Tampa Real Estate Market Update 5/21/2007

Residential real estate practitioners look for opportunity in down market
Tampa Bay Business Journal - May 18, 2007
by Michael Hinman
Staff Writer

"The number of single-family home listings has gone down since March, which may indicate that over-priced homes are now removed from the market," said Ann Guiberson, president and CEO of the Pinellas Realtor Organization. "While year-to-year sales still show a large differential from our data, month-to-month numbers indicate that single-family home sales appear to be stabilizing."

Sales are expected to continue falling through the next quarter but start to uptick in the second half of 2007 as buyers take advantage of lower prices, officials with the National Association of Realtors said in a release. Historically hotter markets like Tampa, however, may not wait that long to move back up, so those looking to invest should do so sooner rather than later, Rogers said.
"When it turns, it's going to turn fast," she said. "It's going to catch people by surprise because you don't notice the bottom until everything starts going up again. There are too many buyers out there waiting, and they can only wait so long."

Even with sales down, people continue to move into the Tampa Bay area, even if the numbers are lower than before. Over the past year, more than 14,800 jobs were added in the region, according to Metrostudy and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is down from the 40,400 jobs added the year before, but Tampa and St. Petersburg were only behind Orlando and South Florida in overall job growth in Florida.

On top of that, housing starts have declined significantly with only 2,297 single-family homes beginning construction during the first quarter, off nearly 63 percent from the year before and the lowest since the first quarter of 1998.

For questions pertaining to the Tampa Bay Real Estate Market contact Rae Catanese @Prudential Tropical Realty. 813-784-7744

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