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Letter to the editor

Real estate glut easing up

Home listings drop to their lowest point in more than a year. That's mostly good news.

By JAMES THORNER Times Staff Writer
Published August 10, 2007

It's been the glut that wouldn't give, gumming up any chance of a housing recovery in the Tampa Bay area.

We're talking listings of houses and condominiums for sale, a figure that in April topped 50,000 in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

Only now the glut appears to be in retreat. Home listings are at their lowest in more than year. In July the market counted just under 42,000 homes for sale.

Though encouraging news on its face, real estate boosters shouldn't cheer just yet. It's still a glass-half-empty-glass-half-full kind of story.

Sales have continued their postboom sluggishness, running about 40 percent under last year's numbers. And a significant part of the story is sellers who have grown sick of trying to move their properties and turned to renting.

Ann Guiberson, head of the Pinellas Realtors Organization, notes another trend: Agents refusing to take on listings when they think owners are overpricing properties.

She could be talking about Tony Marottoli, a Clearwater Realtor who spurns even million-dollar listings if he believes owners are unrealistic.

Here's an example from Belleair Beach: The owner bought a house for $400,000 three years ago and wanted Marottoli to list it for $1.4-million. He wasn't interested.

"Not gonna happen," Marottoli said. "It's old. It's dated. It's a '60s house. If the market weren't dead, it could be a different story."

At this rate it's still about a year before the region could eat through the inventory and emerge with a healthy balance between supply and demand. Prices have suffered as supply outpaces demand.

"But we seem to have seen the worst of the glut," Guiberson said. "Inventory peaked a few months ago."

Listings peaked in Hillsborough and Pinellas in March and April and have since declined more than 10 percent. Pasco's home inventory stands about 17 percent below its high point last August.

James Thorner can be reached at 813 226-3313 or thorner@sptimes.com

Source: Pinellas Realtors Organization

[Last modified August 9, 2007, 23:37:54]