TAMPA - Last year, all you had to do to sell your home was stick a "for sale" sign in the ground.

"Buyers would line up," said Nancy Riley, president-elect of the Florida Association of Realtors and agent for Coldwell Banker in St. Petersburg. "That time is gone."

Sellers over the past few months have known too well what Riley is talking about. On Wednesday, the gloomy data verified it.

National and state real estate associations released July's sales data Wednesday showing dramatic increases in the number of homes on the market, slowing appreciation rates and outright price drops in some markets.

Florida and the Tampa Bay area mirrored the nation. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area saw a 45 percent drop in the number of homes sold in July, compared with the same month last year. Median sales prices, however, rose 9 percent - a healthy increase, but the first time in years that the gain dropped to a single digit. The median price is the point where half the homes in a market sell for more and half sell for less.

Sellers may still be seeing year-over-year price gains, but they have to wait much longer to make deals.

The Greater Tampa Association of Realtors reports 35,000 homes and condos on the market in the Bay area, not including all of the new home inventory. That's nearly four times the inventory at this time last year, the group said.

Last summer, it took an average of 32 days to sell a home, and it wasn't uncommon for homes to sell the same day they were listed. Now, homes are on the market an average of 65 days.

"The number of investors are down," Riley said. "People were buying homes and fixing them up and reselling them last year. Those people aren't buying as much now."

Marla Martin, spokeswoman for the Florida Association of Realtors, said the state's numbers are no surprise.

"Housing analysts have said for several years now that the trend couldn't continue," she said. "We just happen to be in the year that the prediction comes true."

Rising prices for gas, food and energy are one reason fewer people are buying homes, Martin said. And in Florida, homeowners and property insurance costs might inhibit buyers.

Homeowners who might consider selling and buying another home stay put, she said, because they can't afford to lose their homestead exemption and their cap on property taxes.

Tampa's market may be tough, but it fared better than many other Florida cities. Palm Bay, on the east coast, saw July's median sales price decrease by 27 percent compared with the same month last year. Prices in Fort Walton Beach decreased by 24 percent, and prices decreased in Daytona by 17 percent.

Overall, the Sunshine State saw a 37 percent drop in the number of existing homes sold, with 4,260 sales in July, compared with 6,739 in July 2005. The median price of a home in Florida slid 1 percentage point to $211,900.

Nationally, existing home sales plunged in July to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years and the inventory of unsold homes climbed to a record high.

Sales of homes and condominiums dropped by 4.1 percent in July from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.33 million, the National Association of Realtors said. That was the lowest level since January 2004.

The nationwide median price of a home sold last month was $230,000. That was up just 0.9 percent from the same month last year and marked the smallest yearly increase since May 1995.

The inventory of unsold homes in July rose to a record high of 3.86 million. At the current sales pace, it would take 7.3 months to exhaust that overhang. That is the longest period to exhaust the supply of homes since spring 1993.

Last week, the National Association of Home Builders reported that confidence among builders sank to a 15-year low.

So what does all this mean if your home is one of the 35,000 on the Bay area market?

Martin, with the Florida Realtors organization, advises sellers to price their homes right and be patient. Sellers also have to pay closer attention to detail in this market, she said. Curb appeal is much more important now, and touches such as fresh flowers and an organized home can make a difference in a buyer's mind.

"Look at selling and pricing your home in 'today's market,'" Martin said. "You're probably not going to get what your neighbor got for their home last summer."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at sbehnken@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7804.