Real Estate News and Trends:

If you haven’t heard, Tampa Bay housing sales and prices rose to post-recession highs in 2013.  According to a recent article in the Tampa Bay Times, more than 35,000 homes sold here last year.  The median home sold for $155,000, the highest price since 2008.  Each month’s median sales price last year averaged 18 percent higher than the year before and even the lowest priced month in 2013 did better than the best month on 2011.  Data from Corelogic show the rate of “underwater” homes in our area fell from 45 percent to 30 percent.  We needed that good news!

And, the word is out….. Bayfront Tower (One Beach Drive, SE) has begun its $10 million, two year renovation project that includes painting the exterior of the building a new color scheme, a new roof and hurricane-hardened floor to ceiling windows on the balconies.  Bayfront Tower has 255 residential units and 13 commercial units.

You can read more about Bayfront Tower in the Tampa Bay Times…