Miguel and Emma Aguilar have had their lakefront house in Southwest Miami-Dade on the market for two years. Given that they are asking $375,000 for the peach stucco property, the couple expect it to be another two years before it sells.

While South Florida home sales continue registering strong gains, roughly three-quarters of the properties changing hands are priced at less than $300,000. Homes offered for less than $100,000 are sparking bidding wars and now routinely selling for more than their list prices.

In October, the median single-family home price in Miami-Dade was down 28 percent to $178,500 compared with a year ago, according to figures released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors. In Broward, the median sale price fell 16 percent to $211,600. The median condo price in Miami-Dade was down 30 percent to $138,400 and 28 percent in Broward to $83,200. Since the first of the year, however, median prices for both homes and condos have bounced within a range of roughly $30,000, suggesting a bottoming out, at least at the lower end. While the median may be stabilizing, recovery may still be a long way off for homes in higher price categories.

As values have fallen, those homes have stacked up, as first-time buyers and investors gobble up the steals while others are sidelined by difficulties in getting loans for pricier properties.

In Miami-Dade, sales of homes priced at $300,000 or more were down by more than 25 percent between August and October, compared with the same three months a year ago.

The market for so-called jumbo loans, or those worth more than $423,750 in South Florida, dried up more than two years ago, said mortgage broker Grant Stern.

Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors in Coral Gables, said three-quarters of houses sold between August through October in Miami-Dade were priced under $300,000. Twenty-three precent of sales were for homes listed under $100,000, even though they represented only 8 percent of all listings, he said.

``Price trends at the low end of the market have been positive, absolutely,'' said Chris Vlad, president of Alpha One Real Estate, a Hollywood-based appraisal company that mainly works for lenders. ``If you move into the higher price ranges, those are areas that are still very weak.''

Vlad said he expected higher-priced homes to depreciate another 12 to 24 percent during the next year.

Sales of existing single-family homes were up 26 percent in Miami-Dade County and 32 percent in Broward County in October compared with a year ago. Month-to-month, sales fell 8 percent in Miami from 619 in September to 571 in October, however. In Broward, the number rose from 800 to 826, a 3 percent increase.

Condo sales exceeded single-family sales in October, however. In Miami-Dade, they were up 47 percent over a year ago and 68 percent in Broward. Month-to-month sales in Miami-Dade rose 5 percent. In Broward, they rose 7 percent.

That compares with a national increase of 10 percent from September to October in home sales overall. Realtors credited the unexpected pop to the pending expiration of the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, as buyers hurried to close before the deadline. Earlier this month, Congress extended the credit to April 30 and expanded it to include a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who qualify.

To understand the pricing dynamic, Shuffield said, analysts look at the supply of homes for sale as the most important indicator of market health, because it gauges demand relative to supply. It's calculated by dividing the number of homes listed for sale by the number of homes sold in the most recent month.

Typically, when the supply of homes for sale stands at a year or more, prices tend to fall. With a six- to nine-month supply, prices remain flat. When the supply drops below six months, sales activity begins to spur price appreciation, as it has for recent homes priced under $100,000.

The recession caveat: the bulging pipeline of homes not yet listed for sale by banks and homes still snaking through the foreclosure process will likely continue delivering tens of thousands of properties to the market over the next year.

Below is sampling of the supply of houses listed for sale in Miami-Dade in October, according to the MLS:

• Under $100,000: four-month supply;

• Under $300,000: eight-month supply;

• $300,000 to $1 million: 21-month supply;

• Over $1 million: four-year supply.

The supply of condos for sale is much greater in each category in Miami-Dade, indicative of the condo glut. In Broward, the supply in each group is smaller, but roughly proportionate.

Shari Olefson, a real estate attorney with Fowler White Boggs in Fort Lauderdale and author of Foreclosure Nation: Mortgaging the American Dream, said would-be buyers of higher-priced homes don't have the same incentive to enter the market as first-timers, since many presumably already own properties. And more of those homeowners are facing foreclosure as the job market worsens.

The Aguilars, owners of the peach stucco house offered for $375,000, said they're hanging on and riding out the storm.

``We've gotten more questions -- mainly from buyers from other countries, but potential buyers are finding something cheaper,'' Miguel Aguilar said.