IS GOOD

The evidence is mounting that Tampa Bay home sales have hit bottom, even though prices are still in a free fall.

For the fourth consecutive month, existing home sales were flat, or rose or fell only slightly, according to data released Wednesday from the Florida Association of Realtors.

There were 2,154 sales in August in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area, the same number of homes sold in August last year. The median sales price, however, fell to $171,200, down 20 percent from $214,100 a year ago and down 3 percent from $176,500 in July.

"The real cure to the housing market problem is time and price," said Mike Larson, analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. "This sales relief is a function of time and price working its magic."

Even though it's painful for sellers, he said, home prices need to keep falling in order to work off the inventory of unsold homes throughout Florida.

Tampa Bay condominium sales fell 13 percent, to 482 sales, down from 553 last year, and prices dropped 19 percent, to a median sales price of $141,400.

Statewide, sales fell 4 percent, to 10,847 sales, and prices fell 20 percent, to a median of $186,900, down from $234,100 during the same month last year. Condo sales fell 6 percent, to 3,214 sales, and prices fell 20 percent, to $158,000, down from $197,400 in August 2007.

Housing markets nationwide appear to be getting the same medicine.

The median sales price fell to $203,100, or 9.5 percent, the largest price decline on records dating to 1999, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes fell 7 percent, to 4.3 million, down from July's all-time record of 4.6 million.

Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist, said he hopes the downward trend in inventories continues because "home prices will not stabilize as long as inventories remain high."

The industry group hopes the government's takeover of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with a massive purchase of distressed mortgage securities on Wall Street, will make it easier for home buyers to get a mortgage.

With credit remaining tight and foreclosures surging, "home prices are likely to decline considerably further in the quarters ahead," wrote Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., in a research note.

Existing home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.91 million units in August, down 2.2 percent from an upwardly revised pace of 5.02 million in July. Sales were down almost 11 percent from August last year.

Although buyers are pouncing on lower prices - especially in Florida, California and Nevada - sales are sluggish in formerly stable markets such as the Pacific Northwest and Charlotte, N.C., Yun said.

The rate of home sales fell from July to August in the Northeast and West, which posted 6.6 percent and 5.3 percent sales declines, respectively. Sales rose less than 1 percent from July to August in the Midwest and South.