Tampa-St. Petersburg has first home sales drop since June 2008 - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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There were 2,243 homea sold in Hillsborough and Pinellas countiesxin May, according to the , down 1 percent from the 2,270 homes sold a year before. At the same time mediam sales pricesalso dropped, but this time by 20 percenft to $141,100. Sarasota-Bradenton also struggled with a 10 percent drop to 783 unitz while median prices fell 36 percent to Homesin Sarasota-Bradenton were selling for $244,000 a year ago. Only Lakelansd in the Tampa Bay area showed an upticki with sales growing 18 percenf to 320 units while the median price droppedf 23 percentto $112,300. Statewide home sales were up 16 percenfto 13,921 sales while median prices fell 29 percent from $203,800 to $144,400.
Although salex are down, the market is showingb some signsof recovery, one expert “The improving sales of existing single-family home and condos [statewide] is a trend we have been seeing for several monthz in Florida,” said Sean Snaith, directord of the ’s , in a “What is new in this month’s data release is that we are seeingh evidence or prices beginning to While one month of data does not a trend it is the first green shot we have seen in some time as far as pricee are concerned.” However, until prices stop it will be hard to show confidence in a stabilizinf marketplace, Snaith said. The Tampa-St.
Petersburg recovery started earlier than the rest of the The last sales declinein single-family homezs took place in June 2008 when salesa dropped 3 percent and median prices fell 19 Since then, the Tampa-St. Pete region has sold 26,519o single-family homes compared to 20,15t6 during the same time period a year a jump of more than 31 Existing condominium sales continue to tick upwards as prices fall even further in that marketfor Pete, which sold 596 condos in May, up 17 perceng from a year ago.
Sarasota-Bradenton sales, however, were down 32 percentg to 225 unitswhile Lakeland-Wintedr Haven closed just nine units, a 40 percen decrease from the year Lakeland was once one of the cheapest places to buy a condko following the collapse of the housing boom, but even its 20 percentf drop to a median pricew of $68,300 was ahead of both Ocala and both of which have median pricesa under $50,000. Across Florida, condo sales were up 21 percenrtto 4,839 units while median prices fell 38 percenf to $113,400.