The Tampa Bay metro area is the 13th most affordable residential real estate market in Florida, based on third-quarter 2014 data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo. Tampa Bay is in the middle of the pack, about midpoint of the ranking of 22 metro areas in Florida. Each real estate market’s affordability is evaluated using the area’s median family income and median home prices.
The Tampa Bay metro area refers to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area and encompasses the cities of Tampa in Hillsborough County and St. Petersburg and Clearwater and Pinellas County and some parts of Pasco County.
The following ranking is based on HOI, which means Housing Opportunity Index, the index created by the NAHB and Wells Fargo the measure housing affordability. It measures the percentage of homes for sale in a certain area which is affordable to a median-income family in this certain area, using standard mortgage underwriting criteria.
The HOI uses median family income data published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and applies the assumption that a family can afford to spend 28 percent of its gross income on home mortgage.
| RANK | METRO | HOI | MEDIAN FAMILY | MEDIAN SALES |
| AREA | 2014 | INCOME | PRICE | |
| 1 | Lakeland-Winter Haven | 84.2 | 50,400 | 118,000 |
| 2 | Tallahassee | 82.5 | 64,800 | 139,000 |
| 3 | Ocala | 81.9 | 45,700 | 93,000 |
| 4 | Gainesville | 81.0 | 65,400 | 141,000 |
| 5 | Palm Bay-Melbourne | |||
| -Titusville | 78.4 | 60,700 | 133,000 | |
| 6 | Pensacola-Ferry Pass | |||
| -Brent | 78.1 | 58,400 | 139,000 | |
| 7 | Deltona-Daytona Beach | |||
| -Ormond Beach | 76.8 | 51,500 | 120,000 | |
| 8 | Palm Coast | 75.9 | 56,300 | 147,000 |
| 9 | Port St. Lucie | 75.4 | 56,900 | 136,000 |
| 10 | Jacksonville | 74.3 | 63,200 | 156,000 |
| 11 | Panama City-Lynn Haven | |||
| -Panama City Beach | 74.1 | 59,500 | 155,000 | |
| 12 | Punta Gorda | 74.0 | 55,700 | 132,000 |
| 13 | Tampa-St. Petersburg | |||
| -Clearwater | 72.8 | 57,400 | 138,000 | |
| 14 | Sebastian-Vero Beach | 71.1 | 54,700 | 140,000 |
| 15 | Crestview-Fort Walton | |||
| Beach-Destin | 70.6 | 62,800 | 180,000 | |
| 16 | Cape Coral-Fort Myers | 68.3 | 58,000 | 157,000 |
| 17 | Orlando-Kissimmee | |||
| -Sanford | 66.2 | 54,800 | 165,000 | |
| 18 | Fort Lauderdale-Pompano | |||
| Beach-Deerfield Beach | 64.5 | 61,200 | 163,000 | |
| 19 | West Palm Beach | |||
| -Boca Raton-Boynton Beach | 63.8 | 64,100 | 185,000 | |
| 20 | North Port-Bradenton | |||
| -Sarasota | 61.8 | 57,300 | 183,000 | |
| 21 | Naples-Marco Island | 51.9 | 62,900 | 260,000 |
| 22 | Miami-Miami Beach | |||
| -Kendall | 47.7 | 48,600 | 200,000 |
In the third quarter of 2014, the median price of homes in the Tampa Bay area was $138,000 and the median family income was $57,400, based on NAHB and Wells Fargo data. Nearly 73% of all homes for sale in the Tampa Bay metro area were affordable to families earning the median income.