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Bay Area Home Prices Continue Downward Spiral

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 23, 2008

TAMPA -
Prices for Bay area homes continued to plummet in November as buyers recoiled from October's financial wreckage on Wall Street.

Prices haven't been this low since spring 2004.

The median price for existing homes was $149,800 in November, a 21 percent drop from $189,100 in November 2007, according to a report released today by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Compare that with June 2006, when prices peaked at $239,600 in the metro area of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

The one bright spot in the report: The number of Bay area sales is up a modest 3 percent. It's the fifth consecutive month that sales increased or remained flat year-over-year.

The number, however, didn't increase as much as in October, when sales jumped 11 percent.

Statewide, sales increased 4 percent and prices fell 27 percent.

Metro areas with the biggest drops in prices were among those with the largest increases in home sales.

For example, Orlando saw prices fall 30 percent, but sales increased 15 percent. In Miami, prices fell 37 percent and sales increased 39 percent. Fort Lauderdale prices dropped 34 percent and sales increased 26 percent.

Florida's spike in home sales bucked the national trend in November.

Nationwide, the number of sales and prices plunged in November. The median sales price fell by the largest amount on record, and the number of homes sold dropped 8.6 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The median sales price fell 13.2 percent in November to $181,300, from $208,000 a year ago. That was the lowest price since February 2004, the biggest year-over-year drop on record -- going back to 1968 -- and most likely the biggest drop since The Great Depression.

Lawrence Yun, the normally upbeat chief economist of the Realtors group, found few positive spots in the month's dismal data. He did note that after previous stock market crashes, home sales usually rebounded within a few months.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804 or sbehnken@tampatrib.com.

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