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Home Prices Fall To 2004 Level

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN

sbehnken@tampatrib.com

Published: December 24, 2008

TAMPA - Sales prices for Tampa Bay area homes continued to plummet last month as buyers recoiled from October's financial wreckage on Wall Street.

Prices haven't been this low since spring 2004.

The median sales price for existing homes was $149,800 in November, a 21 percent drop from $189,100 during the same month last year, according to a report released Tuesday 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: Bay area sales are up a modest 3 percent. It's the fifth-consecutive month that sales either increased or remained flat year-over-year. But the sales didn't rise as much as they did 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 gains 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 while sales increased 26 percent.

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

Nationwide, both 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. But he did note that after prior stock market crashes home sales usually rebounded within a few months.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

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