TAMPA - Florida realtors have a bit of good news about their otherwise difficult market. Existing home sales rose 5 percent in Florida for 2010, and activity around existing homes sales are up a whopping 37.5 from 2008.

In the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, existing home sales rose 3 percent, while the price fell 4 percent to $131,800.

"It's encouraging to close out the year for Florida's housing market with increased sales activity," said 2011 Florida Realtors President Patricia "Pat" S. Fitzgerald.

Homebuyer tax credits helped home and condo sales in the first half of 2010, she said, and historically low mortgage rates helped bring in more buyers in the second half of the year.

The median price for existing homes in Florida was $136,500 in 2010, compared to $142,500 in 2009. The median condo sale price was $91,300, compared to $108,000 in 2009.

For the month of December, existing home sales rose 4 percent statewide, and the price fell 5 percent to $133,100. Sales of existing homes in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater rose 17 percent, while the price fell 8 percent to $126,100.

Nationally, the number of people who bought previously owned homes last year fell to the lowest level in 13 years, and economists say it will be years before the housing market fully recovers.

The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that sales dropped 4.8 percent to 4.91 million units in 2010. That was slightly fewer than in 2008, which had been the weakest year since 1997.

The poor year for sales did end on a stronger note. Buyers snapped up homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million units in December, the best sales pace since May and the 12.8 percent rise from November was the biggest one-month surge in 11 years.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Contact Richard Mullins at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/DailyDeadline.