One builder's stock trades at 25 cents. Another suffered cancellations that chopped two-thirds of its business. A third builder is $2-billion in debt.

Those three builders - Tousa Inc., Beazer Homes and Standard Pacific Homes - have been important props in the economy of the Tampa Bay area.

In the recent housing boom, thousands of their homes spread out over the suburbs of Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Pinellas counties. Now they're all the subject of bankruptcy rumors.

Some analysts foresee a shakeout similar to that of the early 1990s, when bankruptcies purged the industry. Victims included U.S. Home Corp., which survived and later merged with Miami's Lennar Corp. A consolidation of weaker players may be on the horizon.

The industry is "going to be a shadow of itself once we get through this downturn," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, who predicts home prices won't rebound until late 2009 or early 2010. "Everyone was too optimistic."

Tousa Inc., parent company of Engle Homes, is an echo of its former self when it comes to Wall Street. Bankruptcy rumors have driven down its stock price from $10 in January to 25 cents today.

Tousa bought out Transeastern Homes, the company best known for Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa and Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club at State Road 52 and Interstate 75 in Pasco. Those neighborhoods now sell under the Engle trademark.

The Hollywood, Fla., company said it "faces many challenges and is considering all available restructuring and reorganization alternatives." Translation: Bankruptcy is a possibility.

Well-publicized financial troubles have also plagued Beazer, the region's seventh-largest builder. But the Atlanta company chugs along in communities such as Dupree Lakes in central Pasco and Belmont in Riverview.

Beazer cut about a quarter of its work force in October, suspended its stock dividend and fended off calls for the head of chief executive Ian McCarthy. Beazer's stock, topping $45 a share in January, closed Wednesday at $10.03.

Beazer has complained that unfounded rumors of its demise are fueling home building cancellations that nationally reached 68 percent last summer.

McCarthy is hanging on, but Beazer's Tampa division president Ed Suchora was demoted this fall.

Tampa Bay area housing analyst Marvin Rose said such shuffling of executives is meant to placate the wolves on Wall Street but is no cure-all. "It's a lot easier to fire somebody than rearrange your whole organization," Rose said.

Standard Pacific is the No. 3 builder in the Tampa Bay area. In its previous incarnation as Westfield Homes, it once beat Lennar for the top spot in the region.

Standard Pacific builds in about 15 neighborhoods from Pasco to southeast Hillsborough. Corporate analysts have soured on the company's $2-billion debt. The builder also suffers from a narrow focus on three highly stressed housing markets: California, Florida and Arizona.

One bankruptcy struck the building community last week. Levitt & Son operates on the northern edge of the region in Brooksville, but builds nothing closer to Tampa.

Other builders prominent in the Tampa Bay area, including Centex and Pulte Homes, aim to survive an industrywide unraveling by selling houses at bargain prices and slashing jobs.

Rose predicts the slow market - home starts are down more than half this year - will claim the scalps of more builders. It's happened before. In the recession of the early 1990s, Ryan Homes, a big national builder, pulled out of Tampa for good.

"There were a ton of builders that left the market. They just pulled out of town," Rose said. "I suspect there will be a few this time that decide to leave or go bankrupt."

James Thorner can be reached at (813) 226-3313 or thorner@sptimes.com. Read his (Un)Real Estate blog at blogs.tampabay.com/realestate.

Buyers' checklist

If your builder is in trouble:

- Check if your one-year warranty against construction defects will still be honored.

- Ask if amenities such as clubhouses or swimming pools will languish unfinished if a builder lacks funds.

- Get assurances that someone will tend the half-built homes and empty lots that could litter the landscape if work stops.

- See if contractors could hit your house with liens if the builder fails to pay its bills.