By SHANNON BEHNKEN, The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 1, 2008
TAMPA – The real estate market is ringing in the New Year on its sourest note yet.
Not since the spring of 2005 have Tampa Bay area home prices been this low. The median sales price of previously owned, single-family homes in the Tampa Bay metro area plunged 15 percent to $189,100 in November, the worst drop among Florida’s major metro areas. A year ago, the median was $223,400, according to data released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors.
The month-over-month snapshot also stung: Prices dropped 9.5 percent from October, when the median sales price was $209,000.
November’s median sales price is the lowest since April 2005 and marks the first time it has dipped below $200,000 since mid-2005, when prices surpassed the milestone for the first time in June.
Although it’s not surprising that home prices fell in November, real estate experts weren’t expecting the cut to be so deep. Some analysts had predicted Bay area prices to fall by as much as 10 percent more, but they had called for the cuts to happen gradually during 2008.
So does this mean the Bay area’s real estate market could rebound earlier than previously expected?
Mike Larson of Weiss Research in Jupiter doesn’t think so. He still expects prices to drop 10 percent in 2008.
See the full article here:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jan/01/bz-single-family-home-prices-plunge-15-in-november/
