Here’s one more sign of a sharply improving Tampa Bay real estate market. The year-over-year increase rate in the Tampa home price index in January was higher than the increase rate in the 20-city composite index, a price index considered by analysts as the most reliable indicator of the direction of home values in the U.S.
The 20-city composite index, usually called Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index and created by economists Karl Case and Robert Shiller, compares the current and previous sales of detached houses, taking into consideration several factors such as remodeling. It follows the changes in prices of detached
homes in 20 cities selected as representative markets:
Atlanta
Boston
Charlotte
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Miami
Minneapolis
New York
Phoenix
Portland
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tampa
Washington, D.C.
The year-over-year increase in the Tampa home price index was 8.9%, higher by 0.8 percentage points than the increase in the 20-city composite index, which was 8.1%. Tampa was 11th among the 20 selected cities.
Phoenix posted the highest percentage increase, 23.2%, followed by San Francisco, with 17.5%, and Las Vegas, with 15.3%. Eight cities posted double-digit increases, including the other Florida city in the price index, Miami.
The country’s largest cities, New York and Chicago, posted the lowest percentage increases, posting increases of 0.6% and 3.3%, respectively.
CoreLogic’s Home Price Index also showed year-over-year increases in home prices in all states, except Delaware and Illinois. Prices for homes nationwide, including distressed housing units, increased by 9.7% from January 2012 to January 2013, the highest rate of year-over-year increase since April 2006. Compared to prices in the previous month of December 2012, prices in January 2013 also showed an increase of 0.7%.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, based on data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the median sales price for existing single-family homes in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area increased to $137,200, up by 1.25%
from $135,500 in the fourth quarter of the previous year.
Based on data from the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors (GTAR), the average sales price for single-family homes in Tampa in January 2013 was $169,354, an increase of 16.6% from $145,273 in January 2012. The average listing price also increased, posting a rise of 15.6% from $152,608 in January 2012 to $176,412 in January 2013.