The median sales price of single-family resale homes in Florida fell 9.9 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter in the previous year, the Florida Association of Realtors reported, and sales fell 31 percent.
Every metro area tracked by the Realtor group in the fourth-quarter report had a year-over-year drop in sales and in the median price of single-family resale homes.
The median price of resale homes was $216,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to $239,800 in fourth-quarter 2006. There were 26,130 sales in the fourth quarter compared to 37,879 sales in fourth-quarter 2006.
Sales of single-family resale homes slipped 57 percent year-over-year in fourth-quarter 2007 in the Lakeland-Winter Haven metro area, and dropped 52 percent in the Ocala area, 47 percent in the Miami area and 36 percent in the Orlando area.
Sales dropped the least in the Fort Walton Beach metro area, falling 2 percent in fourth-quarter 2007 compared to the previous year’s quarter. All of the other markets reported a double-digit percentage decline in single-family resale home sales in the fourth quarter compared to fourth-quarter 2006.
The median price of single-family resale homes, meanwhile, had double-digit percentage declines year-over-year in the fourth quarter in nine of 20 metro area metro areas included in the report. The median price fell most sharply in the Punta Gorda and Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie markets, down 17 percent. Prices dropped 13 percent in the Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay metro area and dropped 12 percent in four metro areas: Daytona Beach, Fort Walton Beach, Lakeland-Winter Haven, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.
Prices dropped the least in the Jacksonville, Miami, Marco Island, Pensacola and Tallahassee markets, falling 3 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter.
Sales of resale condos in Florida dropped 27 percent in the fourth quarter compared to fourth-quarter 2006, while the median price of resale condos fell 8 percent. Metro area condo sales ranged from a 60 percent year-over-year fourth-quarter drop in the Lakeland-Winter Haven metro area to a 15 percent rise in the Fort Walton Beach area.
Condo market price changes range from a 26 percent drop in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton metro areas to a 24 percent gain in Pensacola.
A separate report released this month by the National Association of Realtors revealed that Florida ranked ninth among U.S. states for its year-over-year decline in sales of single-family resale homes in the fourth quarter.
And foreclosure data company RealtyTrac reported that two of the 10 U.S. metro areas with the highest rate of foreclosure during 2007 are in Florida, while four are in California.
