All things being equal, it was not a bad third quarter for home sales in the Sarasota-Bradenton market.

In fact, the 5 percent drop in sales for the local market was the best performance in a state that saw total sales drop 29 percent when compared with the same time in 2006.

Ocala posted a 53 percent drop, Miami a 42 percent decline and Fort Myers-Cape Coral and Orlando, 39 percent, the Florida Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

There were 2,084 homes that changed hands in Sarasota-Bradenton during the quarter compared with 2,195 during the third quarter of 2006.

"We are encouraged by the improvement in our area compared to last year," Joe Hembree, president of the Sarasota Association of Realtors, said Wednesday. "This report mirrors what we have been seeing as a trend all year -- that the Sarasota market is faring much better than many other parts of the state.

Both Hembree and Pat Neal, president of Lakewood Ranch-based home builder Neal Communities, said they have seen an increase in activity.

"September was unusually quiet as was October, but things are moving now in November," Neal said. "Many more customers are looking at resale homes in addition to new homes, which tells me that after the new home sales guys adjusted their prices to reflect the new market reality, the existing homeowners are also doing the same, which is creating competition."

The price decline during the third quarter in the Sarasota-Bradenton market was in line with the rest of the state. The local market saw a 6 percent drop -- from a median sales price of $301,800 to $283,800.

The Charlotte County-North Port market had a much weaker performance, with sales dropping 24 percent and prices declining 18 percent -- the biggest price drop in Florida for the quarter.

There were 597 homes that changed hands during the third quarter in Charlotte County-North Port, while the median sales price declined from $217,500 to $178,600.

The median is the price point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

Sales performance among condominium sales in Sarasota-Bradenton market was also among the best in the state, with a 15 percent increase in sales, from 634 to 732. Median sales price was flat at $241,700.

There were only 50 condo sales in Charlotte County-North Port, a 58 percent decline, while median sales price slid 4 percent, from $170,000 to $163,300.

With single-family homes, other big price declines occurred in Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie, which saw a 13 percent drop, from $252,000 to $218,300; and Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay, which saw a 9 percent drop, from $215,400 to $196,500.

A total of 31,910 homes changed hands in Florida during the third quarter compared with 44,776. Nationally, that was the worst performance of any state except Nevada, which saw sales drop 35 percent.

The median sales price for all homes in the state was $232,100, down 6 percent from $246,800, during the third quarter of 2006.

Meanwhile, a total of 9,622 condominiums changed hands in Florida during the quarter, a 26 percent decline from the 13,028 that sold during the same 2006 quarter. The median sales price for condos was $196,300, down 4 percent from $205,000 in the year-ago period.

Realtors blamed the most recent quarter's performance on high inventory levels, mortgage disruptions and tighter lending standards.

The state association's national counterpart is still predicting that the credit crunch will subside and a modest recovery for sales will occur next year.

"Over the near term, home sales are likely to be fairly flat as the lingering impact of the credit crunch filters through the system through the end of the year," Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors' chief economist, said in a statement. "In some ways, the extended real estate boom from 2001 to 2005 created unrealistic expectations that housing is a short-term, high-yield investment."

Nationally, sales of existing homes fell in 46 states during the July-September quarter as the housing market's slump worsened. Vermont and North Dakota were the only two states to show sales increases. Existing home sales in Vermont rose 0.8 percent from the same quarter a year ago, while sales in North Dakota rose 2.9 percent.

No sales figures were available for Idaho and New Hampshire.

The Realtors saw a silver lining in the data, noting that home prices rose in 93 of the 150 metropolitan areas surveyed.

Trade group officials emphasized that the real estate market is not a national one, and conditions vary -- sometimes dramatically -- from market to market.

"Some metro areas are hot while others are experiencing localized problems," Yun said. "Home prices in the vast midsection of America, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, are affordable and, perhaps, even undervalued."

Still, numerous experts forecast a continued decline in median prices nationwide as conditions deteriorate in the housing and mortgage industries.

Nationwide, existing homes sold at an annual rate of 5.42 million units in the third quarter, down 13.7 percent from the sales pace of the third quarter in 2006, the Realtors group said.

Mortgage lenders, would-be home buyers and Wall Street investors alike have been grappling all year with the impact of rising defaults, the result of lax lending standards that were prevalent during this decade's housing boom.

As defaults have risen, lenders have grown more cautious, which has resulted in fewer buyers qualifying to purchase homes for sale.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Last modified: November 22. 2007 5:14AM

In another sign that the Sarasota-Bradenton housing market is recovering faster than most parts of Florida, June home sales climbed 5 percent from the same month last year.

Prices were still seeking firmer footing: the median dropped 10 percent. But the June price was on par with the last six months.

In the Sarasota-Bradenton area, one of only two Florida markets with June sales increases, home sales continue to run at about the rate of the pre-boom market.

"I would not expect median prices to be rising yet as there is still so much inventory, but people are buying and beginning to realize perhaps we are skidding along the bottom," said Penny Hill, the Sarasota-based top national producer for Chase Mortgage.

"Skidding along" might be an apt description: Sarasota-Bradenton's median sales price was $292,700 in June, $294,700 in May, $294,800 in April, $291,500 in March and $294,500 in February.

One sign that the recovery in Sarasota-Bradenton may be ahead of the rest of the state: In Miami, 469 existing homes were sold during June, compared to the 797 that sold in Sarasota-Bradenton.

Meanwhile, Charlotte County-North Port saw a 33 percent drop in sales, from 323 homes in June 2006 to 218. Its median price dropped 10 percent, from $222,300 to $199,000. Only Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay had a bigger drop at 15 percent. Tallahassee, Ocala and Fort Lauderdale all posted increases -- 4 percent, 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Sales in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market dropped 35 percent.

Forbes.com this week named it the top home buyers' market nationally. If Sarasota had a larger population, it also would have made the list, which included Miami, Minneapolis and Chicago, Forbes said.

Statewide, June sales dropped 30 percent while prices declined 5 percent to $243,200.

Nationally, sales fell for a fourth straight month, dropping by 3.8 percent to the slowest sales pace in four and a half years. Prices rose 0.1 percent to $230,300, the first year-over-year price increase in 11 months.

The national decline in home sales was larger than had been expected, underscoring the worst housing slump in 16 years.

Buyers and sellers

After buying a Sarasota beach rental on Siesta Key at the height of the boom, Drew Squyres wants out.

The San Luis Obispo, Calif., resident bought in The Shells, 312 Beach Road, for $815,000 and is now trying to unload for $899,000. He already dropped from $950,000.

Squyres is paying $7,000 for insurance; the former owner's bill was $2,000. Then, there is his $11,000 tax bill. Adding up all his costs, "If I sell at the current asking price I will lose money."

In Port Charlotte, investor Herschel Pollard is tired of being a landlord. The Punta Gorda Isles resident owned a canal-front house in Harbour Heights as an investment. After Hurricane Charley damaged his main home, he moved into the other house, then later rented it to "a succession of unreliable tenants."

The home is 25 feet above sea level, a high elevation for Southwest Florida, and overlooks a very broad canal leading out to the Peace River.

"Here is a residence that people would have practically killed for a few years ago," said Pollard, who is hoping for $275,000 and willing to hold a mortgage.

Back in Sarasota, Jose Lopez's two-story home at 2164 Arlington Street has everything going for it except buyers. He his wife went all-out on the home, which boasts Brazilian cherry floors, 10-foot ceilings with cove molding, a second-story deck off the master bedroom, and a stainless steel wine cooler in a granite-clad kitchen.

Lopez listed the home at $689,000 in November, then came down to $599,000. In May, he tried an auction, but the only bidders were investors looking for 50 percent off the asking price. Lopez has since dropped to $499,900.

"We haven't really had any offers," he said, noting that the neighborhood just east of Tamiami Trail "was taking off right before the market went south."

"We have it priced right now at about $125,000 below cost, and there is still some flexibility," Lopez said. "If the market had kept going, we would be looking at a price of $800,000."

The market is providing great deals for patient buyers.

A Cincinnati couple, Wally and Linda Howard, already owners of a one-bedroom condo at a place they love, Sandy Cove on Siesta Key, used the market doldrums to get a great deal on a larger unit.

In September, they offered $490,000 for a two-bedroom they fancied with an asking price of $526,000. Both sides agreed on price, but could not agree on other contingencies, said Frank Verdel, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker-Siesta Key.

Then in April, the same unit showed up at an auction. Verdel bid on behalf of the Howards. They were the only bidders, and they made a low-ball offer. Later, they negotiated with the seller and raised their bid. The Howards closed in May for $401,500, roughly $120,000 less than the fall asking price.

"Sometimes it is good to just walk away," Linda Howard said. "This time it really was."

Bottoming out?

Realtors cheered the June sales results in Sarasota-Bradenton as an indication that the market was bottoming out.

Judy Schomaker, broker/owner of Sarasota's Suncoast International Realty, said today's market is reminiscent of a pre-boom 2002.

"I'll take 2002, which was good normal year. Let's face it, 2003, 2004 and 2005 were runaway years which we never expected to maintain that level of appreciation."

Joe Hembree, president of the Sarasota Association of Realtors, said the Sarasota market was "withstanding the national real estate slump remarkably well."

Pending sales in Sarasota remain above the 500 mark, an indicator of future strength. That figure had dropped below 400 in fall 2006. "The low point in the current local market was apparently reached in December 2006, when only 355 sales closed. Sales were much higher in June 2007, with 561 overall sales -- almost 60 percent higher than the sales low."

Agents are seeing a pickup in showings, with buyers looking at far more homes in more markets than in recent memory, said Nick Figlow, president of Bradenton-based Re/Max Gulfstream.

"Before, a typical buyer would look at 8 to 10 houses," Figlow said. "Now they'll look at 25 to 35 so the agents are working harder for each sale."

Sales for Joel Ament are about equal to what they were in 2006, but the second quarter was stronger, said the broker/owner of ERA Advantage Realty Inc. in Port Charlotte. He thinks recent sales are from what he termed "smart money, but average buyers may be simply waiting to see if we've hit bottom."

Sales this year are up in Venice, and 100 more properties closed in the second quarter than the first, said David Cromwell of Venice's Charter Real Estate Services Inc. "We still have a ways to go, but we have seen the sales improve."

The region's inventory remains high. In Sarasota, for example, there are 7,900 single-family homes for sale, down from a peak of 8,411 in mid-March. The norm would be more like 2,500, said Steve DuToit of Keller Williams Realty, whose office supplied the figures.

In the past three months, the weekly sales rate for listings in the Sarasota Multiple Listing Service has risen to 85 per week from 68, a 25 percent improvement.

"We have seen our inventory of single-family residential homes decline by 3 percent, and we have seen our sales increase by 30 percent," DuToit said. "Those are very encouraging numbers."

May and June were the best months so far this year, said Scott Sosso, president of Sarasota's Prudential Palms. The inventory improvement and a pull-back by the region's home builders has helped.

"It all comes down to reduction of inventory, which seems to be happening."

Last modified: July 26. 2007 4:39AM