Tampa Palms, Westchase, Carrollwood and Tampa Bay Real Estate News From Jeanne Prigitano

With more than half the year over, I was very interested in seeing July’s numbers for the Tampa Bay area. Although I remained busy, many of my colleagues experienced a slight slowdown in July. Much of that can be attributed to school being out and vacations. With school starting in August, there should be an increase in activity with families hoping to be in their new home before school starts. It’s just that they would have needed to be under contract already in order to close in August. I think that many people relocating from other parts of the country are not aware that school starts in August in the Tampa Bay area and throughout most of Florida. Now on to the numbers!

Sales for July 2011 were down slightly from June 2011. However, inventories were also down so proportionately sales were stable. Sales were actually 20 % higher in July of this year compared to July 2010. It’s actually quite significant considering that inventories are down by about 36%. Months inventory is at 5.5 which is half of where it was this time last year. Year to date, sales are around 11% higher than last year. Average sales price did decrease by 3% in July 2011 over June 2011 but is still 16% higher than in January of this year.

With the unfortunate debt crisis and subsequent impact on the bond rating, it will be significant to see the impact on the housing market in general and on the Tampa Bay area specifically. I have not seen any impact on any of my clients, yet. People are still getting mortgages at very low rates and I have not seen a decline in people buying or selling. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.