The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. "The Sarasota Association of Realtors wants to secede from the Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Area, at least as far as real estate statistics are concerned. In a first-ever move, the group released Sarasota housing data in advance of the monthly release of data from the Florida Association of Realtors, scheduled for today."

"On a stand-alone basis, Sarasota's results are better than its immediate neighbors, and that's the point of the group's analysis, said Kathy Roberts, chief executive of the Sarasota Association of Realtors. 'We're trying to give our local slant,' she said. 'We want to differentiate ourselves.'"

"The group said that total sales have returned to the 'more normal figures of 2002 and prior years.' Using only Sarasota Multiple Listing Service data, the run-up in both sales and prices experienced in 2003, 2004 and 2005 is evident."

"Despite the Realtors' contention, though, 2006 is still slower so far even than 2002 with 5,158 total home and condominium sales, a 16.8 percent decline from that year. The 2002 market median price was $182,000 for homes and condos. Today's median price is $328,000, still an appreciation of 80 percent in four years."

"'The number of properties sold in higher price ranges has buoyed the median price in our marketplace, both for single family homes and condominiums,' said Felix Power, the association's president. 'Though price-reduced signs are evident in almost every neighborhood, prices are adjusting to the realities of the market which no longer reflects the extraordinary price escalation of the last three years,' Power said."

"Single-family home sales from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 were 3,510, down nearly 37 percent from the 2005 total of 5,562. Condos also dropped in 2006 to 1,648, from the 2,898 last year, a decline of 43 percent."

"The speculative 'overhang' has yet to be bled from the market, said John Tuccillo, a former National Association of Realtors chief economist and consultant with offices in Sarasota. That accounts for the huge inventory increase from the earlier years and the slower pace of absorption."

From Myrtle Beach Online in South Carolina. "Myrtle Beach's strong job growth makes it less vulnerable to a housing bubble despite 60 percent appreciation in the past five years, a new report says. 'There has been home price appreciation but because employment gains have been so strong in the region, it provides enough of an offset that if there was a home price decline, it's likely consumers would be able to weather it,' said Ivana Rupcic, economist for RBC Financial Group."

"The report doesn't specify what kind of jobs are growing on the Strand, but, statewide, the largest increase has been in construction - which is likely the case in Myrtle Beach, said Tom Maeser, president of the Fortune Academy of Real Estate. 'It's a dilemma if your high job growth is due to construction [jobs],' Maeser said."

From the State. "Home sales in the Upstate started to slip in September, mirroring a trend along the coast and in most of the nation, according to the South Carolina Association of Realtors. Five of six Upstate regions showed declines for September, compared to a year ago."

"The Piedmont region, which includes Rock Hill, York, Lancaster and Chester counties, showed the sharpest drop, at 34.5 percent."

"But Butch Brindel, CEO of the Piedmont Regional Association of Realtors, said the figure is an anomaly and home sales are strong in the region near rapidly growing Charlotte. 'Everybody’s talking about the housing bubble bursting,' he said. 'The bubble’s not bursting here.'"

"Nick Kremydas, head of the state Realtors group, said one reason for the declining numbers could be that investors, who have been pulling out along the coast, are now leaving other areas of the state, such as lake resort communities in some of the Upstate regions. 'The short-term investors have left the state,' he said. 'We can say that now statewide.'"