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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 23, 2008

TAMPA BAY AREA

Ikea Work To Start In June

Ikea, the casual home furnishings retailer, says it plans to begin construction in early June on a store in Tampa. The company plans to begin building on 29 acres on Adamo Drive at 22nd Street, just east of downtown Tampa, on June 4.

The privately held company, which is considered one of the world's largest furniture manufacturers, expects to open the 335,000-square-foot Tampa store in summer 2009. It will feature three model home interiors, 50 room settings, a supervised children's play area and a 300-seat restaurant.

When completed, it will be the third Ikea store in Florida and will employ about 400 people.

NATION

Housing Still In Decline

A home-price index considered to be the most comprehensive reading of the U.S. market posted the sharpest decline in its 17-year history, and analysts say housing has yet to bottom out.

Rapidly falling home prices in Florida, California and Nevada skewed the national results.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Thursday that home prices fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter compared with last year.

It was only the second quarter of price declines since the index started in 1991. The price index first declined on a year-over-year basis in the final quarter of 2007, when it dropped 0.45 percent.

According to the government index, prices fell in 43 states, with California and Nevada showing the biggest declines. Home prices dropped by more than 8 percent in those states.

The government index also fell 1.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, the largest quarterly price drop on record.

Another widely followed reading, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, has shown larger declines for major U.S. metropolitan areas. Analysts, however, say the government index provides a more comprehensive reading of nationwide housing market.

Wall Street analysts have tended to focus on the S&P index, an update of which is due Tuesday, as a way to measure the value of securities backed by subprime mortgages and loans to borrowers in big metropolitan areas.

Earlier this month, economic forecasters surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia projected the government index would show a 5.4 percent annual decline in the fourth quarter of 2008, with prices not recovering until early 2009.

Almost two-thirds of U.S. banks have raised standards for mortgages to their most creditworthy borrowers, and three-fourths made it more difficult for people with limited or tainted credit to get loans, said a Federal Reserve loan officer survey published May 5. Foreclosures rose to an all-time high at the end of 2007 as borrowers holding adjustable-rate loans walked away from properties before their payments increased.

ENERGY

Gas Prices Hit New Record

Gasoline prices again sprinted to a new record high Thursday. And although oil fell, some analysts predict gas will break $4 a gallon as early as next week. The average national price of a gallon of regular gas rose 2.4 cents to $3.831. Oil prices rose as high as $135.09 a barrel overnight before retreating $2.36 to $130.81 a barrel during regular trading Thursday.

A staff and wire report

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