If you think now may be a good time to buy a home or condo in the Tampa area, most local real estate experts would probably agree with that notion based on rising mortgage rates alone. But along with higher home loan rates, rent prices are also trending upward here in Tampa, leaving many to wonder whether it’s finally time to make that long-awaited transition from renting to owning.
According to new data from RentCafe, apartment dwellers in the Tampa area are paying about 5.7% more in monthly rent than they were this time last year, which believe it or not represents the 10th-largest increase in the entire country.
Tampa’s spike in rent prices is also well above the national average increase of 4.3%, but still well below markets that saw the highest year-over-year gain, like Stockton and Sacramento, CA for example, which recorded rent price increases of 12.3 and 10.7 percent respectively.
Compared to the first month of the year, however, rent prices in February only increased by a meager 0.2%, so it’s certainly possible we could see the average rent price begin to level off a bit over the next few months as home buyer activity continues to increase during what’s usually one of the busiest times of the year for the housing market. Even still, with Tampa rent prices up nearly 6% compared to 2016, the better long-term decision for anyone out there wondering which direction to take certainly feels like buying sooner rather than later, especially with mortgage rates hovering around 4 percent and widely expected to climb as the year goes on.
Posted by Mike + Michelle Grizzell on
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