Tampa Bay home prices reached new heights in May. It might not last.
The cost of buying a home in Tampa Bay continued to increase in May, with the median sales price for single-family homes hitting $413,108 according to the latest data from Florida Realtors. That’s a 28.4% increase from last May.
Prices were up in every market across the state. The metro region that encompasses Naples, Immokalee and Marco Island saw the steepest year over year increase at 30.8% and had the highest median sale price at $850,000.
That growth may not last for long, though.
“May was still the peak time,” said Lei Wedge, a professor of finance at University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business. “But that data does not represent the future.”
She said the price of pending homes has already started to cool off and will likely drop further thanks to rising mortgage rates.
Sales last month in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market were down 7.5% percent from where they were the year before. Despite this, Tampa Bay led the state in single-family home sales this May, with 4,406 closed sales.
Trailing slightly behind was the Miami metro area (which includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach) with 4,151 closed sales on single-family homes. That’s down 15% from last year.
The number of active listings in Tampa Bay increased 34.7% from last May, but there was still only a one-month supply of inventory.
Wedge said the supply of homes is not likely to increase anytime soon and could possibly even decrease.
“There are lots of homeowners who wanted to sell their homes that may turn around now because they see prices dropping,” she said.
In order to compete in this tight market, many buyers are using cash offers to entice sellers. There were 1,390 cash sales last month, a 2.5% increase from May 2021.
