In regular conversations with University of Florida economist David Denslow, I'm constantly reminded of the link between Tampa area housing prices and those in other southeastern cities.

Denslow insists we won't fully climb out of our housing hole until our home prices are closer to what's available in places like Charlotte and Atlanta.

With that in mind, it was interesting to pull a report released last week by New York housing analyst Radar Logic.

Radar Logic keeps track of home prices per square foot in 25 major metro areas. The last report takes in July home sales. Homes in the Tampa area - defined as Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties - sold for $111.31 in July.

So where do we fit in with our competitors in the Southeast? Well, we're far cheaper than Miami with it's $148.55 per square foot. The problem is, Charlotte's price per square foot is only $98.50. Atlanta's is $96.58.

The year-to-year price change is a familiar story: Home values declined 17.4 percent from July 2007 to July 2008. Ours was the 10th worst performance out of 25 metro areas.

Here's more from Radar Logic: Download radarlogicjuly.pdf

Price-per-square-foot data is valuable to help iron out any price measurement distortions from increased sales of smaller, cheaper homes. A boost in sales of $150,000 homes can make it seem as if the median or average price is plunging more than it really is.