Tampa area home sales up 20%

The sales pace of existing homes in the Tampa metropolitan area held steady from April to May and rose 20 percent in May from a year ago.

Also, May's median sales price showed little change from last year, the Florida Realtors association said Tuesday.

Both are seen as strong signs of stabilization of the area's fragile housing market.

It was uplifting news compared with data from the National Association of Realtors, which showed sales falling 2.2 percent nationwide from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million in May. The drop led some experts to question whether the housing market may be on the verge of another plunge that could weaken the broader economic recovery.

"The outright decline in May sales is stunning given the last-ditch effort on the part of buyers to claim the tax credit," said Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area had 2,921 sales in May, compared with 2,427 during the same month last year. May's sales figure was nearly identical - down by only one deal - from April.

The median sales price was $135,600, a drop of 1.4 percent from $137,500 in May 2009. It also was up from April's median of $132,900.

Trends were similar for Florida as a whole. The state saw 16,745 sales in May, up 18 percent from last year. The median sales price was $140,400, down 2 percent from a year ago.

The big question is: What will happen in July? That's because home sales closing through June 30 are eligible for the federal tax credit - $8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for move-up buyers.

With the incentive gone and unemployment up, some worry that the buyers will be gone, too.

"The tax credit is running out of steam at the same time the job market is going nowhere," said Mike Larson, a housing analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. "Over the next couple of months, I think we'll see a hangover effect worse than most ... expected."

Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors' chief economist, said delays in the mortgage-lending process put about 180,000 potential buyers in limbo. They are unlikely to qualify by the June 30 deadline, he said. The trade group is pushing Congress to extend the deadline for closing a sale until Sept. 30.