TAMPA — The sneeze came first: Home sales in the Tampa Bay area dropped by a third from last year’s peak.

For symptoms of the developing head cold, plunge into the exhibition hall at the Tampa Convention Center, where the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers is holding its annual trade show.

Puffed up to handle record-breaking home sales of last year, which poured money into savvy brokers’ pockets, the residential lending industry and affiliated businesses are mostly deflating this year.

On Friday, the first day of the trade show, one exhibitor, Eagle Title, issued a common refrain: The company’s nine Florida offices closed about 600 home sales a month last year. This year it’s about 150 a month.

“A lot of people are getting laid off. They’re cutting back the whole real estate industry,” said Julie Durkee of Eagle’s St. Petersburg office.
Cammie Aucoin of AmPro Mortgage in Tampa said the new buzzword in the industry is for people to dump their adjustable-rate mortgages in favor of fixed-rate mortgages. Anything to drum up more business.

“It’s not like it was. You sell what you have to sell,” Aucoin said. “Everything peaked out in November and December.”
Not that the 375 exhibitors weren’t bringing out all the gimmicks to keep the good times rolling.

Flick Mortgage Investors brought a steel drum-playing, dreadlocked reggae singer. Women in bikinis handed out literature.
One massive pile of man behind the kiosk of Madison Equity Corp. was none other than retired National Football League star William

“Refrigerator” Perry.

“Yeah, it’s me. How you doing?” the former Chicago Bear said, offering an oversized palm and autographed photo.

Phoenix Title Services cheerfully dispensed Amstel Light from beer kegs at 10:30 a.m., when many still munched breakfast muffins.

Foam desktop squeeze toys — shapes included piggy banks and beach balls — proliferated as giveaways for the estimated 6,000 attendees.

“Sir, do you have a squeeze ball? Who wants to relieve the stress?” microphone-wearing Dan Zink barked to passing brokers from the pavilion of lender First Franklin.

Les Merker of Clearwater’s Direct Lending Partners said business was fine. But he complained about a flood of half-trained brokers trying to turn a quick buck.

The Florida real estate boom created hordes of new mortgage brokers. The number of license holders grew from 28,140 in 2000 to 67,266 in 2006, according to the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. Only a fraction make a living in the field, however.

“Integrity is important. I’m here for the long run,” Merker said. “There’s people out there charging 7,000 bucks for a loan to make a quick killing.”

Fewer are making a killing this year. The Florida Association of Realtors reported a 35 percent dip in the sales of existing homes and condominiums from May 2005 to May 2006. New-home sales are similarly afflicted.

In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, sales fell from 6,748 to 4,364, a trend repeated in Pasco and Hernando counties. Brokers said the anticipated summer uptick in home loan applications never occurred.

Rising interest rates catch most of the blame for the downturn, but brokers such as Rob Talley of Greenpoint Mortgage in Tampa insist the current 6.5 percent is a bargain, if anyone’s listening.

“It’s not as bad as the people think,” Talley said. “It just takes longer to sell homes this year.’’

But Durkee, the title company employee, is feeling the hurt. She cited a “massive slowdown” in former boomtowns like Spring Hill in Hernando County.

One female conventioneer passing Durkee’s display offered words of consolation: “We worked like dogs the last three or four years. Now we can slow down.”

Forget about that, Durkee replied. “I don’t like it,” she said. “I’d rather work.”