Alexandra and Waldo Cruz moved from their Kendall apartment to Homestead, seduced by a yellow house with white trim, three bedrooms, two baths and a small yard in the back.

Four years later, their house, their first home together, is in foreclosure. They have until April to find another place to live with their four children, aged three months to 15 years old.

```We are trying to live the American dream,'' said Cruz, 35, who was laid off from her job as an insurance agent in May, when she was nearly nine months pregnant.

She started a new job two weeks ago as a customer service representative and now works six days a week, making less money. At the same time, her husband's overtime hours were reduced.

``We weren't able to pay the mortgage and we are going to lose our home. We can't afford to be here anymore,'' Alexandra said.

While home values across Miami-Dade have crashed, no city has been hit harder than Homestead, where one out of every 49 homes was in some stage of foreclosure in September, the highest rate in a county with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.

It's quite a fall for the city that rebuilt itself after Hurricane Andrew ripped through in 1992. A building boom -- fueled by cheap land, easy financing, exotic mortgages, attractive home prices and access to greater Miami-Dade from Florida's Turnpike -- led to a stampede of home buyers, many of whom were buying their first homes.

In 2007 Homestead earned the accolade of the fastest-growing city in the nation among those with a population of 50,000 or more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

``Homestead was ground zero because so much new development was being built,'' said Ned Murray, associate director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. ``Most of the people were buying on the margin; they were barely eligible for a mortgage.''

The real estate crash and the resultant flight of residents -- University of Florida demographers project the city's population has dropped by 1,800 people in the past year -- has torn a big hole in Homestead's tax base. It shrank by nearly $1 billion, or 24.7 percent, over the past year.

To shore up its finances, the Homestead City Council shed 33 city jobs and pared $10.9 million from its $132 million budget. While there were no cuts to police nor increases in electric, water and sewer fees, bulk trash pickup is now once a month instead of once a week and city celebrations, including July 4, have been trimmed.

But the challenges are far from over.

``We have people who owe more than their house is worth. That's an issue for everybody but particularly for people who find they need to leave the area,'' said Steve Losner, a real estate attorney and former city councilman.

GROWTH WAVE

For most of this decade, Homestead was cresting a wave of growth. In 2000, Homestead was a farming community of nearly 32,000 people. Its main street -- Krome Avenue -- started filling in with antiques stores, Mexican restaurants and a historic theater, the Seminole, in the midst of renovations.

By 2008, the city at the southern tip of Miami-Dade County had morphed into a medium-sized municipality of nearly 58,000 people.

In seven years, Homestead saw its housing stock jump by 59.4 percent, much of it in new subdivisions of single-family homes and townhomes, according to the U.S. Census.

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