Sales of Tampa Homes Pushed Up by Cash Buying and Seller Financing

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Market Trends, Miscellaneous, Mortgage / Finance, Real Estate

The banks are not approving many home loan applications, so prospective home buyers are resorting to seller financing and investors are producing cash to be able to snap up deeply discounted beautiful Tampa homes.

According to a study by online real estate services provider Trulia and the National Association of Realtors’ subsidiary Realtors Property Resource, the use of seller financing or owner financing is making a comeback. Trulia said that the number of home listings offering seller financing has been rising. It added that Michigan has the highest number, with around 1,600 home listings, followed by Florida.

With the states of California, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas also included in Trulia’s list, it can be presumed that the huge inventory of foreclosure homes have also been pushing owner-sellers to offer financing.

Additionally, Realtors Property Resource reported that nearly 53,000 homes across the U.S. were purchased in 2010 with financial help from the sellers themselves, accounting for 1.5 percent of all home sales in 2010. It also represented a whopping increase of 56 percent from the number of homes financed by owner-sellers in 2008.

Meanwhile, in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, half of all homes sold in the first months of 2011 were paid in cash, based on a report from the Greater Tampa Bay Association of Realtors and the Pinellas Realtor Organization. The share was much higher than the percentage of cash sales nationwide, which was 33 percent in February and 35 percent in March. Nationwide cash sales to investors in March represented 22 percent of total home sales, based on a NAR report.

In Pasco County, 59 percent were cash sales and in Pinellas, cash transactions represented 66 percent of total home sales, the highest share among the three Tampa Bay counties.
Low prices are pushing sales of Tampa homes, whether low-end or high-end, or whether foreclosures, new homes or non-foreclosure existing homes. The two realtor organizations said that over 2,500 houses in the three counties were priced below $50,000 in March.

Higher-priced homes also were offered at deep discounts to attract buyers, enabling Hillsborough homeowners and builders to sell over 1,500 homes at prices between $100,000 and $5 million.

Most Tampa homes and other homes in Hillsborough were sold in March at an average of $140,360, an increase of 3.78 percent from $135,376 in the previous month. Homes in Pasco were sold at an average of $132,000 while homes in Pinellas were sold at an average of $165,700.

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