Home values in low-income areas of Tampa Bay rise, lag behind national median
In Tampa Bay, home prices increased in almost all of its opportunity zones, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Enlarge In Tampa Bay, home prices increased in almost all of its opportunity zones, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter.

By Grace Mamon
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 12, 2021

Home values in low-income areas continued to lag behind the national median in the second quarter of 2021, but they kept pace with nationwide home trends and were spurred by the country’s housing boom.

ATTOM, a California-based property database, analyzed over 5,000 "opportunity zones," or areas that have seen substantial economic distress. The report found that median-income single-family home prices increased in July 2021 from year-ago numbers in 75% of opportunity zones nationwide.

In Tampa Bay, home prices increased in almost all of its opportunity zones, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter.

“Values inside some of the nation’s poorest communities kept surging ahead with the broader national housing market,” said the report.

This comes despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacted lower-income communities.

Still, about 75% of the zones in the study had typical second-quarter home prices below the national median of $305,000. And around 39% had median prices of less than $150,000. But this is down from 47% in the second quarter of 2020.

The Tampa Bay area is home to 58 census tracts that are considered opportunity zones across Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. And 49 of them had median prices below the national average, with eight zones seeing median prices below $150,000.

“For sure, property values in opportunity zones remained depressed,” Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM, said in a release.

But the price spikes suggest that those communities are a viable option for households priced out of upscale neighborhoods, he said.

“[Price spikes] also indicate the ongoing potential for the economic revival that underpins the opportunity zones tax breaks,” Teta said.