Cause for hope in housing? Check out Sarasota

Last year Sarasota's housing market was the state's basket case.

But look what's happened: For several months running the real estate market to the south has been outperforming most of the state.

The area's house and condominium sales were up 7 percent from July 2006 to July 2007. It beat the stuffing out of the Tampa Bay area, where sales declined 28 percent the same period.

Here's the deal: Sarasota entered the slump about a half year ahead of Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. And it may be shaking off the doldrums sooner. Sarasota sales are now better than they were even in the early boom year of 2002.

"We were on the front end going in and appear to be on the front end going out," said Kathy Roberts, head of the Sarasota Association of Realtors.

Read HERE for more details about this development that might, just might, portend improvement for Tampa in another half year.