Tampa MSA 2009 Q02 Real Estate Market Report by a Hudson, Florida Realtor

Tampa MSA 2009 Q02 Real Estate Market Report by a Hudson, Florida Realtor

MSA= Metropolitan Statistical Area. There are over 350 in the United States, which are used to give a more local evaluation of Real Estate Markets. National Real Estate numbers are good to follow, but it can not be said enough. All Real Estate is Local. Just ask Detroit or Flint Michigan how they fared during the housing bubble. An area is considered an MSA if, like Tampa, they have over 50,000 people in the area. The MSA also includes surrounding counties if they are interdependent on one another

As you can see in the map above, the median home price for the Second Quarter of 2009 fell to $140,900 which is a drop of 22.1% from the Second Quarter of 2008. And is a fall of 36% from Real Estate Market highs of ~$220,000 in 06

To read the Chart below, the Red Line is read off the Right side dollar values, and the Blue bars are read off the Left side percentage gains/losses. As you can see, while many are saying the Recession has bottomed, their is not yet such an indicator in our local housing market. But keep in mind this is only the first quarters information. We do not have the second quarters statistics yet, which may show a bottom, hopefully.

If you eliminate, or average out Q1 in 2007 it has been a pretty even decline in the market, price-wise, as shown by the Red Lines pretty even decline. And taking out Q1 in 2008 you will see that the pecentage losses, are fairly steadily accelerating as well. But keep in mind each one is year over year. So every 4th blue bar is what is being compared, they are all year over year price declines. All in all, you can see we have pretty much wiped out any and all gains since 2002 in the Tampa Real Estate market. With some housing selling in the teens or low 20′s, I really can not see much more price declines in the general market. There just is not much room for them to go lower.

map and graph courtesy of www.Realtor.org

Hudson, Florida May market update

Currently in Hudson teh worst property there is to sell is a Condo, I am afraid to say

While there are only 83 Condo’s currently for sale, there are 0 under contract, and only 2 sold in May, down from 5 in April. That means there is almost 3 1/2 years inventory on the market 8-(

Now in a close second place would be the Mobile Home market in Hudson. While there are only 66 mobile homes for sale currently, in May only 3 sold, down from 5 in April. And there are only 5 units under contract presently. That equates to 22 Months, almost 2 years, inventory on the market.

Now the Silver Lining on our dark cloud down here, If I can call it that, is the Single Family Residences. While there are actually 533 units offered for sale, there are actually 112 under contract. But the ‘under contract’ number is not exactly a good representation because 1/2 of those contracts could easily explode and fall apart before closing. And while 38 made it to closing in May that is down from 45 sold in April. That is a 15% decline month over month. And it also means that there is only 14 months inventory on the market. this is below average for the West Pasco area.

What is going to get the market going? Well surely the low interest mortgage rates are appealing, but they have been for some time. The $8,000 first time home buyer assistance tax credit is another enticement, but in these hard economic times alot of people are still having trouble coming up with down payments/closing costs/ repair money for new home. NAR just released that the average home buyer spends almost $5000 renovating/repairing their recently purchased home.

Now here in Florida, after a lot of pressure from the Florida Association of Realtors, our state government has authorized a bridge loan program, which enables first time home buyers to use the $8,000 ‘tax credit’ as part of their down payment. And while this may help the market in the near term, I have to wonder, is this not doing exactly what got us into such a dire situation? If people need help getting enough money together to purchase a home, than are they not actually the same people who bought homes they could not afford, some with prime mortgages, and some with sub-prime, only to default later. I hope we do not have a repeat, after all, we aer supposed to learn from our mistakes. If one is to be successful in life, in any profession, than one has to not only be concerned with the near term, but also the Long Term, and to me it seems we are ‘fixing our current problem’ with the exact same practices that got us into this problem. Helping people to buy house, whom without the governments help, they would not be able to afford it.

Lastly I will add just a note about an important piece that I rarely see in the discussions/news stories about the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit. It is $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price of the house which ever is less. So if you are buying a bargain at only $50,000, your tax credit will only be for $5,000

Market Trends

Well sales are holding Steadyin West Pasco
but they are down in volume by about 40% from 2006 frenzy

305 homes sold this april (09) holding steady, may seem low, but there were 610 sides to be on, to make $

311 homes sold last april (08) -17% year over year

374 homes sold in april (07) -26% year over year

505 homes sold in april (06)

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