TAMPA, Fla. — Editor's note: Video above is from a previous story.
It's pretty easy to see the housing market in the Tampa Bay area is red hot. Houses are being listed and sold at higher prices.
Rent, too, is skyrocketing for many living in the area. And, the city of Tampa's housing prices came close to coming out on top across the country.
U.S. home prices rose briskly in September, another sign that the housing market is booming in the aftermath of last year’s coronavirus recession.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price climbed 19.1% in September from a year earlier.
The strong price gains marked a deceleration from August’s 19.6% year-over-year increase. Still, prices in all 20 cities set new records in September.
Phoenix was the nation’s hottest market, registering a 33.1 percent price increase. It was followed by Tampa, where prices rose 27.7 percent and Miami at 25.2 percent. All 20 cities reported double-digit increases.
The smallest gains were in Chicago, up 11.8 percent, and Minneapolis at 12.8 percent.
The single-family housing market in one Tampa Bay area town was summed up as "high prices, limited supply, intense competition," as the Bradenton Herald put it.
The Herald reports the median price in October in Bradenton was $425,000, just $5,000 off the record for the area. And, that price was 18.1 percent higher than the median from the month before, according to the Herald.
Investors buying Tampa Bay area homes at a record rate is creating "steep competition" for regular prospective homebuyers, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Times reports that some spots in the Tampa Bay area where investors bought the most homes were in areas that had fewer affordable options, which priced out people, many of them minorities, already living there.
Still, there is perhaps some good news for homebuyers. Zillow says the monthly home value appreciation slowed to 1.3 percent in October. While Zillow says that's above the pre-pandemic record of 1.1 percent, it was below the high 2 percent set in July.
However, the number of houses available for sale is still "far below" pre-pandemic levels, according to Zillow. And, most people probably didn't notice as home values were still up across the country, Zillow says.
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