On the surface, South Florida's home prices appear to be bottoming out, but a dip in the number of bank-owned properties for sale is leading analysts to conclude that lenders may be slowing the flow of foreclosures to the market as a way of stanching further price declines.

Monthly numbers from the Florida Association of Realtors show that South Florida existing-home sales continued to rise in June, as bank-owned homes and short-sales attracted bargain hunters from across the country. Figures released Thursday showed single-family home sales were up by 54 percent in Miami-Dade and 35 percent in Broward, compared to last year.

Median single-family home prices were down again since June of last year, falling 28 percent in Miami-Dade and 33 percent in Broward. But they have strengthened from April prices. The median price is the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less.

The apparent leveling out of prices is being attributed to two things: a shrinking number of distressed homes entering the market and a larger share of high-priced homes changing hands, according to real-estate analysts and brokers.

Condo sales were up in both counties, too -- by 19 percent in Miami-Dade and 58 percent in Broward. Median condo prices, however, fell by 49 percent in Miami-Dade to $141,000 from $275,600 the previous year and by 46 percent in Broward to $83,900 from $156,200 a year ago.

Over the past six months, however, intriguing trends have begun to emerge in the month-to-month numbers.

The median single-family home price in Miami-Dade has, in fact, risen for the past three months, climbing from $177,000 in April to $194,700 in May and $211,400 in June. In Broward, the median in April was $191,300, followed by $190,000 in May and $204,800 in June.

BENEATH THE SURFACE

On the condo front, the median price in Broward has bounced between $85,000 and $80,000 since January and between $149,000 and $140,000 in Miami-Dade, a trend that would appear to suggest prices may be hitting a bottom.

However, listings of bank-owned homes and short-sales -- in which a home is sold for less than the mortgage owed -- fell from 44 percent in May to 39 percent in June, according to Ron Shuffield, a Coral Gables-based real-estate analyst and president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Realtors.

And sales of these so-called distressed properties dropped from roughly 60 percent in May to 54 percent in June.

Brokers say fewer well-priced foreclosures on the market are now routinely sparking bidding wars. Bank-owned homes in hot condos and neighborhoods are going under contract within days.

Anthony Askowitz, a real-estate broker in Kendall, said his bank-owned listings had fallen from about 150 last June to just 37 today.

``I am getting less foreclosure listings, but, at the same, time, I am selling them so much faster. I can't replace them as fast as I am selling them,'' said Askowitz, adding that he had listed a unit in the Club at Brickell Bay at $174,900 on Thursday and received an all-cash offer the same day.

Lenders, some real-estate lawyers and analysts believe, may be behind the trend as they either inadvertently drag out the foreclosure process or hold back the release of foreclosures for sale to the public.

Either way, the smaller numbers could be curbing further price declines, since analysts say home prices will not recover until the high numbers of distressed properties are cleared from the market.

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