Existing single family homes sales in the Tampa Bay area fell 35 percent year over year as prices slipped 6 percent.

Sales declined from 3,751 in June 2006 to 2,428 in June 2007. Median sales prices slid from $234,900 to $220,900. The numbers come from the Florida Association of Realtors.

Local home statistics were worse than national figures. Single family sales fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.7-million to 5-million, a decline of 12 percent, the National Association of Realtors reported.

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater wasn't the worst hit in the state. Sales declines were steeper in Orlando and Miami, although prices fell less in those places.

One possible sign of hope for the housing market: Badly battered Sarasota, where prices plunged 10 percent the past year, reported a 5 percent rise in sales from June 2006 to June 2007.

-- Times staff writer James Thorner