Surprisingly Strong December for Bay Area Real Estate According to Home Encounter Residential Real Estate Report.

December was a surprisingly strong month for Residential Real Estate sales in Tampa Bay. Sales were up, inventory levels were down and the rate of new listings decreased. These are some of the findings of Home Encounter's Residential Real Estate Report for December 2007 that can be found at www.HomeEncounter.com/learn.php.

Although we were somewhat surprised with these findings (seeing as December is historically the weakest month of the year for Real Estate sales), every indicator that we monitor conclusively showed improvement from November to December, with the exception of the time a house sits on the market before it sells. According to the Report, December sales were up 14.5%, sold-prices were up 3.2%, total listings dropped 6.5% and new listings dropped 21.5% over November.

We refuse to call one month of data a "trend", but we are none-the-less heartened by these findings, which are - as always - based on a thorough analysis of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas sales from MLS for the month of December. The fact that these improvements occurred in December, that they were significant (double digits in some cases) and that they were so widespread (affecting 11 out of 14 indicators) gives us cause for cautious optimism.

Still, "positive indicators" are a far cry from recovery. The good news for December does little to change the overall condition of the Bay Area real estate market. Sales, inventory levels, and home prices are still considerably off peak-levels. The monthly estimate of market recovery published in our Tampa Bay Residential Real Estate Report (MarketTrack) is still forecasting that the slumping Bay Area housing market will last until late 2009 and will result in a 10% drop in prices from December 2007 levels.

While our analysis suggests that the bottom of the market is still a long way off, December data could quite possibly indicate a slowing decline - which is welcome news for all of us.