Tampa Bay Housing Market: Solid Job Growth, Affordable Florida Mortgage Concerns

What’s the Florida home mortgage state of affairs in Tampa Bay? According to the second installment of the Tampa Bay Partnership’s Regional Economic Scorecard, it’s changed a bit in the last year.

Five economic driver categories are analyzed in this survey: employment and workforce, income and productivity, housing, innovation and education. The other five cities chosen to compare against Tampa were selected due to their market similarities and competition for business relocations.

In the end, the Tampa Bay housing market dropped to third (from a tie for second) in a six-city group that includes Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Jacksonville and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Affordable housing is still a troubled area, but Tampa is leading the pack in job growth rate and unemployment rate, the study said.

More jobs, less pay

Low unemployment and the number of real jobs created is a major strength of the Tampa Bay area. While real wages are lower in the area than in the other five cities in the study, Tampa Bay ranks first in the growth of wages and in the growth of the median household income.

“The first scorecard emphasized our problem with affordable housing and since then, there’s been more discussion on how to address that,” Mitchell said.

Stuart Rogel, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership, recently presented at the Florida Summit on Affordable Living. Business leaders from around the state spoke about the challenges and possible solutions to the problem of sustaining growth and providing affordable housing to all segments of the communities.

One of Tampa Bay’s challenges is how to recognize the legacy industries like tourism and agriculture and balance other opportunities to diversify the local economy, while providing opportunities for lower-income families to apply for a Florida mortgage loan.

“We need to balance the economy so that we’re not at the mercy of the vagaries of normal business cycles,” Rogel said.

Leveraging smarts

Among other information gained from the scorecard is that education is still a strength. Tampa Bay ranked number-two again in education, behind Raleigh-Durham and slightly ahead of Dallas and Charlotte. Of the four education criteria, Tampa Bay was best in mean SAT scores, with a 1009 average.

Innovation, the fifth indicator, shows Tampa Bay in fifth overall, yet last in venture capital per worker.

“The scorecard illustrates how interconnected aspects of our regional economy are,” Rogel said. “Realizing that resources to address these issues must come from throughout our region, we feel the scorecard is an important measurement tool to help leaders focus limited resources where they will have the most important impact.”

And, as always, the Florida housing market will dictate a great deal about the ecomony. As it recovers and Florida home loan demand returns, many concerns will vanish.