Tampa Real Estate Report: September 2013

The Greater Tampa Association of Realtors releases a monthly report detailing Real Estate market statistics for the Tampa Bay area.

The first thing most people say when I mention that I am a Realtor is that they have heard that the market is heating up.  That is definitely true in the Tampa market.  Homes are staying on the market for less time and the average home sales price is increasing year over year.

For the month of September, of the 2,026 homes that were sold in the Tampa Bay area, the average sales price was $201,759, up from $175,642 last year at this time.  If you are thinking of putting your home up for sale, the average time it will take to generate an acceptable offer on your home is 62 days, down from 85 a year ago.

As home prices and average days on market are increasing and decreasing respectively, inventory is also becoming also becoming constrained.  Just 3 years ago, there were 16,375 properties on the market, as of September 2013 the were a little over 8,000.

This constraint in inventory is what has caused a sellers' market to emerge.  Multiple offers are common and as a buyer you have to be looking to put your best offer forward for the home of your dreams.

As I wrote in a post earlier this week, analysts are expecting a large chunk of US homeowners to break out of negative equity on their homes in the next year.  This is leading to an expectation of an increase in the number of homes on the market in the next year which will cause home price growth to taper off.  The important thing to realize is that we are in year two of a long term housing market recovery and will see an ebb and flow of the seller/buyer market before it stabilizes.

Need help navigating the current Real Estate Market?  Visit Mike Galovic Homes to get tips on the home buying and selling processes.