Jun. 6--LAKELAND -- Home sales picked up and unemployment fell slightly in April, providing some encouraging signs for the local economy, according to The Ledger's monthly Polk County Business Barometer.

But one area economist says Florida's recovery is still a ways off.

A total 347 existing homes were sold here in April, increasing from 280 the year before and 341 in March, according to the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service.

It was the county's highest monthly total since May 2007, when 367 homes were sold.

Polk's median sales price in April was $112,600, down 21 percent from a year ago, the Florida Association of Realtors reported.

The ongoing declines in sale prices reflect a high number of distressed properties being sold at heavy discounts.

In April, 63 percent of Polk's sales were bank-owned or pre-foreclosure properties, according to the Tampa-based real estate consultantcy Home Encounter.

As for home construction, local builders pulled just 68 permits for new homes in April, marking the lowest monthly figure in Ledger records dating to 1993.

But the combination of increasing of home sales and little new construction means that Polk and other Florida counties are chipping away at unsold inventories, said Orlando economist Stan Geberer.

"The faster the housing markets can get back to equilibrium the faster new construction projects can get underway," said Geberer, an economist with the Fishkind & Associates research firm. "When new construction projects resume, we'll begin to see some growth in the economy.

"The Florida (economic) recovery may lag the national recovery because Florida was more deeply affected by the causes of the recession, which were in housing and finance," he added.

Polk's job market recorded a 10.3 unemployment rate in April, up sharply from 5.0percent the year before but down from 10.6 percent in March, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

The county had 9,700 fewer jobs than it did in April 2008, with only health care, education and government producing gains. Polk had 1,700 fewer jobs than it did in March.

In addition, Jacobs Engineering announced layoffs of 70 employees from its Lakeland office in April, just asInternational Paper announced the closure of its Auburndale plant, which employs 94.

For tourism revenue, April sales of hotel and vacation home rentals totaled roughly $13.7 million, compared to $16.9 million the year prior, the Polk County Tax Collector's reported.

No new data on taxable retail sales was available from the Florida Department of Revenue.

[ Kyle Kennedy can be reached at kyle.kennedy@theledger.com or 863-802-7584. ]

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