Tampa Florida Real Estate Market Surpassing Expectations

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

The Tampa Florida real estate market has been proving to be among the strongest housing markets in the country. Several reports from the National Association of Realtors, Altos Research, the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors (GTAR) and other research firms show increases in home sales and sales prices and drops in inventory over the past months.

In the GTAR charts, Tampa housing inventory has been dropping mostly by the hundreds, from a high of 21,777 units in November 2007 to just 9,857 units in October this year. That’s a substantial drop of 55 percent!  More than half.

According to Altos Research, Tampa’s housing inventory dropped by nearly 10 percent from July to August this year, the biggest drop rate in inventory among all major real estate markets. In October this year, the housing inventory dropped by 9.8 percent over the month and fell by a staggering 40.4 percent over the year.

Why is the continuous month-over-month drop in Tampa’s housing inventory significant? Because it meant that less and less Tampa homes for sale are available for buyers, pushing the values of houses higher. In October this year, the average sales price increased over the year, from $151,253 in October last year to $151,779, according to GTAR. The increases in 2011 were more substantial in the months of June, August and September, when average sales prices increased to $$162,494, $157,981 and $160,311, respectively.

The high level of the most popular price range for owner-buyers of single-family homes and villas also affirm the strength of the Tampa Florida real estate market. From January to October, the price range with the biggest number of units sold was the $200,000 to $249,999 price range. A total of 1,298 Tampa homes were sold at a price within this bracket over the 10-month period.

The price range with the biggest sales was $49,999 and below, but this range included a lot of investment homes, indicating that a number of buyers individually purchased more than one unit and spent much more than $49,999.

For all types of Tampa homes, the price range of $100,000 to $119,999 had the second biggest sales, with 1,515 units posted as sold. Following was the $120,000 to $139,999 price range, with a total of 1,505 units sold. As always the case, single-family homes were more popular than all other types of housing, with nearly 14,000 single-family units out of 19,055 units sold in the ten-month period.

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