Available Homes for Sale in Tampa Fl Continue to Drop, Prices Continue to Rise

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

The number of homes for sale in Tampa Fl is still falling. In March, the inventory was again lower than that of the previous month, based on data from the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors (GTAR).

Home listings in the Tampa Bay area have been in decline since May 2007 when inventory reached its peak and then started its slide in the following month, June 2007.

There were some months over the five-year period since 2007 when the inventory went up over the month, but it just quickly went down the following month.  From the peak of  22,035 available homes for sale in Tampa Fl in May 2007, the Tampa area inventory is now down to only about one-third. At the end of March, the inventory was only 8,135 units. That’s a sharp drop of more than 63 percent from the peak in 2007.

Here is a summary of available homes for sale in the Tampa area in the month of March since 2008:

March 2008	21,621 units
March 2009	18,862 units
March 2010	15,843 units
March 2011	14,909 units
March 2012	8,135 units

For the first three months of this year, the housing inventory trend was as follows:

January 2012	10,209 units
February 2012	9,371 units
March 2012	8,135 units

As the inventory decreased this year, the listing and sales prices increased.
Apparently, the sellers have been noticing the diminishing inventory. From a 7.2-month supply in January, the inventory has dropped to a 4.1-month supply. Based on interviews with several realtors in the area, there are now a lot of pre-approved sellers ready to buy but could not find the home they’re looking for in their desired community.

The average listing price in March was $162,588 and the average sales price was $153,748. The March 2012 listing price rose by more than three percent over the month while the sales price increased by 2.42 percent.

Sales of most types of homes increased in March compared to February and January. The number of sold single-family homes and villas increased to 1,459 units, up from 1,252 in February and from 1,051 in January. Sales of condos, co-ops and townhomes rose to 421 units, up from 369 in February and from 304 in January.

The $200,000 to $250,000 sales price range continued to be the most popular in March among buyer-occupants of single-family homes and villas. Second and third most popular were the $120,000 to $140,000 and the $100,000 to $120,000 sales price ranges.

Overall, the price range with the highest number of single-family units sold was the less-than-$50,000 range, as this price range represented investment houses — the ones that are usually bought by investors in bulk and in cash.

Look at homes for sale in Tampa Fl now before they’re gone.  Contact Tampa4U.com.