida, Texas and California.

The company is known not only for its quirky corporate culture but also for its explosive growth. Over the past decade, Lennar has aggressively bought competitors and moved into new markets, taking its profits from $88 million in 1996 to $1.4 billion last year.

FRENZY ENDS

But now, the real estate frenzy that propelled Lennar's growth has cooled. Skittish investors have battered home builder stocks, with Lennar trading in the mid-$40s, after going as high as $66 per share in the past year.

St. Joe Co. of Jacksonville, the largest private landowner in Florida, announced recently it is fleeing the home-building business and cutting 11 percent of its workforce. Home builders WCI Communities in Bonita Springs and Technical Olympic USA in Hollywood are also trimming workers.

''It is clear that many of our housing markets are in a difficult transition to more sustainable levels of activity,'' Antonio Mon, Technical Olympic USA's CEO, said in August. He added that he did not know how long the ''transition'' would last.

Lennar has stopped hiring, and in recent months outlined its way forward in the uncertain market. The aim is to position itself for growth when the market picks up, but the strategy has drawn some criticism.

This month three stock analysts downgraded Lennar's stock -- two from buy to hold and one from hold to sell. Bank of America analyst Daniel Oppenheim cautioned that a record number of homes on the market for sale coupled with overbuilding will result in ''sharply lower margins'' in the next two years for Lennar.

Lennar's response: Keep building.

Miller plans to ''keep the conveyor belt running'' and finish building new homes in projects already underway. He also plans to offer sales incentives and slash prices to get the homes sold.

It's an approach shared by several home builders, such as Centex in Dallas and D.R. Horton in Fort Worth. Others, such as Pulte Homes in Michigan and KB Homes in Los Angeles, have taken a different tack. These builders are scaling back production but holding firm on prices until buyers return -- a strategy some have called quality over quantity.

However, the pressure is on. KB Homes chief executive Bruce Karatz said Thursday price concessions and incentives by other builders have ``required us to do the same in some cases.''

For Lennar, Miller says he'd rather have cash now -- even if there's less of it -- than sit on a house and hope it'll sell for a better price down the road.

''With liquidity we live to see another day,'' said Miller.

Of course, that strategy also eats away at profits.

Lennar has ''decided to continue producing whether there is a buyer or not,'' wrote Stephen East, analyst with Susquehanna Financial, in a September report. ``Unless the market does an about-face, we know the impact to margins for the next several quarters will be detrimental. We prefer build to order, not build to a schedule.''

Another aspect of Lennar's strategy: While other builders may go through with contracts to buy prized parcels of land, Lennar is demanding lower prices or walking away. In some cases, that means walking away from multi-million-dollar down payments.

''When the market turns downward, opportunities present themselves,'' Miller said. ``It is not that you make more money while the market moves down, but hopefully you are able to do some things to prepare for the next upward swing.''

Veteran real estate analyst Lew Goodkin thinks Lennar's strategy is sensible because the downturn may be an extended one. If that's the case, builders who sell now will have more cash on hand, rather than empty homes and lots waiting for sale.

Goodkin also applauds Lennar's aggressive renegotiations over land deals -- and its willingness to walk away.

''So many greatly resist walking away from money, only to take even bigger losses later,'' Goodkin said.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Lennar was founded in 1954 by Leonard Miller, Stuart's father, and Arnold Rosen -- thus forming Lenn-ar.

Under Leonard Miller the company was a smaller, more conservative operation. After Stuart became CEO in 1997, the company took off along with the real estate boom.

It was also Stuart who crafted the Lennar culture, made up of common rituals and references that aim to bind employees to each other and the company.

A television network communicates the Lennar Way across the company's various offices. Employees wear outsized name badges with no titles so everyone refers to each other by name -- an idea Miller picked up after visiting Disney World. And workers are encouraged to read Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go and Yertle the Turtle, children's books with fables about potential and power.

Miller, 49, has even authored his own versions: Where's the Wow? and Where's the How? by an author called ''Dr. Steuss,'' a combination of Stuart and Seuss. The books come complete with peel-and-stick labels.

Then, of course, there is the moment when an associate -- and Lennar insists on that term -- recites Scratchings From The Little Red Hen in the office lobby on Fridays. The audience chants encouragement, shouting ''Bring it home!'' Many Fridays, employees also gather to listen to the song Trashin' the Camp from Tarzan.

''People may say it is childlike, more like Romper Room than the boardroom. But it builds comraderie and kinship,'' said Miller.

He turns serious, in what is perhaps both a sign of the times and an emphasis on the reason behind the rituals.

''Make no mistake, this is an intensely corporate environment,'' said Miller, who noted that sales and work are monitored daily. ``We run a rigorous day-to-day program.''

The company has morning and evening meetings where it goes over everything from sales and cancellations to progress on work sites. Big screens in Miller's office and in the conference rooms display the real-time stock tickers of Lennar and all its competitors to remind employees of how the company is doing on Wall Street.

Miller, a graduate of Harvard and the University of Miami's law school, has worked at Lennar his entire professional life. In 2005, he made $31.9 million in salary and bonus.

Despite the almost hokey comraderie he has brought to the company, he is known as a stickler for detail and discipline. He also prides himself on being an everyday sort of guy, who walks around and talks to everyone from the cleaners to the latest employees fresh out of business school.

UNCERTAIN TIMETABLE

The biggest question now facing Lennar under Miller's leadership is how long and deep the downturn will run. Miller said he's convinced the market will come back -- spurred by growing population, among other factors -- but he can't guess when.

Previous downturns have proven difficult for many home builders to navigate. In the early 1990s, the last major industry downturn, about 15 percent of the country's 385,000 residential builders went bankrupt, the National Association of Home Builders estimates.

''The market is still a little elusive right now,'' said Miller. ``We will probably find opportunities when we understand market conditions a little bit better. But right at that point when people like you want to know most, we won't tell you.''

For now, Miller and associates are forging ahead with the strategy of taking lesser profits now rather than waiting for the market to come back to them. As the closing lines of the Little Red Hen put it:

``[Others] cannot do much business now,

because of poor conditions.

But as soon as things get right again,

they'll send a hundred firms --

Meanwhile, the little red hens are out,

a-gobbling up the worms.''

Now that South Florida's sizzling housing market has cooled, you might wonder whether this is a repeat of a previous slowdown.

Is this market, defined by a glut of for-sale signs in front yards and a leveling of record prices, reminiscent of the recessionary periods of the 1970s and '80s, the pre-housing boom years of the late 1990s, or … none of the above?

While some experts say the soft market of 2006 resembles previous slumps, others insist this downturn is different because it comes after the five-year boom and won't be as devastating as those in years past.

"In my opinion, there are so many things that are unique about this market that it can't be compared to any other," said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami-based real estate analyst. "We have never had a market … where the investor and speculative buying played such a role in generating the big numbers."

Other factors in the 2006 slowdown that weren't present before: multiple hurricanes and the resulting property insurance quagmire.

Mike Dooley, president of the Florida Association of Realtors, said, "If we're lucky enough to go through the 2006 season without another storm hitting the continental United States, that will go a long way" toward solving the housing -- and insurance -- problems.

He expects the regional housing market to bounce back relatively quickly, but others say things won't improve until 2008.

"Yes, there could be further weakening," said David Dabby, a Coral Gables-based housing consultant. "Because price increases went so high so fast, it could be many years before significant appreciation occurs again. But I don't see a sky-is-falling situation."

In July, for the first time since April 2000, the median price for existing single-family homes in Broward County fell from the previous year. Numbers are expected to be released Monday that will show whether or not that trend continued in August.

For the most part, the median price in Broward County rose steadily during the 1980s and '90s. Palm Beach County, however, saw a big drop during the recession of the early 1990s, when the median price dropped from $126,100 in 1991 to $110,200 in 1992.

Looking back, South Florida's sales of existing homes fell 25 percent during the recession of the mid-1970s, 50 percent in the early 1980s and 17 percent in the early 1990s, Dabby said. So far this year, sales have dropped by about 35 percent. "Keep in mind that when the market peaked in the summer of 2005, the number of sales that was occurring was incredibly high," he said. "A 35 percent decline at this point is not as dramatic as it sounds."

Echoing that sentiment is Nicolas Retsinas, director of the joint center for housing studies at Harvard University. He said interest and unemployment rates remain relatively low. That wasn't the case during the recessions of the 1970s and '80s.

Other analysts aren't as optimistic.

Wayne Archer, director of the center for real estate studies at the University of Florida, said the overbuilt condominium market in South Florida reminds him of the 1970s.

"You get the sense that people have forgotten all the lessons that they learned," Archer said.

Deerfield Beach analyst Jack McCabe expects the South Florida market to get worse before it gets better. He's so sure that he has organized investors to buy properties at deep discounts. And Miami analyst Goodkin also is advising clients who expect prices to drop.

McCabe does see positives in the downturn. Middle-class consumers who have been priced out of the housing market will be able to afford homes, he said. And out-of-state companies might view the area more favorably.

The downturn, he says, reminds him of the 1980s.

"People just quit buying," McCabe said. "Prices went down by 30 percent and stayed flat for years. The ones holding the bag lost a lot of money."

For years, residents were drawn to Florida because it was a low-cost alternative to California and New York. During the 1980s and '90s, home prices were flat in sections of Palm Beach and Broward counties and increased only incrementally in others. At the time, buyers easily could find spacious digs for $150,000 or less.

But the climate changed in 2000, when investors nationwide moved money from the stock market into real estate after the dot-com bust on Wall Street. They bought properties, watched them rise in value and then "flipped" them to other buyers for large profits.

That trend inflated demand and drove up home values. The median price of a single-family home in Palm Beach County at year-end 2000 was $138,600; by year-end 2005, the median had soared to $390,100, an increase of 182 percent. Over the same period, Broward County's median shot up 143 percent to $361,100.

Looking to capitalize on the huge price appreciations, many people put their homes on the market. This year, the listing of homes for sale have doubled in Palm Beach County and tripled in Broward.

But as values soared, so did property taxes, and people soon found that they couldn't afford to move within South Florida.

With supply outpacing demand, this year home sales slowed and prices began to stabilize.

"We were, in effect, a victim of our own success," Goodkin said.

Some homeowners are selling and leaving for Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, saying those states have a lower cost of living and a better quality of life.

Michael Skiera, 48, a native South Floridian, built a five-bedroom house on five acres near Boynton Beach for $300,000 in 2001. Two weeks ago, he listed it for $3.5 million because he and his family are moving to northwest Georgia.

"The numbers are just staggering," Skiera said of the recent run-up in prices. "This has become the new California."

Sales of new homes dropped in July by the largest amount since February while the inventory of unsold homes climbed to a record high.

Piling on more proof that the housing boom is over, the Commerce Department reported Thursday that new home sales fell by 4.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 1.072 million units. The decline was the largest since an 11.5 percent plunge in February.

The July level of 1.072 million units sold was down 21.6 percent from a year earlier and below the 1.100 million that had been expected by analysts.

''Builders are offering many extras to entice buyers,'' said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland's business school. 'Overall, values are falling and builders' profits are threatened.''

Sales of both new and existing homes set records for five consecutive years as the housing industry enjoyed a boom powered by the lowest mortgage rates in four decades. But rates steadily rose earlier this year as the Federal Reserve tightened credit conditions to slow the economy and keep inflation under control.

Analysts expect home sales to drop by some 10 percent this year.

In other economic news, orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell 2.4 percent in July as demand for aircraft and automobiles weakened.

And the Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits last week slipped by 1,000 to 313,000.

Prospective home buyers have turned cautious about making such a big-ticket purchase as mortgage rates have gone up and uncertainty has risen over whether the economy and job creation will keep slowing, analysts said.

The government reported that the median price of a new home was $230,000 in July, down from $233,800 in June and up from $229,200 a year ago.

The inventory of unsold new homes reached 568,000 at the end of July, up from 562,000 in June and an all-time high.

The data follow another report Wednesday that also provided evidence of how much the once-sizzling housing market has cooled. Sales of previously owned homes dropped 4.1 percent in July from June to a 2 ½-year low, while the inventory of unsold homes climbed to a record high, the National Association of Realtors reported

Home sales for July fell and prices were largely stagnant, as buyers and sellers continued their months long standoff.

Selling a house has come to this: offering a new X-Type 3.0 Jaguar to find a willing buyer.

For five months, Victor Peralta tried to sell his four-bedroom, Old Spanish home in Miami Shores. Twice he lowered the price, by $150,000 in all, yet only two people stopped in to see it. Now he's dangling the keys to a $32,000 car before buyers' eyes.

''I had to do something,'' said Peralta, 44, whose house now lists for $1.075 million.

This is the South Florida housing market of today: Prices are easing, sales are plunging and the inventory of unsold homes is rising ever higher. It's a situation that continued in July, according to existing-home sales numbers released Wednesday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

In Miami-Dade, single-family home sales in July dropped 24 percent compared to June and 38 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. In Broward, the number dropped 16 percent from June and 30 percent from last year.

Similarly, condominium sales in Broward were down 23 percent from June and 39 percent in comparison to July 2005. Miami-Dade's condo sales situation was slightly brighter: sales down 14 percent from June and 12 percent from last year.

Such lackluster activity has turned what was a tight sellers' market into one overflowing with houses for sale. In both Miami-Dade and Broward, the number of homes listed for sale has more than tripled in the past year.

THE STANDOFF

Many predict sellers will eventually cave and lower prices to meet buyers now willing to wait it out for a better deal.

''The longer it takes for sellers to recognize the market they are in, the worse the market will become,'' said Manuel J. Iraola, president and CEO of Homekeys, a Kendall-based brokerage that sells homes in Miami-Dade and Broward.

But some real estate professionals still say sellers shouldn't budge and that buyers will eventually adjust up, ending the staredown between them.

For July, it was a draw.

Prices held more or less steady in the single-family home market. The median price for a single-family house came in at $382,200 in Miami-Dade and $380,400 in Broward. In Miami-Dade that amounts to a gain of 5 percent from last year and 1 percent from June. Broward was down 1 percent from last year and flat compared to June. The median price is the point at which half the sales are above and half below.

CONDOS SLOW DOWN

But Miami-Dade's condo market -- a closely-watched sector because of concerns about speculation and heavy building -- showed signs of weakness. Condo prices dropped to $252,200, down 2 percent from June and 11 percent from a year ago. It was the first double-digit percentage fall since South Florida's formerly torrid housing market started cooling last year.

For Broward, the July median condo price was $209,100 -- down 1.5 percent from June but up 4 percent from last year.

Speculators who helped drive the frenzied housing market just a few years ago are finding it hard to make a quick profit, real estate professionals say.

''We are no longer a day-trading market; we are now a real estate market,'' said Ardene Clarke, senior vice president at real estate brokerage Coldwell Banker in Broward. ``I don't think anyone realized how big a sector was the day-trading sector.''

The nervousness in South Florida reflects a cooling housing market nationwide, as interest rates have risen, investors have fled and prices remain beyond the reach of too many buyers. The question is how long the uncertainly will last and how deep it will go.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

The South Florida market still is far ahead of where it was three years ago. In July 2003, for instance, a median-priced single-family home went for $232,700 in Miami-Dade and $236,700 in Broward.

Furthermore, the underlying economics remain strong: population growth; low unemployment; appeal to international and second-home buyers and relatively low mortgage rates.

Yet even the most optimistic observers who predicted the return of a strong market this year have revised their timeline into sometime next year at the earliest. Lackluster sales have continued through the summer months. said Ronald A. Shuffield, president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, which sells homes across South Florida.

''When we saw the price appreciation stop earlier this year we thought it would get everyone back on board,'' Shuffield said. ``But there has been such a dark cloud painted over the housing market that it hasn't happened. Everybody gets anxious at a time when a market transitions, we forget that we have been here before.''

Still, homeowner Peralta isn't giving up hope.

''The market is so bad,'' Peralta said. ``I would have open houses and no one would show up.

``I hope by adding the car it works. If not, I guess I will have a new Jag.''

New Census figures show Miami-Dade County was fifth in the nation for the number of new housing units added in a 12-month period.

The building boom has landed Miami-Dade County on the list of top five counties in the nation for adding the most new housing units, according to estimates released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005, Miami-Dade added more than 20,000 units, jumping from 10 on the national list to five.

It's an unprecedented boom, bigger than any single-year total of new units added in the past 25 years, records show. In the boom of the early 1980s, the county produced about 17,000 units a year, at the most.

But even with that spike in construction, many in Miami-Dade are still having a hard time finding affordable homes to buy in a housing crunch that government officials and activists are calling a crisis.

''Figures show that 28 percent of new construction nationally was bought by speculators in 2005,'' said Lewis Goodkin, a Miami-based real estate analyst. ``The top three markets for speculative condo sales were South Florida, Las Vegas and San Diego. That's caused prices to spiral, and many find themselves priced out.''

The Census estimates do not break down the total units by single-family homes, condos and apartments.

In Broward, about two-thirds of new construction was single-family homes and town houses in the early part of the decade, the rest being garden apartments and high-rises. Miami-Dade County could not provide a similar breakdown.

But Goodkin said the trend in recent years has seen much more construction in the high-end luxury housing market.

Biscayne Boulevard north from downtown has become a construction zone, with gleaming towers of $400,000 and $500,000 condos rising above the bay.

In Fort Lauderdale, luxury towers have risen in downtown Fort Lauderdale. And the neighborhoods that ring downtown, such as Victoria Park, have seen modest homes torn down and replaced by $400,000 and up townhomes and McMansions that sell for $400,000 and up.

Broward County, which has dwindling stores of vacant land, added about 8,000 units from July 2004 to July 2005. That's down from almost 14,000 in 2000. It placed 35th nationally among counties after ranking as high as 15th earlier in the decade.

Florida added more new units than any other state, according to the Census.

A lot of that new housing in Miami-Dade and Broward is out of the reach of the majority of people, Goodkin said.

''It's even more difficult here because the job growth in South Florida has been overwhelmingly in lower-income positions,'' he said.

He and others believe the region must begin to provide housing that the workforce can afford.

''Providing that affordable housing is the No. 1 challenge for us to face,'' said Michael Y. Cannon, a real estate analyst. ``If we don't address it, our economy is going to get hurt.''

Options such as living in Homestead or other places farther out from the work centers, where new homes have been priced lower even during the boom, is becoming less desirable because of the climbing cost of commuting, he said.

The Census estimates housing units using building permits, assuming that permits issued the previous year will result in housing units. Changes in housing are then used to estimate population.

Such estimates are prone to error if builders get permits but decide not to build, which could result in an inflated estimates, or if municipalities fail to report building permits to the federal government, which results in undercounting.

Earlier this year, fast-growing areas of Miami-Dade, such as Doral, Miami Gardens, Miami Lakes and Sunny Isles Beach, complained that their populations were underestimated by the Census because of insufficient information about building. About 10,000 new housing units were missed, most likely because of faulty reporting, the county concluded.

Cannon questions the numbers, but he agrees there is no disputing the South Florida building boom. Or the need to address workforce housing.

''The three-bedroom house with the pool for $175,000 that people remember their parents buying here is no longer available. It's selling for $300,000 now,'' he said. ``We have to address building affordable housing close to where people work.''

Goodkin said home buyers are going to have to get used to owning garden apartment units, like they do in other large metropolitan cities. And developers are going to have to switch gears from building luxury condos to building affordable apartments.

The market may begin to correct itself, analysts say. People keep moving to South Florida, and so demand for new construction will continue to be there. But the high-end market is slowing down and the middle-income market is underserved.

''Hopefully what you will see is the developers adjust and start to build more affordable projects as the market slows down,'' said Cannon.