It's not been easy living in Lake Bernadette. You're all too familiar with  the highs and the lows of the housing market and for a long time you've be at rock bottom.

But things might be looking up for Residents of Lake Bernadette.Over the last 6 months, 25 homes have sold in your fine community. The median sold price over this period has been a dismal $61 per sq.ft, and since the median sized home there is 2,014 sq.ft, 25 lucky buyers now own Lake Bernadette real estate for a median sold price of $122,000.

But the trends are looking up. There's been a steady increase in the number of homes sold each month for the last 6 months. Short sale activity is way down - only one Short Sale has closed over the last 6 months. And although the majority of sales are still Foreclosures (14 in total), 10 sales over the last 6 months were Conventional. Granted, most conventional sales were probably old foreclosures that were purchased by investors and flipped, but whoever is responsible for stabilizing the economy - whether investors or owner occupants - we'll take it!

Prices have also been heading up. They've been as low as $53/sq.ft and as high as $74/sq.ft, but the general trend is increasing. That means you should expect to see appraisals without the dreaded "declining market" emblazoned across the front before too long.  That's a welcome relief for any community.

Here's something we don't like - the average days for a property to sell is also increasing. It's up to 157 days over the last 6 months which says that the housing market is still not as free-flowing as it should be. Our goal is to see increasing prices, increasing sales, and days to sale of around 100 - then we'll have reason to believe that the market is really kicking along.

Recovery in the Tampa Bay housing market won't come evenly. Some communities will start to stabilize and increase even while other communities continue to bump along the bottom. But there are signs over the last 6 months that we've met the bottom and are slowly... slowly coming back in Lake Bernadette.

It's not going to be overnight, it's not going to be without declines here and there, but the Lake Bernadette housing market might be on the mend!