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RETURN TO NEWS INDEX How does Tampa Bay's housing market rank compared to other areas in the country?
By Robert Trigaux
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Mar 31, 2016
The Tampa Bay housing market remains one of the more affordable major metro areas in the country even as it enjoys strong appreciation in a "sluggish" economy, says a Wells Fargo analysis of the state of U.S. housing.
Not all signs are rosy, however. The analysis, which Wells Fargo will detail online later today, cites national trends of sharp increases in people renting and a generally declining percentage of the population owning their homes.
"Home ownership for all age groups remains below its peak, especially for consumers 44 years old and younger," Wells Fargo states in its analysis. Renters tend to have much lower credit scores than owners, the report notes, a sign of the younger age of renters but also their weaker financial status given lower-wage job opportunities and the rising costs of renting in most parts of the country.
How fares the Tampa Bay housing market? Here are three takeaways from the Wells Fargo housing report.
Tampa Bay remains one of the metro areas where home prices remain sharply lower than the peak hit in 2006 before the recession. This market's home prices average 25.7 percent lower than their peak of a decade ago. Only a few major metro areas boast home prices averaging above their peaks, including Denver, Dallas and Portland. On the other hand, average home prices in Miami, Phoenix and Las Vegas still range from 26.4 percent to 37.9 percent below their peaks.
Tampa Bay home prices still rank high among the most affordable metro areas in the country, as measured by the percentage of homes in the market that could be purchased by median income earners. In Tampa Bay, that measure shows more than 70 percent of the homes here would be affordable. Most affordable is Nashville, where close to 84 percent of the homes could be acquired by median income earners. That metro is followed by Charlotte, N.C.; Jacksonville; Atlanta; Raleigh, N.C.; and then Tampa Bay. Small wonder that the Southeast attracts so many people who see the concentration here of biggest housing bang for their bucks.
Tampa Bay ranks seventh in recent years among major metro areas in population growth based on domestic, state-to-state migration. Only Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Austin, Denver and San Antonio drew more people from other U.S. states from 2010 to 2015, Wells Fargo notes. Add in international migration, however, and Tampa Bay slips just behind Orlando and Atlanta in total growth.
The good news for home buyers is that the Federal Reserve is backing off recent plans to start raising interest rates over concerns the U.S. economy remains less robust than anticipated.
That means, says Wells Fargo, that mortgage rates will likely remain lower for even longer.
"Housing demand is gradually reviving as the housing market becomes unstuck," the bank's analysis says. "Buyers and sellers are becoming more comfortable with the state of the market."
Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @venturetampabay
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