Broward home sales boost doesn’t help region

Broward County existing home sales jumped 52 percent in December, but
the region’s collapse won’t be reversed by one good month. Falling
prices fueled an increase in sales, according to the Florida
Association of Realtors. The county’s median price for an existing home
last month was $217,700, down 34 percent from December 2007. For the
year, Broward’s median home price was $278,000, off 23 percent from
2007. It was by far the sharpest annual percentage decline since the realtors’ group started keeping statistics in 1994. Market watchers said
this could signal the approach of a market bottom. But the number of sales increased by 4 percent from 2007, to 6,377 sales in 2008.