last updated 3-22-11

Home buyers and sellers hear the same grim "news" reports about the housing  market as those of us who are real estate agents.  The media has a bigger megaphone and there are a lot of gloom and doom experts. 

Yes there are signs of price drops but if your agent doesn't understand that if you take out the very heavily discounted Bank owned (REO) properties prices are not falling then you are being set up for frustration in buying or selling of a home.

Some of these experts and agents just 5 years ago were saying "what bubble?" as prices kept climbing.

Look at the table below and you can see a trend in the number of properties sold in Hillsborough County (Tampa) reported in the MLS. Home sales have been climbing. In 2011 there is no first time buyer tax to credit for the rise.

	2008	2009	2010	2011
January	604	750	858	1109
February	700	858	997	1248
March	913	1085	1375	*
April
May

Today the experts are still singing the tune that prices will keep falling.  But whether you are talking about houses, dog food, or wigets the laws of supply and demand are the same.  Too much inventory will bring down prices and tight inventory will lead to a rise in prices.  Today the signs are pointing to modest rises.  The floor is rising which is leading to the first increases in median sale prices in some zip codes in 4 years.  Over 45% of the properties sold in February 2011 went from listed to actually closed in less than 90 days.   (You can get an idea of the number of homes on the market in areas like South Tampa, Seminole Heights, Riverside Heights, Carrollwood, and Temple Terrace with the searches on those specific pages on this site) 

Real estate is about local conditions. Florida and a few other states took a real beating over the past 4 years.  Those days are coming to an end.  Prices will begin to rebound ever so slowly but we passed the bottom quite some time ago.