Here’s the latest South Tampa Real Estate Market Report!
I’m disappointed that there’s not much more to write about. I feel like it’s all been said, from the Evening News to the Tampa Bay Times to Saturday Night Live. So any more comments about Tampa’s answer to the Kardashians would be redundant. Besides, they may be selling their home soon, and I would like to handle their closing. If they do put their home on the market, they might be pleasantly surprised. The sustained recovery continues, fueled by sales at the upper end of the market and an inventory that continues to decline.
Check out the Sales By Price Range and you’ll see a big jump in the number of sales above $600,000. This is a trend we first saw in the spring as the housing recovery began climbing its way to the top of the real estate market. It’s this jump in the number of top end sales that resulted in a 21% increase in the Average Sales Price. Every indicator of price is on the upswing. My soon-to-be-graduate-of –Vanderbilt-with-a-degree in-economics-and-looking-for-a-job daughter tells me the true price indicator is a blend of all of these values, so if you’re looking for a number, I would say we’ve seen a price increase of around 16% over the past year. That’s a breath of fresh air, especially after 5 straight years of declining values.
Declining inventory is the other factor pushing up prices. With listings down and sales up, the Absorption Rate, which gauges the number of months to absorb the current number of listings, has dropped below six.
This is way less than the 14 we were looking at just two years ago, and it explains why good homes that are priced right are being swept up as soon as they hit the market. And the Number of Transactions continues its climb. October is not usually a blockbuster month for real estate, but sales last month in South Tampa exploded, with sales spiking 33% above last year. Sales are up 5% over the previous twelve months, and 23% above the 2010 levels.
All along we have defined a “sustained recovery” as a market in which both the number of transactions and the prices move upward over a sustained period of time. That’s where we’ve been for the last eight months, and every indicator shows a strong recovery is well in place.
What are your real estate predictions for 2013?
