Even though you may be looking to purchase or sell a home in the New Tampa area, it's important that you consider national and regional home sales trends. The reason it's important to understand national and regional real estate trends is because the trends have both a tendency to effect other real estate marketplaces and because trends in other areas (as well as national trends) can provide some useful indicators as to what to expect in the Florida and New Tampa real estate markets not only today but into the future as well.

In point of fact, the most recent home sales trends for November actually bode well for the Florida real estate market on some level. The South (including Florida and the Tampa real estate market) has experienced the lowest market decline than any other region in the country. The South has experienced a nearly 6% decline from the October reporting period. This decline is nearly 100% less than the decline experienced in the market with the worst sales trends report at this point in time.

The worst region as far as market declines are concerned for this reporting is the Northeast region. The Northeast region has experienced a 10% decline in home sales over the course of the last reporting period. Again, as was alluded to a moment ago, this is the worst regional decline in all of the United States for the last reporting period.

Sales were down in the West region for the last reporting period nearly as bad as in the Northeast region. The West region found home sales down by 9.9%. Finally, the month to month decline in the Midwest was just over 7%.

You do need to keep in mind that the declines that have been referenced in this report are based on the transition from the October to the November reporting period. If you compare in home sales decline from November 2006 to November 2007 is even more dramatic (and problematic).

Comparing sales to last year presents a worse picture. Nationwide, sales were down 19.1% compared to last year. The regional declines are as follows: West, 27.78%, South 18.65%, Midwest 16.25%, and Northeast 13.46%. The above figures are seasonally adjusted and based on how many homes would sell over a year's time at a comparable sales pace.

Despite the trends in home sales over the course of the past year (and currently for that matter), many experts predict that the real estate market will improve after the first of the year. Even though the home mortgage market has tightened significantly over the past several months, and even though foreclosures have hit record levels over the course of 2007, both of these factors are also expected to improve after the first of the year, resulting in improved sales and an improved real estate market.