Housing prices: no bottom in sight

TAMPA - A new report shows home prices are continuing to drop in the Bay Area, and experts say that means more people will find themselves owing more than their house is worth.

During the housing boom, Tampa Bay home prices rose 79 percent.

Now, after the bust, prices keep dropping as the housing market keeps looking for the bottom.

For a buyer, it may be a bargain. But for the seller Linda Calebro-Kuder, this home's value is a bust.

"Three hundred forty thousand dollars was the purchase price. I am selling it for 160," she said.

It's the kind of price plunge that keeps pulling Bay Area home prices down -- down more than six percent over the past year. It is leaving thousands of people "underwater," owing more on their home than it's worth.

"I think the stockpiles out there right now are quite vast. And there's so many houses to buy from, that it's kept the prices quite low," Calebro-Kuder said.

And attorney Charles Gallagher says people in default have been hampered by lenders and banks that won't modify a loan to an amount they can afford.

Now, record numbers of foreclosures properties are sold-off in courthouses all over the region. Some have even suggested that if you're far underwater in your home, just walk away and let the bank take it. Gallagher advises against that.

"A lot of folks are considering that, and with the possibility of a judgment, as well as losing the house, they kind of think twice and stop doing that," Gallagher said.

Gallagher says a foreclosure judgment can follow you for 20 years or more. Linda says feels fortunate. She's negotiated with her bank for a short sale, making the house caught up in the boom a bargain for the buyer.