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Housing downturn bankrupts borrowers Richard Burnett | Sentinel Staff Writer August 6, 2007 Article Tools E-mail Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback text size: The housing boom may seem a distant memory, but experts say the real-estate speculation and "creative" financing it generated are now driving many investors and homeowners into bankruptcy, especially in Central Florida. Personal bankruptcies in the Orlando area were up 80 percent during the first half of 2007 -- the biggest rate increase in the federal court system's Middle District of Florida, which includes Jacksonville and Tampa. Orlando's jump in bankruptcies also far outstripped the national rate, which was up 43 percent compared with the first six months of 2006. Orlando bankruptcy lawyer Richard Heller is seeing a lot of people these days who thought they had placed a sure bet during the recent housing boom.