St. Joe, the state's top corporate land baron with 638,000 acres spread mostly across the Florida Panhandle, suggests the real estate market, at least in this neck of the woods, might have bottomed.

Chief Executive Peter Rummell says “If we are in fact on the floor of the valley the question is, 'How wide is the valley?'’’ Rummell said the company made $32-million in profits the first three months of this year.

He said home and lots prices seem to have stabilized after deteriorating by 20- to 30 percent from their peaks in August 2005. The inventory of homes for sales has also stopped rising.

He said the company's task is to "retrain buyers" that housing purchases can't be deferred forever.

"We have trained people to expect that price are going to be lower tomorrow than today if they just wait," he said. "So now people are going to have to learn that they’ve gotten to that point.”