The national news is highlighting a home sales "plummet" in November, but we're doing okay here in the Tampa Bay area.

Measured year to year, Tampa area home sales rose a modest 3 percent in November. The Florida Association of Realtors recorded 1,701 single-family sales last month compared to 1,644 a year earlier.

The stimulus came in the form of lower housing prices. The median sales price last month was $149,800, the first time prices have broken into the "140s" since April 2004. Cut-rate foreclosure properties accounted for much of that.

The heavy-foreclosures-equals-brisk-sales formula was even more pronounced in Cape Coral-Ft. Myers. The annual price plunge there was an extraordinary 53 percent. Fort Myers homes sold for a median price of $106,100.

We're talking a return to 1999-2000 prices. With so many distressed property sales, Fort Myers has probably over-corrected on the down side. If there's a positive side, it's that sales soared 64 percent year to year.

Statewide, sales inched up 4 percent in November, reflecting a 27 percent plunge in prices. Nationally, home sales fell 8.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.49 million in November. National prices retreated 13 percent, the biggest year-to-year drop since 1968.

Here's a chart breaking down homes sales in Florida metro areas. Note how northern Florida towns like Gainsville are suffering disproportionately these days: Download Novhomesales.pdf