Archive for the 'Channelside Market Updates' Category

Downtown Tampa Condo Prices—1/1 Market Conditions Report

May 6th, 2008 categories: Tampa Condos, New Projects (Condos), Channelside Market Updates, Downtown Tampa

If you happen to be looking for a 1/1 condo in the downtown Tampa area, guess what? You’ve got 89 from which to choose. And there have been 23 sales of the same year to date, the majority at Skypoint (13). Island Place, on Harbour Island, comes in a distant second with 4 sales year-to-date. So how are prices for downtown Tampa condos? Those 89 condos, as you can see in the adjacent chart, are priced widely between $159k and $472.5k. But the median price, the split where there are an equal number of higher and lower priced units, is right at $260k. Examples of units priced around the median?:

1. 21st floor of Skypoint (north side of bldg)
2. 3rd floor at Victory Lofts (Channel District), but this one is 1241sqft
3. 25th floor of Skypoint, 664sqft on the south side (with the views)

On the low end is an 820sqft unit at Grand Central on Kennedy at $159k, but this is a short sale listing (phantom list price) so time will only tell if this price would be approved. But you can get a unit at The Place at Channelside for $159.9k. And on the high end of the pricing spectrum are 3 units at Grand Central at Kennedy. Priced in the mid $400s, these 1127sqft units are in the west building, with the floor to ceiling glass walls providing views of downtown and southward.

As for what’s sold in 2008, The chart shows that the median sale price is around $200k, or about $60k lower than the median list price currently. There have only been 4 sales of 1/1s YTD of over $250k. Of the 89 1/1s for sale, 52 of them are priced at or above $250k. So it’s clear to see that the current demand is at the lower end.

Data used is from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS and does not include private, non-brokered sales or condos for sale.

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Posted by Lenny Gurvich | 2 Comments »

Market Reports-Downtown Tampa Area

March 18th, 2008 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tampa Condos, Channelside Market Updates, Downtown Tampa, Tampa Neighborhoods

In continuing a look a look a 4th quarter sales activity we find:

33602 (Downtown Tampa, Channelside, Channel District, Harbour Island, Ridgewood Park, Tampa Heights)

• Average Sale Price:$ 419.4k
• Price Change from Q4 2006: 41.69%
• Sales Volume Change from Q4 2006 : 271.43%

Impressive numbers indeed. But during the latter part of 2007, many of the condos at the new developments were closing. The bulk of the activity was closings for the newly completed condos at Skypoint, Ventana, The Plaza Harbour Island, The Place at Channelside, Towers of Channelside. There were also some closings for the newest condo conversion on Harbour Island, Harbour Place City Homes. Sprinkle in some resales at Island Walk and Island Place, and some at Parkcrest, and it was a busy 4th quarter indeed for 33602.

But as of today, there are 467 properties listed for sale in the 33602 zip, with the bulk of them (338), condos. With all of the aforementioned projects being completed within months of each other, there is a glut of condos available in this area for Tampa condo buyers.

So downtown area condo buyers have it good right now with so many options available. There are incentives available and rates remain low.

Questions about Tampa condos? Contact us.

Browse Tampa Condos For Sale

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | No Comments »

Notable Tampa Condos E-Mail Of The Weekend

October 22nd, 2007 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tampa Condos, Tampa MLS, New Projects (Condos), Tampa Market Conditions, Tips for Sellers, Channelside Market Updates

Another e-mail from a client that points to the general mindset of many prospective Tampa home and condo buyers currently:

“Lenny,

If any of the 2/2 condos at Skypoint fall in price to $220,000 and don’t laugh, call me. I am not in a rush and unfortunately still see the housing market at this time changing. My focus is for April of 2008 to be in a 30 year fixed townhouse / condo at around $220,000 where ever in Tampa that might be – Westchase, Brandon, Downtown, South Tampa, Palm River – just NOT Tampa Palms… They are out there now but I am still waiting a few months longer. Thank you.”

Prospective Tampa Condo Buyer

Certainly the high inventory of Tampa homes and condos, along with the relatively low demand points to further price declines. But is this a realistic expectation?

Let’s take a look at that market:

Currently there are 18 two bedroom/two bath Skypoint condos for sale, at least on our MLS. Prices range from $355k on the lower end, to about $648k for a top floor, southwest corner unit. The large majority of them are resales. Days on the market runs from just 4 days, to 130 days.

Demand for Skypoint resales? Most seems to be in the lower price points, the 1/1 units, Skypoint’s bread and butter. Skypoint’s sales success early on was due to the fact that they were able to keep the price points low, from the $170Ks (along with the timing of that red hot market). In fact, Novare’s next downtown Tampa highrise condo project, Element, is predominately 1 bedroom units, priced in the low-to mid $200Ks.

So what else can that $220K get the buyer right now in the way of a 2/2 somewhere near downtown Tampa? He can go over to One Laurel Place, an older (1982) downtown Tampa condo project and step into a 2/2 of 1136sqft for under $207k. He can go over to Harbour Island’s Parkcrest and get a 2/2 of 962sqft, with a courtyard view, for $220k. If an Ybor City apartment conversion is appealing, he can get a 2/2 of 1130sqft for that $220k at The Quarter at Ybor (many to choose from BTW). How about something in Hyde Park? There’s a 2/2 at Hyde Park Place, an older conversion near Old Hyde Park Village, for $230k right now.

But none of these is Skypoint. If you want new, modern, built as a condominium, highrise, downtown Tampa, you’ve only got one choice right now. And that is Skypoint. Those facts alone should buoy the value of a Skypoint 2/2 condominium.

But on the other hand there are 18 of them for sale, and not many buyers stepping up to buy the resales. So where will prices be by April of 2008? Time will only tell. Stay tuned.

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Related Skypoint Posts

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Posted by Lenny Gurvich | 3 Comments »

“Market Snapshot” Provides Just That

August 17th, 2007 categories: Tampa Condos, Tampa MLS, Tampa Florida Real Estate, Tampa Market Conditions, Tampa Realtor, Channelside Market Updates

You gotta love automation, queries and databases. Anything to give us instant gratification with instant information. We recently installed a new service on our websites called “Market Snapshot”, that provides a look at listing and sales activity around any given address. It is connected to our local MLS, The Mid-Florida Regional MLS. The MLS is the database used by real estate agents and brokers to list homes for sale and record sales data. As a Tampa Realtor, this is where you go to search for homes for buyer clients and/or do research to determine estimated market values.

So the Market Snapshot will go out and automatically pull current listings as well as recently sold homes comparable to any address provided in the form. It then shoots the user an e-mail with a link to a graphic presentation of the market conditions in and around the neighborhood of that particular address. Users can also set up future, automated reports on selected schedules.

And while this Market Snapshot is really no match to a professionally prepared Comparative Market Analysis, it does provide some good information in short order, and provides the instant gratification that we all desire. Check it out (in the right column there) and feel free to provide any feedback.

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | No Comments »

More Channelside Condos Obtain Financing

August 11th, 2007 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tampa Condos, New Projects (Condos), Tampa Market Conditions, Channelside Market Updates

Browse Condos For Sale in Channelside

This past Wednesday I received the e-mail. “The Buzz on The Slade at Channelside” was the subject line. A sucker for subject lines such as this one, I double-clicked to get the buzz.

“The Slade is now 60% sold in less than one year!” was the headline of the message. This didn’t surprise me because the old buildings on the site had been razed recently and the land cleared. Seeing progress like that usually means the sales process was having favorable results. Lenders usually want to see contracts on 60% of a project before they’ll agree to fund construction.

Then the news in The Tribune this morning was that financing has indeed been obtained to the tune of more than $66 million dollars from Wells Fargo Bank. That’s an impressive feat for developers given the current market conditions and excess inventory of condos in Channelside, or the Channel District. What’s impressive is that there are so many buyers willing to commit to purchasing these properties pre-construction, while so many recently finished condos sit vacant and available.  

Juan Porro, president of Cobalt Development Group, The Slade’s developer, noted that the fact that financing has been obtained may persuade more buyers to snatch up the other 40% (or maybe they’ll see value in the current finished inventory?)

The facts are that there are developers, buyers, and at least one major bank who are still bullish on the Channel District. Most of the buyers in the first round of Channelside projects were unfortunate in the fact that they had to take delivery with the current market conditions. They put down deposits when the market was hot, but unfortunately, they’re taking delivery in a market with virtually no buyers. Not the way you want it if the plan was to resell immediately upon closing, which was the plan for many.

So maybe buyers at The Slade, in buying in a down market, are betting that by delivery time, the market has improved, excess inventory sold off, and that all will be well. Or maybe most of the buyers will be residents and the Slade is a superior product to what’s been built so far?

And on the other side of the Leroy (Selmon Crosstown Expressway), Element is rising out of the ground with a successful (so I hear) sales campaign to date. But while The Channel District and downtown Tampa are adjacent to one another, they are really two different animals. Downtown is much more lively with it’s swollen daytime population while The Channel District has yet to shed it’s industrial/warehouse district feel.

But in looking into the crystal ball, I think most will see that in 5–10 years, The Channel District will be full of residents, shops, restaurants and other specialty retail, and will have transformed into the hip, urban residential area that so many say it can be.

Browse Condos For Sale in Channelside

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | 1 Comment »

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