You heard it here first! We are in a seller's market in the Tampa bay area right now! Move in ready properties are selling quickly. In many instances they are receiving multiple bids and are selling for CASH well above what they would ordinarily appraise for compared to the recent sales. I have been personally experiencing cash buyers over bidding on foreclosure properties by as much as 20%, causing the baseline price per square foot to start trending upward. My buyers are going in at full price and coming out in second place or worse. I have also run across this recently on non distressed listings, IE: I showed a buyer a town house priced at $169,900. Comps showed us lucky to get it to appraise for $150,000. We bid $152,000. A cash buyer appeared on the same day and bid full price. Great for the seller! I called on another property this week. It was a higher end condo in the Channelside area. It had been on the market for 3 days. The agent told me she had multiple offers including a full price cash offer for $400K. Wow! I have agents that work for me experiencing the same thing. She has clients that are facing bidding situations at every turn and are unable to get a property under contract yet. Our low inventory is partly contributing to this. Pent up buyer demand is also strong.

The National Association of Realtors produces a monthly confidence index that’s full of interesting information. For instance, the latest report shows that a third of all real estate transactions in December failed to close. There were three major factors; poor condition of the house, failed to appraise and buyer’s inability to get a mortgage. Only two thirds of all transactions did not have appraisal problems. Hard to get prices to rise if you can’t get them to appraise. We looked at the refinance market this week, looking for a better deal on our home. Here’s what we learned. The new HARP program (Home Affordable Refinance Program) the government is offering has an interesting disqualifier. Your income must not have decreased since 2002 or you’re out. Good job looking out for the folks, government. We know you’ve got our backs! Also, rates for a regular refi were lower by a little bit. Rates were in the middle to low 3’s. I have experienced a lot of buyer demand that is going unfulfilled. This is mainly due to low inventory. It seems no matter what price range I am looking in, I am finding fewer and fewer homes to show my buyers. Sellers that don’t have to sell are holding out. The prices that they can get for their properties are unacceptable to them. Many are turning to the rental option as an alternative to selling. Many times good homes priced right for the market go under contract in a week or less. There is competition for them.