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Briefs
Talk of the bay: Thank goodness we don't own in Punta Gorda
By Times staff
Published November 24, 2007
Florida housing quiz. Which of the larger metro areas had the highest priced median single-family home sales in the last quarter? (Naples-Marco Island, $519,800.) The cheapest? (Ocala, $161,100.) The biggest drop in year-to-year prices? (Punta Gorda, down 18 percent). The only metro area with a gain? (Miami, up 1 percent.) For the record, the Tampa Bay area was down 8 percent, to $210,700. State's job growth trails only Texas
Let's move from housing to jobs. Just in case you're keeping track, Florida gained 111,000 jobs in the past year through October. That's second among all states behind Texas ( up 206,400) but ahead of larger California (up 109,000), says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those job gains in Florida, 9,700 occurred in October (again, second behind Texas), suggesting there's still some fuel left in the state's employment machinery this fall despite a sharp increase in the state's unemployment rate to 4.2 percent from 3.2 in October 2006. It was busy, too, shopping online
Black Friday brought busy shopping across the Tampa Bay area but also brisk online business to eBay properties' Shopping.com and PayPal. According to Shopping.com, the most popular products are the Webkinz Seal, Reindeer and Love Puppy (based on eBay searches) and Microsoft's 80GB Zune, which sold in the past week for an average $326.13. Among gift cards, the most popular based on searches on Shopping.com are: Nordstrom and Nordstrom Spa gift cards, the Home Depot gift cards and Sierra Trading Post. GAS WATCH The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Tampa Bay area:
Friday: $3.105
Thursday: $3.105
Month ago: $2.795
Year ago: $2.206
Record: $3.114* * Record set Nov. 15 Source: AAA/Oil Price Information Service To find the cheapest gas where you live, visit money.tampabay.com All about money
Times personal finance editor Helen Huntley talks about money topics and answers your finance questions at blogs.tampabay.com/money.
[Last modified November 23, 2007, 22:34:05]
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