It wasn't exactly cold gruel from the communal pot and bread laced with sawdust, but the spread was a tad thin Wednesday evening at the Tampa Bay Builders Association's holiday banquet.

Swedish meatballs, chicken fingers, a cheese platter, phylo dough spinach pastries: You can't accuse builders of living high on the hog while the rest of us wolf down value meals at Wendy's. You could have filled most of that builders' buffet from the Sam's Club freezer case. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's good to know the banquet wasn't BYOB: The line rarely let up at the open bar.

Tampa area new home sales are off about 75 percent from the 2005-2006 peak. That pretty much explains the tightness with the food budget. Come to think of it, considering the health of the media market, Swedish meatballs and slabs of Monterey jack would taste pretty good right now.