Florida Housing Market Hit Hard by Depreciation

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday that the median price of a single-family house in the third quarter dropped 1.2 percent from a year earlier across the nation, continuing a reversal of fortune for sellers that started last winter.

Prices in the Northeast, down 4.8 percent, fell the most. Prices dropped 2.6 percent in the Midwest, 0.9 percent in the West and 0.1 percent in the South.

While the Detroit market, buffeted by auto industry layoffs, suffered the largest loss - prices there plummeted 10.5 percent, to a median of $154,100 - the Florida housing market wasn’t too far behind.

Specifically, three Sunshine State metro areas were hit hard by price drops:

1. In Sarasota, the median home now sells for $320,700, off a whopping 9.4 percent from last year
2. Palm Bay/Melbourne/Titusville prices sank 9 percent to $193,600
3. Cape Coral prices plunged 8 percent to $255,400.

Sarasota condo prices also dipped, 11 percent to $275,600, the largest drop in any condo market. This simply re-inforces the idea of a buyer’s market and should encourage buyers to apply for a Florida home mortgage ASAP.

Even more dramatic than the price drops was the fall in the number of sales. Nationally, the total numbers for sales of existing single family homes, condos and co-ops went down 12.7 percent compared with the third quarter of 2005.

The decline was off the charts in Nevada, down 38 percent. Arizona, ( - 36 percent), Florida (- 34.2 percent), California (- 28.6 percent), Hawaii (- 25.8 percent) and Virginia (- 24.4 percent) also experienced steep drops.