Tampa Bay area new home sales still hurting

New single-family home starts in the third quarter of this year in the Tampa Bay area were down 56.6 percent from the same period last year.

Starts numbered 1,732 from July 1 to Sept. 30 this year, versus 3,993 during the same months of 2006.

The Wednesday housing report by the firm Metrostudy contained some potentially decent news: New home inventory shrunk by 524 homes, and supply and demand could reach equilibrium in about a year.

James Thorner, Times staff writer