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Tampa Home Prices Stabilize

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 27, 2008

TAMPA - Two housing reports Tuesday offered more hope that a turnaround in the real estate market may be slowly emerging.

The Standard & Poor's/ Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday shows the rate at which Tampa-area prices are falling has leveled off. Prices fell 20.1 percent in June from a year ago, almost identical to the 20.2 percent decline in May and 20.4 percent drop in April.

Nationally, the news wasn't as good. The index, which pools prices from 20 cities, including Tampa, tumbled a record 15.4 percent during the second quarter from the same period a year ago. The index fell by 15.9 percent in June compared with a year ago, the largest drop since its inception in 2000.

Also on Tuesday, the Commerce Department said sales of new homes rose in July, but still fell short of economists' expectations.

The report said new-home sales rose by 2.4 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 units, the most since April. But sales in June had plummeted to a pace of 503,000 - down from previous estimates of 530,000 - to mark the worst showing since September 1991.

The report also said the median price of new homes fell 6.3 percent, to $230,700, in July.

David Blitzer, spokesman for Standard & Poor's, said Tampa is among a handful of cities showing "small hints" of stability.

"It's not like prices are going to start rising next week, but this is better," Blitzer said. "Prices are still falling, but the pace is slowing down."

Don't cheer too much, though. Moody's Economy.com is calling for prices to fall month-to-month until late 2009.

In the S&P/Case-Shiller report, Tampa's price drop ranked seventh highest among the 20 cities tracked in the report. Miami, the only other Florida city on the list, had the largest drop, with prices falling 28.3 percent.

Fourteen cities in the monthly index showed improvement from May to June, but only nine recorded positive returns.

No city in the index saw price gains in June when compared with a year ago. That's the third straight month that has happened.

Las Vegas led the largest annual declines, falling 28.6 percent, followed by Miami and Phoenix at 27.9 percent.

Charlotte, N.C., the last city in the index to report yearly depreciation during the housing downturn, posted its largest drop since 1991 at 1 percent. Until April, the city had been the only area with positive yearly price gains.

The index's glimmer of hope follows another surprisingly positive housing headline Monday. Existing home sales rose in July, surpassing expectations, as buyers snatched up cheap distressed properties in the hardest hit housing markets.

In the Tampa Bay area, sale prices of existing homes rose 5 percent in July compared with the same month a year ago. That was the largest increase since sales started to fall in December 2005.

The price declines, Blitzer said, are painful for sellers but necessary to spur the uptick in sales and work off excess housing inventory.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804 or sbehnken@tampatrib.com.

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