by Calculated Risk on 7/14/2005 08:50:00 PM

"The joke now in Lee County [Florida] is when the cops pull you over they ask for your real estate license because not everyone has a driver's license."

From this otherwise serious article: Housing boom fraught with disasters waiting to happen.

And a Las Vegas story: Valley Home Buying Fallout.

Dyan Harmell, a Pulte home buyer, is drowning in a sea of debt. Her living room table is covered with bills and she's not quite sure how to pay them.

"There are bills everywhere. House payments and debt," Harmell told FOX5. She's a long way from those heady days of Las Vegas' real estate boom, when she says Pulte's sales staff pushed and pushed her to buy.

"They call you and say 'you are so lucky .. this just came across.. it's going to be worth 100k before it closes,'"said Dyan Harmell. "We came with the hopes of buying two houses. We left the first day owning four. Within the next week, owning 6 -- all the way up to 19."

But Harmell's story is not unique. Walk around Pulte's Solera neighborhood and it's a ghost town. It seems as if "For Sale" signs are everywhere.

Signs that many people who thought they'd make a killing in Las Vegas' real estate market are now trying to unload homes at deep discounts.

Hat tip to Ben Jones for Vegas story. As the Vegas article says: "The real estate boom that sent Las Vegas home prices skyrocketing may be over, but the hangover is only getting worse."