Housing bargains abound, but try closing the deal quickly

Matt and Brenda Wehrly can't wait to move out of their cramped apartment and into their first home. The couple, expecting their second child, plan to close on a 3-bedroom home in Gibsonton this month. The house sold in late 2005 for $222,800, and the Wehrlys are ecstatic about their contract to snatch it up for $97,000. Sweetening the pot even more, the couple will be eligible for an $8,000 federal tax credit. "We wanted to buy something that would allow us to live on one income," said Brenda Wehrly, who plans to eventually stay at home with her children. "We wouldn't have been able to do that a few years ago." Tampa Bay sales prices have plummeted more than 40 percent since the peak of the housing boom in 2006. That, coupled with federal tax incentives, is motivating buyers like the Wehrlys to get off the fence and purchase a home. This, real estate professionals say, has given a needed boost to Tampa Bay's struggling housing market.

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