Tampa Real Estate Market Update – December 2014
Tampa Real Estate Market Update – December 2014
The housing market in Tampa and Hillsborough County continues the improving trends we have seen in the last three years.
Home salesclosed the year strong (see Chart below) with 1,498 unit sold in Dec. compared to 1,323 in Dec. of 2013, an increase of 13.2%. In fact, December's sales were the best since May of 2013 when 1,522 homes were sold. It is also the highest monthly closing totals since the real estate recovery started back in 2011. That is something we can all be happy about.
With that being said it should be noted that Pending Home Sales have been trending down for many months and this is a trend that we need to see reversed in the next few months. However, at this point it is not a red flag because with the huge decline in Short Sales and Distressed Sales over the same period also come much faster closings, so it would be natural to assume the number of Pending Sales would decline as they get taken off the books that much faster. We will keep an eye on these numbers in the coming months and look for a trend change.
Active Listings also finished the year in good shape with 4,988 Listings, a minimal increase over the corresponding levels for 2013. Still, a very level compared to the market low levels in the low 3,000 during the market bottom. Truth is, it will be a very long time before the market activity seen during the real estate mania of 2006 and 2007 when active listings were substantially higher. See the chart below for Active Listings Activities.
Finally the Median Price of all Single Family Homes in the area stood at $182,250 in Dec., a small 1.3 increase over prices a year earlier. Average prices of home sold were at $243,365 - an increase of 6.4% over the prior 12 months. As you will note in the chart below, we have a generally healthy uptrend in prices, and this is very good.
The overall housing market in the Tampa and Hillsborough are remains good, even as inventory remains low by traditional standards. There are number of reasons for this, but as prices continue to improve we expect housing inventory to expand in 2015.
As we look to 2015, right now the market is in good shape and should continue to improve in incremental ways. Interest rates are very low and continue to drop (3.66%) as we write the economy continues to improve, and the general mood is generally positive. As noted many times in the past, we are currently in what typically is the market cycle low and as we head into spring we should see good and positive trends.
This Tampa Real Estate Report for December 2014 has been brought to you by Mary and David Diaz. Thank you.
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