FLORIDA - Onto another economic issue... The rough housing market...

Here in Florida... Pending home sales are starting to rise.... the increase is being attributed to falling home prices....

Channel Three's Whitney Ray joins us live from Tallahassee this afternoon.... with more on these developments in the housing market.....

Governor Charlie Crist held a closed door meeting with Florida bankers.

Crist spoke to the media immediately afterward.

He told reports banks are ready to lend money. And willing to work with people who can't make their mortgage payments...

With falling prices fueling a slight increase in the state's housing market, real estate agents are chomping at the bit to get a piece of the action.

Coldwell Banker is offering a ten percent discount on some of its listing in Florida to people who buy before October 19th.

"We're trying to gain the interest of the buyers who are there and we are. I think people are aware that there are some good buys out there."

While the news is bittersweet for Florida's real estate market, it's all bad news on the jobless front.

"In a cascade of events that started with a slow down in the construction industry and trickled down to small businesses, the state's workforce suffered huge blows. Florida's unemployment rate is at a 13 year high and exceeds the national average."

Governor Charlie Crist spent an hour meeting with Florida bankers.

Afterward we asked: "Governor is Florida in a recession?' The economy's tough. I don't know what you technically call it. You know it's a difficult challenging situation and there's no question about it."

Crist says the best thing Floridians can do in these tough times is to keep spending.

Bankers say people shouldn't be pulling their money out of the bank right now…
Rather they're advising people to deposit their money in banks backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

FDIC insures deposits of up to 250,000 dollars.Faltering Economy