By Matt Donegan

Staff writer

Last week's finalization of a deal to bring the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies to Port St. Lucie came as positive post housing boom news for the president of the Realtors Association of St. Lucie County.

With the Torrey Pines agreement, the county has cast a lure for other high-tech firms to bite on. The company and its potential spin-offs would in turn bolster the area's cooling housing market, said Jerry Mabus, a broker with All Florida Realty Services.

"That's an economic engine," Mr. Mabus said of Torrey Pines. "It's so positive. It's not just the state or the country looking at Port St. Lucie, but the entire world bio-tech industry. When they start asking, 'What's so special about Port St. Lucie,' they come find out. When they see, they're going to stay."

Torrey Pines alone will bring 189 jobs to Port St. Lucie over the next decade, and there's no telling how many more could be created by potential spin-off companies. Naturally, scientists and employees would need a place to live.

A ceremony celebrating the Torrey Pines agreement was held Sept. 26, one day after the Florida Association of Realtors issued its monthly market report showing continuing declines in sales and prices throughout the state.

The report shows that the metropolitan statistical area of Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie recorded 387 Realtor sales of existing single-family homes in August, down 48 percent from the 741 recorded for the same period last year. The median sales prices in August was $251,900, a 6 percent decrease compared to the August 2005 price of $267,600.

Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie Realtors sold 84 condominiums in August, 26 percent fewer than the 113 they sold in August 2005. But median condo sale prices are up 15 percent, from $197,900 to $226,700.

Statewide, Realtor sales of existing single-family homes were down , and so far are down 27 percent over last year. Median sale prices, however, are up 9 percent so far this year over 2005, though most areas showed declines in August. Statewide, realtor sales of existing condos are down 31 percent this year, 41 percent in August.

Because the real estate industry has never experienced a boom like the one that fizzled out toward the end of last year, even the experts have difficulty judging how long the market will go on cooling.

"We experienced an amateur investor feeding frenzy here last year where people were paying above market prices," Mr. Mabus said. "We saw prices escalate at an unbelievable rate. Will it settle back down? Sure. How much, I don't know. A 10 or 15 percent decrease would be a tolerable number."

Meanwhile, some of those same amateur investors are bailing out, and others with relatively low starting wages are being priced out of the market, Mr. Mabus said. At the same time, people from the north are still willing to pay $200,000 for a home that was valued at $100,000 five years ago.

"In Chicago, my son lives in a brick bungalow, built in 1938, on a lot 25-feet wide and 25-feet deep. It just appraised $550,000. When the folks up north come down here and look at what they can buy for $250,000, they don't even blink, they just do it," Mr. Mabus said. "That's going to bring values up all the time. Interest rates and unemployment rates still so low play a positive role in where we're heading," he added.