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Many Cities' Median Home Prices Fall

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The Associated Press

Published: May 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - Median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year, while 46 states experienced declining sales, a real estate trade group reported Tuesday.

The National Association of Realtors said median prices for existing single-family homes dropped in 100 of 149 metropolitan areas in the January-March period, while 48 metropolitan areas saw prices increase. One reported no change.

The price decline in 67 percent of the areas surveyed was the largest percentage of areas reporting declining prices in the history of the Realtors' survey, which goes back to 1979. Prices had fallen in 34 percent of the cities surveyed in the October-December survey.

In the metro area of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, the median sales price of a single-family home in the first quarter was $184,700, down 9.1 percent from the same quarter last year. Sales prices for condos in the Tampa Bay area dropped even more. The median price was $152,800, an 11 percent drop compared with a year ago.

Nationally, the median home price - the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less - fell to $196,300 in the first quarter, down by 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago, when the median sales price was $212,600.

Sales of existing homes were down in 46 states. The largest percentage plunge was a 38.6 percent drop in Maryland during the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2007. Florida sales were down 27 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same quarter last year. However, the sales, at an annualized pace of 246,000 units, were up slightly from 242,800 in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Nationally, sales fell by 22.2 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

The decline in prices and sales were the latest indication of housing market problems.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that part of the problem in the first three months of the year was that it was hard to get so-called jumbo loans because of rising mortgage defaults.

Tribune reporter Shannon Behnken contributed to this report.

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