Yes, the Tampa real estate market is among the popular property markets in the country, and here are some of the proofs:
1. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area is the most searched real estate market in all of Florida in March 2012 and the fifth most searched among 146 metropolitan markets in the U.S., based on real estate properties searched by visitors on Realtor.com. Tampa was also one of the 10 most searched markets in 2010 and 2011.
2. The Tampa area is one of the 10 most desired U.S. metro markets among global homebuyers, based on data compiled by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in 2011 and by DataQuick in 2012. Among Canadian buyers, the Tampa area is the fourth most desired market, either for investment, retirement or vacation purposes.
3. Tampa is one of the 20 U.S. cities monitored by Standard & Poor’s Corp. for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which is the leading measure of home prices in the U.S. This index is among the most quoted in articles discussing the nation’s housing market and other economic situations. The only other Florida city monitored for this index is Miami.
4. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area posted the 5th biggest year-over-year rate of increase in median sales price of existing single-family homes in the country during the first quarter of 2012, based on data released by NAR. The Tampa also posted the 4th biggest rate of increase in median sales price of existing condos, apartments and coops sold during the quarter.
5. The Tampa real estate market is also among the most searched property markets in the country’s top real estate web sites like Yahoo Real Estate and AOL Real Estate.
6. As of May 2010, there are 2,550 real estate agents and 460 real estate brokers in the Tampa area, much higher than the number of travel agents, sales engineers, advertising sales agents, and parts salespersons. This indicates the high level of activity in the Tampa real estate market.
7. The Tampa area posted the 18th highest number of building permits issued in 2011 among all metropolitan areas required to report permits to the Census Bureau monthly. A total of 6,342 building permits were issued for privately owned residential units in 2011. This included 4,511 permits for one-unit structures, 82 two-unit structures, 59 three-and-four-unit structures and 1,690 structures with 5 units or more.
8. The Tampa area is 15th among the country’s metropolitan areas in numerical increase in population from July 2010 to July 2011, based on estimates by the Census Bureau. A total of 36,573 people was estimated to have been added in July 2011 to the July 2010 metro population of 2,788,151.