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Gibsonton tops areas getting home prices they seek

Staff file photo (2007)

Carriage Point is in Gibsonton, where sellers are getting their asking prices on homes.

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2009

Updated: 10/26/2009 02:55 pm

TAMPA - One might think that by now – after two years of falling home prices – sellers would be more realistic about what their homes are worth.

Apparently, though, some are stilling having trouble accepting reality.

California-based ZipRealty compared the listing prices of homes sold in the third quarter to the actual sales price. Depending on whether the homes sold for near or substantially below what the seller's originally asked, ZIP codes were labeled "hot" or "cold."

Among 115 Bay area ZIP codes surveyed, homes in southern Hillsborough County, Lutz and Clearwater generally sold for close to the asking price during the third quarter. But most of Pinellas County didn't do as well. Some neighborhoods saw homes sell for just over 81 percent of the asking price.

Gibsonton was the hottest zip code in the Tampa area while Tierra Verde was the coldest in terms of sales price vs. asking price.

Here are the hottest and coldest zips in the Tampa metro area and the percentage of asking price that sellers ended up receiving.

Top Five

Gibsonton (33534) 99.31 percent

Lutz (33559) 98.86 percent

Riverview (33579) 98.39 percent

Riverview (33569) 98.12 percent

Clearwater (33761) 97.97 percent

Bottom Five

Tampa (33605) 84.64 percent

Indian Rocks Beach (33785) 84.11 percent

Saint Petersburg (33701) 83.01 percent

Indian Shores (33785) 81.97 percent

Tierra Verde (33715) 81.34 percent

The data shows that in this volatile real estate environment the old real estate advice about location, location, location, rings true – but for different reasons.

Homes in neighborhoods rocked by foreclosures are in the "hot" areas. Those sellers are getting close to their asking prices. The flip side is that those sellers have also seen prices plummet more than sellers in the "cold" zips.

The median sales price of existing homes in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area in September was $137,800, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. That's a 14 percent drop from September last year, when homes sold for a median price of $160,500.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

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