Home sales slip 18% in Southern cities in July

Sales of existing homes in the South tumbled 18 percent in July from a year ago, and the median price fell 3.5 percent to $179,300, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

Home sales in Atlanta last month were down 18 percent, and the median price was off about 10 percent, to $175,000, according to the report.

Compared with the rest of the country, sales in the South were weaker but prices held up better. Nationwide, July sales fell 13 percent from a year ago, while the median price slid 7.1 percent to $212,000.

But proving again how real estate is local, the Associated Press-Re/Max Housing Report released Monday found that median home prices rose in six of the 21 Southern cities tracked. Home prices rose 9 percent in Huntington, W.Va., for example, and in New Orleans and Little Rock, Ark., the median price was up more than 5 percent compared with July last year.

On the other end of the spectrum, home prices fell more than 15 percent in Orlando and Tampa and Washington, D.C. The AP-Re/Max report analyzed home sales recorded by all real estate agents in those cities, regardless of company affiliation.

The only metro area where sales rose in July was Miami, a market driven by bargains on foreclosures. Sales rose 9 percent from a year ago, but the median price declined almost 10 percent to $279,900.

“The best thing people can do is sell the house fast,” said Pam Mayers, an agent with Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors in Miami. “You need it on a million Web sites, People need to ask their agent, ‘Are you advertising? Where are you putting it?’ “

Mayers’ client, Jennifer Del Pino, sold her 3,600 square-foot home in July for $490,000, after lowering the price from $550,000. The house was on the market for about a month, and a buyer from Germany bought the house.

“The process for me was pretty painless. It happened so quickly,” Del Pino said. “It’s kind of a relief for me.”

Outside of Florida, the large declines in home prices in the South can be found in two types of neighborhoods, said Jeff Humphreys, director of economic forecasting at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

The first type is the neighborhood with significant mortgage fraud and foreclosures, causing prices to plummet as banks cut prices to move foreclosed homes, he said.

The other types are the new subdivisions that have emerged on the fringes of metro areas like Atlanta which were planned and started before what Humphreys calls the “housing recession.” Unable to sell these properties, builders have started lowering prices.

In Cary, N.C., John Wood, broker/owner of Re/Max Partners said prices continue to hold up despite a consistent slowdown in sales in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Home sales in the Raleigh-Durham region were down by almost one-third from July of last year, according to the AP-Re/Max report, and the median price fell almost 4 percent, to $203,000.

“What continues to concern our market is, as the mortgage industry continues to tighten their regulations, even with borrowers with good credit, everything’s scrutinized,” Wood said.

“This is affecting the ability of lenders to close quickly and making borrowers more wary of the process,” he explained. “We’re curious to see how the economic stimulus plan is going to come into play and how it is going to help our market. Its up to all of us to educate the consumers on that.”

In Memphis, Tenn., prospective buyers have shown interest in the first-time homebuyers’ tax credit and down payment assistance programs included in the recently signed housing bill, said Neil Hubbard, managing broker at Prudential Collins-Maury Realtors.

While sales in Memphis were down almost 25 percent from July of last year, the median price was off 8 percent to $133,650, according to the AP-Re/Max report.

Hubbard said the Memphis suburbs are not seeing prices fall as fast as some other neighborhoods where foreclosures have been more common.

In Houston, where the housing market avoided much of the downturn, ZipRealty agent Peggy Brady said the area’s economy, bolstered by oil and gas industries, has helped demand and pricing.

“You see building all over. You see action everywhere you go in Houston,” Brady said. “Psychologically, that helps people realize we don’t have the doom and gloom here like they do in the rest of the country.”

The median price in Houston rose more than 3 percent to $161,342 in July, while sales were down 18 percent, according to the AP-Re/Max report.

Brady noted that sales were stronger nearer to the city center than outlying areas.

“Inside the Loop, properties are very sought after, especially now, with the gas and traffic situation,” Brady said.

In the Houston suburb of Cady, Tex., Douglas Tyler, 66, and his girlfriend closed on a 3,100 square-foot, four bedroom home in July, at a price of $280,000. He said he placed offers on two other homes but lost out, and he said one home on the market had 15 other offers when he inquired about it.

“The housing market in the Cady, Texas area was pretty dynamic,” Tyler said. “It was kind of surprising.”