Slow sales fail to keep lid on Florida real estate prices

Despite cooling home sales across Florida in May, the statewide median price of an existing single-family home soared from a year ago, the Florida Association of Realtors reported today. The statewide median price of an existing single-family home was $248,700 last month, up 31 percent from a year ago when it was $189,200. In June 2000, Florida's median sales price was $119,600, according to FAR records, resulting in an increase of nearly 108 percent over the five-year period. Statewide, resales activity slowed slightly from the blistering pace of recent months, with a total of 25,455 homes sold compared to 26,112 homes a year ago, for a 3 percent drop. "Some briskness left the pace of sales of existing single-family homes across Florida during June," said David Scott, executive director of the Dr. Phillips Institute for the Study of American Business Activity and professor of finance at the University of Central Florida. "Actually, this is a step forward towards economic reality...