• Tampa homes sales are down
• The median price of homes in our area is down
• Foreclosures are up
• Inventory is at a record high

And I’ll tell you the same. And that’s all true. No blowing of smoke allowed here.

But did you know this about Tampa real estate?

• 5800 residential properties have sold year-to-date, with 426 of them closing in September and 94 so far in October.
• There are 1033 residential properties in Tampa in pending status, meaning that they are under contract to be purchased. In October alone, 134 have gone under contract (just in Tampa, not Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County, etc.).
• Of the 1033 under contract, 905 of them are expected to close by 11/15/2007 (according to what listing brokers/agents have reported on the MLS)

Why do I bother telling you this? Because although the market is not what it was in 2003–2005, we still have a market. This is just the stuff that you most likely will not read somewhere else, whether in print, elsewhere on the web, or that you’ll hear on radio or on television.

But when comparing to 2003–2005, yes, the market is in the tank. We tend to have short memories and only want to compare to the recent past.

I wasn’t in the business then, but back in 1996, when my wife and I were in the market for our first Tampa home, things were very similar to today. We must have looked at 30 homes or more before making a decision (our poor agent). We felt little, if any, competition from other buyers. We made a low ball offer on one home that got rejected. So we kept looking. And that seller came back weeks later with a reasonable counter-offer. We ended up buying that home at a price that was much closer to our original offer, or about $23k less than asking price. That was a big chunk o’ change, as a percentage, considering Tampa home prices back then.

So folks are still buying homes these days. And stories like ours from 1996 are being played out daily across the Tampa Bay area. Just figured I’d tell my side of the story.

Data used is from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS for city = Tampa, and does not include private, non-brokered sales.