Florida has been one of the hardest hit states in the U.S. real estate slowdown. Tourism mecca Orlando has suffered accordingly, but is also seeing projects go forward because of the area’s appeal to foreign buyers. This week Orlando Sentinel staff writer Christopher Boyd wrote about the local condo hotel market, which had boomed in recent years as developers flooded the area with projects offering a total of some 15,000 condominiums.

In fact, Boyd notes, few of these projects have actually broken ground and started construction. Developments that are being built have been kept afloat largely by foreign buyers who, in light of the depressed U.S. dollar, see American real estate as a relative bargain. One developer of the Floridays Resort, which opened in Orlando last year, doesn’t even market the project to buyers stateside.

Larger projects are also more likely to continue marching ahead with development. InterContinental’s Palazzo del Lago will have more than 1,200 rooms, while the Blue Rose is a condo hotel with some 1,300 units.

Projects that are actively selling units are facing their own host of challenges, from buyers withdrawing or walking away from their deposits, to condo shoppers encountering more difficulty in securing a mortgage. Others are simply seeing buyers take more time to put down a deposit.

One developer of the recently opened Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa told the Sentinel that they recalled the good ol’ days, when condo hotel buyers simply walked into the sales room and were ready to sign a contract. Now buyers at that project are likely to visit multiple times before making a deposit and signing on the dotted line. The strategy seems to be a good one for prospective buyers. The Sentinel article reports that real estate prices at the Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa have dropped six to nine percent.