SI Real Estate Tampa and The Beaches

Real Estate Season - Home Buying and Selling Hot Springtime Demand About To Start!     The first month of each year when home buying starts to heat up is always April. Experts at the Florida Association of Realtors are expecting the next 4 months (April to July) to have the highest number of buyer and seller transactions all year. Considering real estate transactions have already started this year off at an extremely fast pace, it is exciting to think about the upcoming spring season of 2016.   Sellers will remain in the driver’s seat at all pricing levels. Inventory of homes around $100 to $125K are sparse and extremely competitive, down 8.6% since January of last year. At this price point, there are typically investor type properties needing work and / or updating. You can also find homes and townhomes that attract first time homebuyers looking to step into the real estate market. Overall inventory has been sub 4 month levels all year long here in Florida, a...

Real Estate Pulse 2016: Short Supply Continues to Push Home Prices Up It’s no secret that for the past 6-8 months the supply of single family homes has been well below average. Here in the Florida market, the lack of homes to purchase is causing a buyer frenzy. Specifically in the Tampa Bay and Miami housing markets, the shortage is readily apparent. Prices have shot up  alread y  in the beginning of 2016 as both first time home buyers and move up buyers struggle to find what they want without paying a supply shortage premium. Shoppers are also having to compete with other buyers when they do locate a property that fits their needs. Closed sales in the first part of 2016 have drastically outnumbered the amount of properties put on the market in Tampa Bay as well as statewide in Florida. This has further reduced the supply of available homes, forcing prices to jump up in a hurry. All of the large counties in our area: Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Pinellas h...

Now that the Real Estate industry has final numbers from 2015, they are releasing that data and the subsequent results of last year. As we have reported many times throughout the last 12 months, 2015 was a very strong year in the housing market. After reflecting on 2015, FL Realtors President Matey Veissi states “Florida’s economy is in growth mode, more jobs are being created and mortgage interest rates remain at historically low levels which will continue to drive the state’s housing market in 2016.” Let’s see what else the 2015 FL housing market report says and the impressive numbers it contains. We are going to grade the major indicators we talk about and how we feel they did in the last year’s market.   Total closed sales on existing homes  is always a leading indicator for housing market experts. In 2015, there were 274,769 resale transactions! That is an increase of 12.4% from 2014, which is enormous. On the pricing side of resales, there was another sharp increas...

SI Real Estate Tampa Bay is excited to see what 2016 has in store for the housing market. We were pleasantly surprised with the uptick in real estate activity in 2015. Of course everyone is turning the page to the New Year, and consumers are contemplating what to expect in the housing market. The professionals here at SI Real Estate fully believe this year will be an even better one, eclipsing the fantastic turn-around last year that took place throughout the US. Some of the key reasons for this that we are going to talk about: interest rates/lending, inventory, and pricing. Interest rates have been historically low since the recession began. They are still extremely attractive, even with the negligible increase last month. Yes there should be at least a couple more increases in 2016, but they will likely be small bumps like the quarter point increase in December. This is not expected to affect the attitude of home buyers and will actually help strengthen the economy. Lending...

Big gains in March Home Sales Florida and National market is heating up in 2015 SI Real Estate has been monitoring and reporting the increased activity in the housing market this year. Last month we reported about skyrocketing first quarter new home sales. This month all of the home-sales reports, including both new homes and resale homes echo those same sentiments. Some of the markets reporting sharp rises in March 2015 home sales include the following: Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Atlanta, San Antonio, Jacksonville, Houston, and Seattle. The Real Estate market in Florida has been scorching hot, especially in Miami, Boca Raton and Tampa Bay. Our neighbors to the North (Georgia) are also seeing the same trends. Nancy See, of Atlanta Fine Homes says “I’m seeing a lot of multiple-offer scenarios when a house is well-priced… Buyers are having to act very quickly to get the house they want. It’s almost like a buying frenzy”. This type of great news has not been reported since ...

For those that do not know, “shadow inventory” refers to the real estate property inventory that is either in foreclosure and has not been sold, or properties that have been withheld from the active market with hopes of a price improvement.  With seller uncertainty of the best time to list properties, this shadow inventory causes data on housing inventory to understate the actual inventory levels in the real estate market. High levels of shadow inventory, especially in the form of underwater, modified, and delinquent mortgages, pose as a significant factor to the recovery of the housing market, but refinancing and strong investor demand for distressed properties have helped bring many properties out from the shadows and into the sunlight.   Active, Pending, and SOLD! As the largest quarter-over-quarter decrease since the beginning of the credit crisis, shadow inventory dropped from 3.28 million loans in Q1 of 2013 to 2.99 million in Q2. This represents a 35% dr...

Recent data released by Florida Realtors Association indicates that the Florida housing report for Q1 was quite favorable. In fact, sales, pending sales, median prices, and closings all saw increases! Single family homes, townhomes, and condo properties experienced increases in median sales price, which is the 15th consecutive month we have seen such an increase in Florida! All of this real estate activity continues while housing inventory and mortgage rates remain extremely low. Home buyers are feeling the constraints of the low levels of inventory, especially in the new home purchase arena. Prices continue to climb, some on a month-to-month basis and others less frequently. The median days on the market for a home to sell has dipped down to only 57 days for single-family homes and 61 days for townhomes / condo properties. At least 50% of the homes in Florida re selling in less than 2 months, GREAT NEWS! Closed property sales, typically 30-90 days after buyers and sellers go t...

In today’s real estate market many industry professionals are dealing with the lowest level of housing inventory in many years to show their ready and anxious home buyers. On both a national level and locally in Tampa Bay, we have experienced the effects of the dwindling inventory as it relates to real estate options. We are frequently encountering multiple offer scenarios and bidding wars between buyers and sellers requesting highest and best offer.  New home construction is gaining tremendous momentum and offers home buyers enormous options and appeal. Various areas of Tampa, Florida are on the right side of this opportunity.  We have always enjoyed the benefits of newly developing communities, new home starts, and luxury of turning to new homes as viable options for our home buyers. The U.S. census reported that about 36.5 million people moved into a new home in 2012! The demand for homes in Tampa, Florida is clearly up and mounting. Last year concluded on a high...

Many real estate home owners have been waiting for the right time to sell their homes. Some stated reasons are that the market has not completed the correction, or they are waiting for home prices to continue to rise. These reasons often draw attention because some are not entirely up to the minute with real estate market pulse and how favorable the conditions are for sellers in today’s real estate arena. Now more than ever, inventory levels have fallen more than 68% here in Tampa, Florida.  Available homes on the national level fell almost 2 million units last year!  Simple supply and demand would tell home sellers that your property is worth more because inventory is down. A national home data provider, Corelogic reported that home prices haven’t jumped this much in the last 6.5 years, and that this is mainly due to current tight home inventory. The end of 2012 showed an 8.3% increase from the prior year, an annual gain that hasn’t been felt since May 2006! Cor...

While more and more positive real estate news trickles in, we examine some of the direct causes of these seemingly endless, yet favorable outcomes. Housing inventory has waned over the last year . So much so, that we have seen the amount of homes available on the national level drop by about 1.8 million units.  At a more local level, Tampa, Florida has seen a dramatic decrease of 68% in home inventory!  So we ask, why so low?  Well, about 22% of homeowners remain underwater with their mortgages. Sellers are usually deterred from listing their home if they have to bring cash to the table or embark on a short sale. Now that home values are finally bouncing back, both home values and the amount of sellers who owe more than their property is worth are two factors that will continue to have an impact on home inventory. Investors are always trying to grab the best deals that produce the highest returns. This usually involves paying cash for real estate pur...

We are constantly being reminded about the condition of the real estate market, both nationally and locally. No matter which media outlet you choose to ingest, you are most likely seeing, hearing and wondering what is up and what is down, and more importantly, what it means for you. Here is a brief recap of some figures to keep in mind. What’s Up : We have heard this for the last few months of 2012 and will continue to hear that home building is on the uptick. Up almost 40% from the previous year, home start are on the rise. At the most recent International Home Builders Show in Las Vegas, the National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist, David Crowe said, “Nearly every measure of housing market strength – sales, starts, permits,  and builder confidence – all have been trending upward in recent months and we expect to see steady growth to continue in 2013.” Home prices also continue to rise. On a national level, we ended up with a 5.6% increase from la...

A report published by the web based real estate company, Zillow, shows that the amount of homes for sale fell by 19.4% in the last year! Zillow divided the statistics by price tiers. The greatest reduction of inventory has come from the top two tiers. Three metro areas of Florida made the list with Tampa, showing a year over reduction of 19.8% for the top tier, and 23.3% for the mid-tier homes. The overall average reduction in inventory was 22.9% for Tampa Florida real estate market. This should make it easy for fence sitters who are waiting on the sideline for the “right time” to list their homes. Those who have questioned selling their home for the last year are beginning to realize that they missed the bottom a while back and may be scrambling to catch up. As far as buyers are concerned, the time has passed for them to offer $10,000 under listing price. The days of low ball offers are over. Buyers are now starting to participate in bidding wars over properties that used...

Real Estate inventory could not keep up with the demand for homes during the month of July. This is now the fifth month in a row we have seen a correlation between supply and demand that is favorable to a thriving real estate market. The National Association of Realtors reported that the national median home price is up 9.4% from a year ago at this time, which is the strongest gain since January 2006! Our local Tampa, Florida real estate market has seen gains even higher than the national average and boasts a 12.4% increase in median sale prices from a year over perspective. Sales of existing homes are also up 10.4 % from this time one year ago. Chief economist for the NAR said, “Mortgage rates have been at record lows this year while rents have been rising at faster rates. Combined, these factors are helping unleash a pent-up demand.” The demand stems from a 23.8% decrease in listing inventory from a year ago and looks like it will continue to fall. Not only are homes being sold ...

Pulse 1 ~The Buyers Real Estate Market Local, national and international buyers are purchasing real estate here in the Tampa Bay area and around Florida like there is no tomorrow. The real estate market is booming with sales. Real estate prices are fantastic, mortgage interest rates are great, and people are taking advantage of the opportunities that are available. At this point in time, it is becoming more the norm to have multiple offers on properties for sale, indicative of the swarm of buyers into our real estate marketplace in Tampa Bay. First-time home buyers, along with move-up or repeat home buyers, and local and international investors are all jumping in with both feet to get their piece of the action during these unprecedented times. Pulse 2 ~The Real Estate Rental Market In an article titled, Cheaper to Buy Than to Rent in 72% of Largest U.S. Cities by Inman News dated January 24, 2011, “Despite the rising number of renters across the country, it is cheaper to buy...

An interesting thing is happening in the Tampa Bay real estate market. Have you tried to put a contract out on a house that is unbelievably priced only to find that there are already several offers on the table? If so, you are not alone. Housing inventory is drying up. The drastic dip in supply is due to several factors. With fewer foreclosures, bargain basement prices on homes for sale, and incredible tax incentives being offered, investors and first-time home buyers are gobbling up Tampa housing inventory. Current demand has definitely reduced available housing supply. The National Association of Home Builders article Slow Recovery May Be Leading to Serious Housing Shortages addresses this saying “NAHB economists project that the industry will need to deliver 16 million homes over the next 10 years to keep pace with the demand. As the excess inventory is worked off, which is likely by the end of 2012, the long-run demand for new housing – based on population growth, immigration an...