"None of us are expecting a boom. We're expecting the bottom to flatten out and move forward from here," said Tim McWilliams, president of the Melbourne Area Association of Realtors. "That's the key thing -- to get a bottom in.

"The fear in the market will go away."

Those 438 existing homes sold last month for a median price of $125,200, a 26 percent decline from the median price in December 2007. For all of 2008, the median price in Brevard was $153,400, 21 percent less than 2007's figure.

Cursed by home sellers, this steady and substantial decline is opening the market to more people, Realtors say. And as more buy and the yawning inventory of unsold homes gets smaller, prices could begin to rise.

But first things first.

McWilliams said that yearly median price of about $153,000 is affordable for the average family.

"That's right in the sweet spot. That's a perfect place for it to be," he said. "The buyers are starting to jump off the fence. The phones are ringing and things are looking up."

Realtor Cindy Kelly, past president of the Space Coast Association of Realtors, has seen an uptick in residential sales since Jan. 1. She has sold several homes to families who were motivated by the new, lower prices.

"We've now got affordable housing. That's good for companies that want to relocate here," Kelly said. "Their employees can actually afford to purchase a home."

McWilliams is optimistic that President Obama's economic stimulus, currently working its way through Congress, will begin to work this year and help turn around the housing market.

"I think we'll see a bottom this year," He said. "By the second half of this year it should turn around."

Working against this view is the fact that large numbers of foreclosures will continue for at least another year, said commercial Realtor Jim Johnston, president of the Space Coast Association of Realtors.

"I think it's too early for a bottom," he said. "I think that everything is going to improve in relationship to the absorption of the foreclosures and the exiting inventory."

Kelly also thinks foreclosures, which have surged to unprecedented levels this year on the Space Coast, will continue. But favorable interest rates and affordable home prices will act as somewhat of a counterbalance.

Statewide, existing-home sales rose 27 percent last month to 11,053 compared with December 2007, the fourth consecutive month that sales showed gains in year-to-year comparisons, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

Florida's median home price last month was $155,500, down 27 percent from the year-ago figure of $213,600.

Nationally, sales of existing homes rose 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.74 million in December, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million in November, the National Association of Realtors said. The median price fell to $175,400 last month, down 15.3 percent from $207,00.

For the full year, sales of existing homes declined 13 percent nationally.