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Area Home Reports Weak, Bleak

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 25, 2008

TAMPA - The Bay area's housing market is weak, but there are signs that home sales are starting to stabilize. In other parts of the country, though, selling a home is getting tougher, according to two reports from real estate groups Thursday.

In the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, slightly more single-family homes sold in June than in May, and the median sales price rose by more than $2,000, according to existing home sales data released Thursday by the Florida Association of Realtors. The median price - in which half the homes sold for more and half for less - was $178,700, up from $176,100 in May.

Some Realtors say the upswing may mean the local real estate market is nearing bottom. But since real estate is seasonal and typically does better during the spring, economists look at yearlong data to gauge the market.

The area's year-over-year comparison of home sales appears to be leveling off, even though prices continue to fall. In June 2007, sales dropped 35 percent, but this June, the decrease narrowed to 3 percent. That follows a small rise in home sales in May, compared with a year ago.

There were 2,346 single-family, existing homes sold in the Tampa metro area in June, down from 2,428 during the same month a year ago. Prices were down 19 percent. The median sales price was $178,700 in June, down from $220,900 in June 2007.

"The market continues to weaken, just not as much as it had been," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. "Prices are still falling, but they've come down so much that people are nibbling and starting to buy more."

Nationally, sales of existing homes fell more sharply than expected in June as the housing industry continued to be bruised by the worst slump in more than two decades.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales dropped by 2.6 percent last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units. That was more than double the decline that had been expected and left sales 15.5 percent below where they were a year ago.

The downward slide in sales depressed prices, too. The median price for a home sold in June dropped to $215,100, down by 6.1 percent from a year ago. That was the fifth-largest year-over-year price drop on record.

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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