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First-time home buyers program boosts Tampa sales

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2009

TAMPA - Tampa area house hunters – led mostly by first-time homebuyers -- continued to purchase in September, edging up home sales, as the median sales price continued to drop.

Nationally, it was the largest jump in resales in more than a quarter century.

There were 2,410 existing homes sold in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro are, up 11 percent from 2,174 during the same month a year ago, according to data released Friday by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Prices, though, fell 14 percent from the same month last year. The median sales price dropped from $160,500 last year to $137,800.

Sales prices have been a moving target this year, consistently dropping each month when compared to the previous year, but month-to-month, prices have fluctuated. September's price was below August's $144,600 median. Prices haven't been lower since April when the median hit $135,200.

Statewide, September sales rose 34 percent and prices fell 19 percent to a median sales price of $142,000.

Real estate professionals credit the sales increases to the first-time buyers' tax credit, which expires next month. Some potential buyers are moving up their purchases so they can take advantage of the credit.

"There's a mini-boom going on in the housing market," said Thomas Popik, who conducts a monthly survey of real estate agents for Campbell Communications, a research firm.

Nationwide resales are up nearly 24 percent from their bottom in January, but are still down 23 percent from four years ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. September's sales clocked the largest monthly increase in 26 years.

Sales of existing homes jumped 9.4 percent nationwide in Sept. to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million last month, from a downwardly revised pace of 5.1 million in August.

Prices, however, continued to be dragged down by foreclosures and short sales, where the mortgage exceeds the sales price. The median price last month was $174,900, down almost 9 percent from $191,200 a year earlier, and slightly lower than August's median of $177,300.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

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