Hillsborough and Pinellas County March 2022 Real Estate Statistics

The latest statistics are in from March 2022, and yowsa, Pinellas County single family homes are at $580,000 average sale price which is up 20% over last year’s numbers.  Meanwhile Hillsborough County is at $488,000 average sale price and up over 21%.  We are still at about .7 months of inventory.  What that means in English is this: 6 months inventory is considered a balanced market, neither a buyer’s market nor a seller’s market.  Below 6 months is a seller’s market, and above 7 months is a buyer’s market.  We are the lowest inventory we’ve ever seen historically.

While the news media continues to talk about an impending recession and gloom and doom – here in Florida – we just aren’t seeing it.  Interest rates are leveling at a normal 4.5 to 6%.  We are hearing “interest rates are sky high!”  I bought a home in 2006 at 8% on my 1st mortgage and 10% on a 2nd mortgage!  This is not sky high – this is normal if not still on the low side.  We are not likely to see 3% rates come back anytime soon – that was abnormally low.  We still have a lot of people (like, hundreds if not thousands per day) from out of state moving to Florida. Many of them are still purchasing with cash.

When asked what I think is going to happen in the future, I can only speak for here in Tampa Bay.  Real estate is, at it’s heart, a LOCAL business.  And locally, I do not think we will see prices drop anytime soon.  I think we will see 20% per year increases taper downward, but I don’t anticipate a drop simply because we still have so much demand here, and very, very short supply.