Tampa Bay Housing Market, Economy Take a Dive

The Tampa Bay housing market lost ground to its competition in the latest regional economic scorecard report.

Measured against five other similar markets, Tampa dropped from third to fourth overall. Raleigh-Durham was ranked No. 1, followed by Dallas, Charlotte and Tampa. The Jacksonville housing market and Atlanta completed the list at five and six.

Tampa Bay fell a notch in the employment and workforce category, which focuses on job creation, job growth, unemployment rate and labor force growth rate. Tampa Bay’s job growth rate dropped from 3.8 percent to 2.86 percent in one year, knocking market to fourth place in the rankings.

Tampa Bay’s construction industry shed 3,000 jobs after an extended period of excellent growth, which was the main cause for the drop. Despite the drop in job growth, unemployment remained low in the area, which had the lowest unemployment among the six comparable markets.

The city continues to lag in wages paid, ranking last in absolute wages at $36,406. While that wage is only slightly less than Jacksonville, it is about 18 percent below Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. This doesn’t help residents afford a Florida mortgage loan in the area, as the Tampa Bay wages trail Atlanta by more than 20 percent and Dallas by almost 28 percent.

Such variances are not reflective of cost of living differentials between Tampa Bay and the comparison regions. Tampa Bay’s cost of living is between 5 and 15 percent higher than the comparison regions.

Housing remains a problem area for the area. It ranked sixth for the third straight time because the home prices in Tampa Bay were the highest, while it was stuck with the lowest household income of the comparison regions. That’s a dangerous combination.

Rental affordability is also a problem because of high rental rates, the survey said.