Coffee Talk appreciates a good David slays Goliath story, especially during the holiday season, and the case of the Bellehumeurs versus St. Louis-based national brokerage firm A.G. Edwards definitely fits the bill.Median sale prices for existing single-family homes fell across the Gulf Coast of Florida in October versus the same month last year. A positive exception was the Tampa Bay area, which saw median prices level off, according to figures from the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR).Coffee Talk bets that Bruce Sherman and Gregg Powers at Naples-based Private Capital Management are celebrating the $300 million check they recently got from Baltimore-based Legg Mason.Take the folks at Business 2.0 magazine off the Christmas card list. The magazine's New Rules of Real Estate issue pegged Southwest Florida as the number two area in its "Where not to buy" list. Cape Coral-based Whitney Information Network's shares fell 31% Nov. 21 after it said the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an investigation of its stock-market education programs and corporate acquisitions.Entrepreneur and Net Infuse CEO John Turner didn't take just any vacation this year: The 44-year-old took on Mount Everest - the world's highest peak - to prove he could and to raise money for The Children's Home, Tampa.
