TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The hot housing market is even hotter in the Sunshine State, and nowhere was hotter than Tampa Bay. When it comes to homes sold in February, Tampa had the biggest percentage of homes sold, at almost 16% of all sales across the state in the past month.
According to Florida Realtors data, 15.98% of homes sold in Florida were in the Tampa Bay. Of the 23,661 single-family homes sold in February, 3,782 were in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan statistical area.
The next closest rank in terms of homes sold was in the Miami metro, where 3,442 homes were sold, following by Orlando’s 2,783 and Jacksonville’s 1,961. If home sales were a race, the Tampa area was just inches ahead of Miami. Across the state, the number of home sales dipped lower, due largely to price increases and a continually shrinking inventory.
Still, the Tampa metro had just a 0.6% drop in sales, while median home sale prices grew 28.2%, to $378,142. While home sale prices were up, the most expensive metro area in the state was in Naples, where median home prices hit $700,000, a 25.6% increase compared to the year before. Sales themselves decreased almost 25%, as the Naples home prices jumped.
In the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metro, high home prices rose higher, up nearly 24% while sales decreased 8.6%. The average home in the area, which includes parts of Manatee and Sarasota counties, were $458,450. Just 1,250 homes were sold in the area.
“February’s statewide housing data follows the same trend we’ve been seeing for months: a limited supply of for-sale inventory, high buyer demand and rising prices,” said 2022 Florida Realtors President Christina Pappas. “Home prices continue to be impacted by this shortfall in inventory. When homes are available for sale, they’re going under contract very quickly. The median time to contract statewide for single-family existing homes in February was 12 days compared to 21 days during the same month a year ago.”
Flipping to condos and townhouses, the state of Florida saw 10,975 sold. In terms of rankings, Miami was king and Tampa was in a distant second place. In the Miami area, 4,617 townhouses and condos were sold, for a median price of $300,000. Sales were up almost 17% and prices were up 22.4%.
In Tampa, 1,439 condos and townhouses sold, with prices at $265,000, a 29.4% increase, while the number of sales were down 67%. Sebring in Highlands County had the fewest townhouses and condos sold, at just 17, a 45% drop, though the biggest drop in sales was in Naples at 50.8% down. Prices in the Sebring area were up 15.2%.
The most expensive metro for condos and townhouses was Crestview, where just 226 were sold, with median prices at $478,000, a 40% increase. Sales were down just 3.4% compared to last February.
According to Florida Realtors, “single-family existing homes were at a severely limited 0.9-months’ supply while condo-townhouse inventory was at a 1.2-months’ supply.” Real estate company Zillow had similar findings in their February inventory report.
The Zillow inventory study found Tampa home inventory had dropped nearly 30% in the past year, as home prices rose and rent increased.
“The pandemic brought with it extreme demand for homes that has pushed prices to rise at previously unimaginable rates,” Zillow said. “Extreme demand driven by historically low interest rates and a wave of Millennial and Baby Boomer buyers depleted a housing stock that was never really replenished by new construction after the glut following the Great Recession.”
While the prices for both home purchases and rent were on the rise, Zillow said they expect sales to close fast as the demand for houses stays high. With that demand comes a clamber for materials, which are already in short supply and growing more expensive.
According to the latest Producer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, materials with the highest price increases were those for building homes. Taken together, the shortages of both materials and inventory are could add to price jumps, as supply continues to shrink, according to Zillow’s analysis. They expect price jumps to peak in May, before finally starting to slow down. Meanwhile, mortgage rates are now over 4%.
