Tampa's burning hot real estate market may be showing signs of cooling

TAMPA, Fla. - Realtor Vince Arcuri likens the housing market to a pot of boiling water.

"You put your hand into it, you’re still going to go to the hospital," the Better Homes and Gardens realtor said. 

It’s still really hot, but not as bad as earlier in the year.

"It’s nice for it to have slowed down to a manageable pace," he said. 

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It’s slowing down now, but the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks changes in real estate values nationwide, shows Tampa joining other major cities in hot summer housing prices.

In July, Tampa’s price index was up 24.4 percent over 2020.

But Arcuri says summer is always a hot time to buy. Like the weather, during fall, it cools off.

"It’s an excellent time to buy a home because buyers who are frustrated with no inventory, there’s a lot more inventory on the market now than the summer, when the houses were selling almost instantaneously," he said.

What plays a major role in the slowdown, he believes, is fears of inflation but also something you wouldn’t normally think of: school starting.

"Summer is always a hot time because people are relocating here from other areas of the country and they want to get their kids in at the beginning of the school year," he said.

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His advice, for buyers who may be burned out from the hot market?

"I’d say don’t give up," he said. "We’ve had people who have tried to buy 12 to 13 houses and now there seems to be much more of a selection with inventory on the rise, and traditionally this has always been the best time to buy – in the last quarter of the year."

And for sellers, in his 30 years of experience, he says things should pick back up again next March.

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