SI Real Estate Tampa and The Beaches

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...

All year long we have been watching the real estate market heat up in Florida. There are many reasons why we are seeing a different resurgence this year!   A few of the key catalysts are: the Florida Legislature, interest rates and PMI insurance reductions. Each of these played a high valued role in the 2015 housing market. Combining all three, we can see housing is more affordable and there are a lot more people looking for housing!   Florida Governor Rick Scott is very enthusiastic about the housing market citing this past month as another remarkable one for the state. He is particularly proud of his tax cuts, saying “our work to cut taxes and create a business friendly environment is creating jobs and attracting more families to Florida because there are so many opportunities for success.” The team at SI Real Estate could not agree more. We have been helping families relocate to the Tampa area all year long, and know many more families are relocating this year,...

2015 has been a pleasant year for the Tampa Bay real estate market, marking a full resurgence. Normally sales fall off during the summer vacations, but not this year!  Homes listed for sale are continuing to seek out higher prices, while buyers are actively finding properties to put contracts on. A local North Tampa homeowner listed their house at $ 450,000 3 weeks ago and had a pending contract 8 days later, including backup offers. SI Real Estate has also participated in this high level of activity, selling three different properties in less than 10 days recently. While we normally see soft interest during summer months, especially July that has is not the case in 2015! ”Statewide in July, the inventory of available homes tightened to a 4 1/2-month supply. Most analysts consider a six-month supply to be evidence of a balanced market between buyers and sellers,” said John Tuccillo, chief economist of Florida Realtors. He is demonstrating here that inventory is d...

Real Estate Pulse:  Tampa’s Rental market is on fire!   Act on it or the property will be gone in a flash! SI Real Estate is a full service real estate boutique in Tampa Bay, including property management.  We have seen a significant increase in rental activity since February, 2015. As the year has progressed, so has the interest in Tampa’s rental market!  Right now, our agents are finding that rental listings are gone in a New York minute.  We are receiving calls and emails from an abnormal amount of new residents relocating to our area, causing the demand to drastically outweigh the supply. This trend has not gone unnoticed by property developers in the area especially our urban core. They are purchasing land and building multifamily high end rentals, rather than luxury apartments or condos for sale.  Jeff Vinik has been at the forefront of this new demand. Starting with revitalizing the Channelside District.  The city of Tampa an...

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 ...

Earlier this year the president reduced private mortgage insurance rates. FHA loans were more attainable for first time home buyers. Home owners that wanted to refinance and reduce their monthly payments could also participate in the reduction. Now Freddie Mac is about to roll out a new appealing option for home buyers: 3% down payment mortgages coming in March! Contributing to continued Real Estate recovery and stability, the guidelines of qualifying for this type of loan will not be as loose as the guidelines from the adjustable rate mortgage disaster in 2007-2008. Donald Layton, CEO of Freddie Mac, assured everyone that the 97% loan-to-value option will be limited to borrowers who can prove a “very good income”. Basically comforting the skeptics that this option will not be available for the average loan applicant. He also reinforced that “underwriting standards are stronger than ever”. Obviously they have learned from their past mistake of handing out mortgage loans to anyo...

Early 2015 quarterly reports reflect heavy increase in real estate activity, especially new homes. D.R. Horton is a nationally recognized home builder and has developments throughout the United States. They have been the largest home builder in the U.S. 13 years in a row. On Wednesday, D.R. Horton reported a dramatic increase in new home sales highlighted by “sales orders increased 40% in value to $2.1 billion” from the first quarter of 2014 to the first quarter of 2015. These numbers are significant considering that first quarter home sales are usually lack luster. What does this tell us? With the rising consumer confidence reports, buyers are investing in real estate and new homes sales are spiking. D.R. Horton has increased their land acquisitions and developed more communities recently to keep up with demand. Donald Horton, Chairman of the Board said ”our weekly sales pace has accelerated in January 2015, and we are well-positioned to capture demand in the spring sellin...

"Latest Home Sale Data reflects strong demand for affordable homes as 2015 kicks off” Back in 2008/2009 after the Real Estate market crashed, economic and Real Estate experts were repeatedly forecasting a 6-7 year recovery period. They all highlighted 2015 as the year we would see resurrection in the housing market. Well that prediction seems to be coming to fruition now! We are seeing many positive reports and trends from late 2014 to early 2015. We are starting to see the rebound all around Florida, but extra activity in Tampa Bay. The excitement/enthusiasm is building here and our team here at SI Real Estate is noticing. Normally home sales in January are expected to be lower than in July or August. However, this month the Home Sale Data is showing that buyers are confident again. Tampa Bay has surged in January with 4,700 homes sold so far. That is 23.5% better than December ’14 and 22.8% better than January of ’14. Buyers are aggressively purchasing, and homes a...

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...

As we continue to see the ever changing real estate market take a positive turn upward, some people are asking themselves what to do in these times. Based on recent home sale statistics, homes are being sold at a much faster rate than we have seen in years. A healthy real estate market usually has about 6 months of supply at any given time. Today we have seen that number cut in half, and the shelf life of homes for sale has dropped to about 69 days. A clear sign that the real estate has shifted to a seller’s market . August 2012 posted numbers for existing home sales that surpassed 9% increases from this time last year! Chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun said, “The Florida market is experiencing inventory shortages, which are placing pressure on prices.” This shortage of real estate inventory could lead to other advantageous recovery factors like new construction projects, which in turn stimulates the market with job growth. Lending conditions...