Tampa Ranked Among Top 10 Cities For Homebuyers, Homebuilders

TAMPA, FL — While many businesses battle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, there's no such struggle happening in Tampa Bay's homebuying and homebuilding industries.

According to Realtor.com, Tampa Bay is among the top 10 cities in the United States that are enjoying a homebuilding boom.

U.S. Census Bureau data showed building permit applications in Tampa Bay rose 24 percent over last year as home builders looked to new construction to meet the demand for living space that has led to soaring prices and crazy bidding wars.

Rick Palacios Jr., an analyst with John Burns Estate Consulting, attributes this home-buying frenzy to the coronavirus pandemic, which kept many families stuck at home for months on end, bringing them to the realization that they'd like a bit more breathing room.

"Builders are looking to grow wherever they can right now," Palacios said. "COVID has ignited demand in markets where there wasn’t really a lot of demand before."

The pandemic also led to more remote working opportunities and the need for home offices to meet those needs.

Business owners realized that employees can be just as efficient and productive when working from home and employees realized that they no longer had to be tied to an office.

Telecommunications eliminated the need for lengthy commutes, saved money on office rentals and upkeep and resulted in employees taking fewer sick days, a win-win for both employers and employees.

As a result, Tampa Bay real estate agents say they're seeing a mass exodus from the Northeast to the Sunshine State as buyers are lured by Florida's mild climate, beaches, casual lifestyle along with the $25,000 homestead exemption, lack of a state income or inheritance tax, reasonable sales tax, low cost of living and affordable home market.

In March, Niche, the leading platform connecting students with colleges, released its 2021 Best Places to Live rankings. In the seventh consecutive year that Niche has produced these rankings, 228 cities and 18,516 towns and neighborhoods were included.

Tampa ranked as the 40th Best City to Live in America and St. Petersburg ranked 43rd.

Niche generates the Best Places to Live rankings by using data from the U.S. Census, FBI, BLS, and CDC combined with millions of resident reviews. The company considers factors such as affordability, the local housing market, neighborhood diversity, area public schools, walkability, and more.

“In the past year, many people have become more mobile than ever before. Especially if they’re able to work remotely, people are asking themselves where they really want to live,” said Luke Skurman, CEO and founder of Niche. “Our rankings are designed to help our users find the next place they want to call home based on their unique priorities.”

Workers freed from office environments aren't the only ones attracted to Florida.

The personal finance website WalletHub ranked Tampa No. 2 and St. Petersburg No. 13 on its list of Best and Worst Places to Retire 2020.

While the retirement website, 55Places.com, ranked Florida high for placed to retire based on cost, climate, health care, transportation and entertainment options.

As a result, nearly 1,000 people are moving to the Sunshine State every day. Florida’s population has more than tripled since 1970, adding more than three million people every decade.

Once considered a secondary market, Tampa Bay in particular has become one of Florida's most desirable cities to live. The area is now ranked fourth in the United States in terms of the biggest net inflow of new residents.

In fact, Tampa Bay is in the top 10 for largest population increases from 2017 to 2019, according to Freddie Mac - 87,909 residents moved to the area during those two years.

A new study from Redfin ranked Tampa Bay as one of the country's best housing markets in 2021.
According to the real estate brokerage, Tampa is among the cities that will benefit from families leaving expensive coastal cities and larger, more congested Southern cities.

The study shows homes in Tampa Bay cost 24 percent less than Miami homes - $271,000 compared to $355,000.

Local real estate agents say 22 percent of homes are closing above list price. Yet, compared to other part of the country, Tampa Bay offers more house for the buck.

Realtor.com did a comparison of the median-list prices of homes in major markets:

• Dallas - $373,267
• New York City - $629,500
• Phoenix - $469,500
• Washington, D.C. - $499,900
• Atlanta - $377,500
• Los Angeles - $1,184,500
• Seattle - $672,386
• Philadelphia - $329,900
• Charlotte, North Carolina - $386,450
• Tampa - $305,000

In fact, buyers are having a hard time finding existing homes for sale. The number of listing for available homes is about half of what it was a year ago when the pandemic began, according ot Realtor.com, which predicted Tampa will be among the top 10 cities in the country to “dominate home construction” over the next year despite high lumber costs.