Moving mansions: The upper crust of Tampa Bay's housing market is on an upswing
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 12, 2014

In the last 12 months, there's been a pronounced shift in mindset among the high-end homebuyers seeking Jennifer Zales' real estate services.

"Nobody's asking anymore, ‘Do you think the market's going to crash?'” said Zales, a luxury property specialist with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Tampa.

A recovery in Tampa Bay's luxury housing market - properties priced above $1 million - began to take hold as early as 2012, real estate agents say. But the difference in the last several months is more than a good mood among buyers - it's backed by numbers that show sales of properties more than $1 million have been 10 percent to 20 percent higher on a monthly basis than in 2013 in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, said Charles Richardson, regional senior vice president for Coldwell Banker.

An economic recovery that feels like it has finally taken root has bolstered confidence among buyers, some of whom are purchasing properties to diversify their investment portfolio, agents say. The spike is also driven by a very favorable lending environment for luxury homes. Interest rates on jumbo mortgages - home loans greater than $417,000 that have stricter requirements than traditional mortgages - have been at historic lows for most of 2014.

In Hillsborough and Pinellas specifically, a boom at the southern edge of the Bay area is driving interest. Zales said in the last six to eight months, she's received several phone calls from buyers who were originally looking at Sarasota and Bradenton.

"Especially with a budget of $1 million, they're not able to find what they're looking for,” she said, "and they're heading north.”

Big-city amenities, coastal lifestyle Activity in Sarasota is driven by the region's effort to better market itself, said Michael Saunders, owner of Sarasota-based brokerage Michael Saunders & Co. The region's tourism marketing arm, Visit Sarasota, has started promoting the area's arts and culture scene, in addition to the traditional beaches-and-golf spin most of Florida offers.

That diversity draws buyers from outside the area and just down the coast. Saunders said her firm is seeing more buyers who live in Naples and are now eyeing Sarasota, drawn there by the buzz around the area.

"They move up to the north because they're finding the plethora of things to do off the beach is so rich here,” she said. "It's just, whatever your interest is, it's here in Sarasota.”

‘Stronger in every respect'

A home in Sarasota that sold for $10.25 million in May surpassed the most expensive home sold in all of 2013 - a waterfront home in Clearwater that sold for $8.5 million in November.

In August, there were 42 closings at $1 million or more in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, Richardson said. In August 2013, there were 34; a year before that, in August 2012, there were 27.

The $2 million-plus segment of the luxury market saw impressive gains in August: There were nine closings in that price range between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in August of this year, compared to four closings more than $2 million a year ago.

"It's stronger in every respect,” Richardson said of the market. "We're seeing it throughout the region, throughout the state.”

In sales of more than $3 million, Saunders' firm is ahead of its 2013 sales volume, or total prices of homes sold, by 63 percent. The number of homes sold has about doubled, which accounts for some amount of the sales volume increase, but prices are rising at the same time, she said.

Buyers realize that prices are inching upward, Saunders said, which is also driving activity. Even with the upward pricing trend, most prices are about a 30 percent discount to top-of-market 2005 pricing.

"I think these savvy buyers are saying, ‘Prices are going to go up,'” she said. "We've certainly experienced that in other segments of the market.”

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.