Buy a foreclosed property for sale in Tampa, Florida where home price discounts are almost double the nationwide median discount.

According to an online real estate research company, the negotiating power of home buyers nationwide has dropped in August because of tighter supply of homes for sale in some markets, but in Florida, homebuyers still have great negotiating power.

Throughout the country, home buyers received a median discount of 3 percent or $6,525 from the listing price in August, a decrease from the median discount of 3.3 percent or $7,018 received by home buyers in July.

But in the Tampa metro area, homebuyers received much higher discounts in August. The median discount was $10,320, equivalent to 5.9 percent, which is almost double the nationwide median price discount.

Among the counties in the Tampa Bay area, Sarasota gave the highest level of discount to homebuyers, cutting off $19,782 or nearly 8 percent of the listing price. Sarasota also ranked third in price discounts compared to all metro areas in the country, next to Vero Beach and the Naples metro area.

Economists said homebuyer negotiating power is an indication of the current supply of homes in an area. With the continued entry of foreclosure properties into the Tampa Bay market, an investor looking for a profitable home can buy a foreclosed property for sale in the Tampa area and obtain substantial discounts.

While the national median discount is much higher than the median in the Tampa area, home price discounts nationwide are expected to rise again because of the expected release of foreclosures by lenders in the coming months.

One significant finding in the report is the behavior of home prices in August in two California areas hit badly by foreclosures. In Stockton, the city considered the symbol of the first wave of the foreclosure crisis, home buyers in August did not get a discount, but instead paid higher than the listing price by a median of 1.3 percent or $2,515. In El Centro, homebuyers paid 2.2 percent or $2,479 more than the listing price.

According to the home price discount report, the negotiating power of home buyers reached its highest level in January when home buyers received a discount of 4.5 percent or $10,096 from the listing price, providing any buyer of a low-priced foreclosed property for sale with further discounts and further profit opportunities.

A total of 101 unsold condominium units in the 15-story Jenny Tower in the Miami area will be auctioned off after Carles Properties failed to pay its $19.3 million loan owed to Miami-based Mellon United National Bank.

Carles took out a loan of $20.3 million in 2006 to build the 115-unit condo tower and completed it only last year, when the market is already collapsing. It sold only 14 units, which had a pre-development price of $206,000 to $376,000.

The condo units will be sold through public sale in January next year, based on Miami-Dade County Court records.

Another foreclosed condo complex is the 373-unit Oaks at Biscayne Landing condominium tower in North Miami. The developer, Boca Developers, decided on a friendly foreclosure so it will turn over the complex to its New York-based lender iStar Financial and will no longer contest the foreclosure after failing to pay its loan of $29.9 million.

The Oaks condo, located on a former dumping site along Biscayne Bay, was completed in 2007. It was able to sell around 200 units. Before the market collapsed, iStar planned Oaks as its launching project for a total of nearly 6,000 residential units on 188 acres in North Miami.

Another residential development in foreclosure is the Sion Estates project in the western portion of Miami-Dade County. The residential project will be sold off through a public sale after the developer, Sion Estates LLC, failed to pay its loan of $3.5 million.

In 2007, Sion Estates took out a loan of $3.9 million from Miami-based Premier American Bank to further improve the project which it acquired for $1.4 million in 2006.

The 2.6-acre Sion Estates project, run by managing partners Roy Nardinedat and Victora Ortega, planned to develop 21 residences but it had only partially built some of them. The project would be sold through public sale in August in the courthouse of Miami-Dade County.

Another recent foreclosure is the seven-story Porto Alegre condo tower foreclosed by Great Eastern Bank of Florida after the developer failed to pay its $3.9 million loan balance.

According to housing analysts, the pace of condo foreclosures in the Miami area and in other parts of Florida is soaring because of the record numbers of low-priced houses across Florida that took away the attention of potential condo buyers.

Last month, sales of single family homes rose by 16 percent to 1,180, compared with 1,013 for the same month a year ago, and 18 percent higher from May 1,002. Industry experts said that about 1,622 purchase agreements were signed last month, up by 42 percent compared with the same month last year.

They attributed the sales increase to the volume of cheap foreclosed properties, low mortgage rates and the $8,000 federal tax credit given to eligible first-time homebuyers. They added that pending home sales are significant indicator of future sales increases.

However, foreclosure homes or short sales accounted for a large share in home sales, pushing the median home sale price in Jacksonville below $200,000.

Last month’s median home sale price was $162,100, representing a decline of 18 percent from the $197,000 in June last year. Since September last year, the median sale price in Jacksonville range from $146,000 to $173,000.

Industry experts said that low-priced short sales and distressed properties are great deals because they push up sales in the area, adding that buyers can purchase houses for less than the amount paid for five years ago.

They also said that relocation, which is the trend during summer, could have contributed to sales increases in the area. Furthermore, the federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers under the stimulus plan of the Obama Administration has helped fuel sales increases.

Another positive note pointed out by Northeast Florida Builders Association was the increase in housing starts last month which was the highest since the 300 posted in September 2008.

Statewide, sales of existing homes increased for 10 succeeding months. Year-to-year sales rose by 28 percent to 15,850 compared with the 12,339 total properties sold June of last year. Jacksonville ranked fourth statewide in total home sales, following Orlando, St. Petersburg and Fort Myers.

However, the almost 1,000 increase in the number of notices of foreclosed properties filed last month, totaling 3,460, prompted industry experts to say that the housing market in Jacksonville metropolitan area is far from a full recovery.

The Sunshine state is said to have an abundance of trash, uncut grass and broken fences—definite characteristics of abandoned and foreclosed homes. The said situation does not only play a negative impact on the aesthetic appeal of the state. The low assessment value that the foreclosed properties have been putting in also affected its economy.

But Florida still has a reason to smile. The office of the Housing and Urban Development has placed Florida under its Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Plans to give the state an amount of more than $140 million are well on its way. As of press time, member cities across the US are working to straighten out plans of spending the money for maximum use.

Initial steps to identify foreclosed homes are part of the rehabilitation plans. Properties than can still stand tests of time are planned to be repaired and granted as repossessed houses to qualified first-home buyers.

One of the individuals who work with the redevelopment of South Florida cities, Marty Larsen, said that the program could have long term positive effects. The rehabilitation will focus on removing abandoned foreclosures and restoring neighborhoods. Such steps, according to Larsen, will provide local municipalities with a lot of benefits.

Sighting the condition of a number of the foreclosed units, Larsen said that parts of the federal money that Florida will receive is planned to be use to hire workers that would fix houses and the state of the environment in the area. Some of the foreclosed units in Florida have serious conditions like disgusting water systems.

Although the receipt of the federal money cannot promise to completely solve the problem of foreclosure properties, residents of the state are still positive about the program. Communities are expected to receive the fund by mid January of the next year.