Sarasota TRIM notice (loans, house, buying)

[d4g4m]

Sarasota property owners received their non-ad valorem tax notice last week. The amounts are about the same as last year.
Today, Sarasota property owners received their TRIM notice. There's good news and bad news.
The good news is that even with the 'required' 3% increase in assessed value, the offset of the additional $25,000 homestead exemption kept our taxes even or a few hundred dollars less than last year.
The bad news is that the market value of our homes took a nose dive. The property appraiser decided that my house is valued 20.6% less than the previous year [1/1/07 to 1/1/08] I'm wondering how that number was determined. Did all property value in Sarasota decrease by 20.6%?
I've seen where banks are freezing accounts of home owners with HELOC loans because of the decreasing values.
What's disturbing to me about the huge decrease is that my 'save our homes' portibility amount dropped from $108000 to $62000. I was hoping to apply the $108000 to the purchase of another home to keep taxes somewhere around what I am currently paying. The save our home amount is deducted from the just market value of the house you purchase to determine the new assessed value of the home you purchase. I guess the only thing I can hope for is that a house I want to purchase also had a 20.6% decline in value.
Any thoughts from the RE people on here as to how they think these new evaluations will affect asking/selling prices for those looking to sell their home, buying a new one? Will the market take longer to improve or will buyers be looking for bargains?