Tampa Real Estate Market: Losing Isn't So Bad

When it comes to pricing a house on is intending to sell in the Tampa real estate market, it is important to consider the present state of the Tampa real estate market—whether it is a seller’s market or a buyer’s market. It does not matter what your former neighbor got six months ago, or what properties are listed for the present. The crucial thing to keep in mind is that the last sale price in the market is probably the sale price now.

In looking at the potential gain on the sale of a house, it is imperative to keep it in perspective. If house prices increased year after year at, say, 4 % per year and then suddenly people were selling their houses for 1 % lower than the asking price of the previous year, would that be sensible? If it is, then what about property which is moving up at 20 % per year for several years and then all of a sudden it has to be sold for 5 % lower than the prices of the previous year—would that be reasonable? What really poses the challenge is when percentages are translated into dollar amounts. If the 5 % drop amounts to $5,000, most people would not be shook up. It is the case wherein the 5 % drop translates to $25,000 that commoves sellers.

In the Tampa real estate market, astounding rates of appreciation from 2004 to 2005 have been experienced. Many homeowners have undergone a doubling in property values over the last five years. For the current year 2006 however, price appreciation has declined and is now sitting roughly at a mere 5 to 8 % range—quite a dramatic change in comparison to the really high rates enjoyed in the previous period.

However, sellers defending their prices as if their lives relied on it are quite common in the Tampa real estate market today. While these people are sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity, they just could not bear the idea of cutting down selling prices by $25,000 or $50,000 to sell it today. The house that was $260,000 in 1999, is now selling for $569,000 today. But some sellers now want that same type of appreciation and hence could not stand the idea of selling it for less than $589,000. It just seems not fair for them.

The more disturbing fact is that there are agents who are defending their prices in a correcting market. These agents are just too worried about telling the sellers that they can’t sell their property with what they are asking, considering the state of the Tampa real estate market today.

The Tampa real estate market is akin to playing Russian roulette. Some of the times one does not know what one has in the offing until the trigger is pulled. Sellers now seem to be telling buyers, “I’ll drop my price, just make an offer.” While buyers, on the other hand, seem to be replying, “I’ll make an offer, just lower your price”—a stalemate, indeed. This is one of the important factors that are contributing to the rising inventory of unsold properties in the Tampa real estate market today.

Rising inventory certainly affects prices, and to sellers it implies having to diminish asking prices today. Sellers may loose in some cases, but it is not so bad if one considers the fact that the Tampa real estate of today is favoring buyers beyond question.

Homeowners who are selling a home are normally intending to buy a new one in the same are. Just keep in mind that if you have to drop the selling price by 5 %, then the seller of the house you are planning to buy, which is normally more expensive, is probably going to drop the sales price by about the same percentage as well. It means that while one may perceptively “lose” money on the sale of a home, there is going to be more than likely “gain” on the purchase of the new house.

Nobody has absolute control of the real estate market; it is the market that controls us. When it’s time to move, then sell. When it’s time to buy, then buy. Be contented with the market you are in, not in the market you wish it would be.