Tis’ The Season for Buying Real Estate and Property Investments

Real estate investors and buyers are continuing to make property purchases that fuel the Florida real estate market. The third quarter boasted an increase in home buying and investing of 13% from last years numbers. Many of these new purchases and investments are viewed as long term and are helping stabilize our Tampa Bay real estate market. Even though Florida’s median sales price is lower than last year by a small amount, the volume of sales are significantly up. According to the National Association of Realtors, the foreclosures and sales of other distressed properties make the median sales price seem lower than what it actually is. Almost one thousand more condos were sold in October 2011 compared to October 2010, and the prices of those sold are up 9%. For more information about this, visit bizjournals.com.

Stan Humphries, a real estate expert for Zillow, notes that Americans perception that lending standards are tougher now than during the 2000-2006 time period are simply misconstrued. Since 2000 almost 10% more of applications for conventional home mortgages resulted in mortgage originations.

He also makes note that when looking at data regarding credit offerings, we should look at historical averages, instead of simply comparing 2000, 2006, and current year status. This eludes to the fact that down payments being paid by current borrowers on homes are higher now, 21.7%, than in 2007 when they were at 19%. But when taking the historical average into account, we are still below the historical average since 1974. Check out moneyland.time.com for more information regarding these statistics.

There seems to be an ongoing trend in Tampa bay real estate, and it is definitively looking up! While sale prices are down and volume of sales continue to increase, Tampa Bay is looking more attractive than ever. Contact SI Real Estate at 813.631.5144 or at info@SIRealEstateInvestments.com if you think you are ready to indulge in this great time for buying.