The latest statistics are in from March 2022, and yowsa, Pinellas County single family homes are at $580,000 average sale price which is up 20% over last year’s numbers. Meanwhile Hillsborough County is at $488,000 average sale price and up over 21%. We are still at about .7 months of inventory. What that means in English is this: 6 months inventory is considered a balanced market, neither a buyer’s market nor a seller’s market. Below 6 months is a seller’s market, and above 7 months is a buyer’s market. We are the lowest inventory we’ve ever seen historically.
While the news media continues to talk about an impending recession and gloom and doom – here in Florida – we just aren’t seeing it. Interest rates are leveling at a normal 4.5 to 6%. We are hearing “interest rates are sky high!” I bought a home in 2006 at 8% on my 1st mortgage and 10% on a 2nd mortgage! This is not sky high – this is normal if not still on the low side. We are not likely to see 3% rates come back anytime soon – that was abnormally low. We still have a lot of people (like, hundreds if not thousands per day) from out of state moving to Florida. Many of them are still purchasing with cash.
When asked what I think is going to happen in the future, I can only speak for here in Tampa Bay. Real estate is, at it’s heart, a LOCAL business. And locally, I do not think we will see prices drop anytime soon. I think we will see 20% per year increases taper downward, but I don’t anticipate a drop simply because we still have so much demand here, and very, very short supply.
[…] latest stats are out – and we are seeing a slight shift in the market from last month’s numbers. For example, looking at Pinellas County – we had a .7 month supply last month and crept up […]