The Tampa and St. Petersburg area ranks among the top cities in the nation for housing and housing sales. But there are still problems with infrastructure, such as roads.
That’s the word from a study by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which last week named the best U.S. markets for real estate investors.
The Tampa/St. Petersburg area came in 11th in the nation, trailing cities like Austin, Texas, which came in first, Raleigh/Durham in second place and Nashville, Tennessee in third. Orlando came in seventh.
It is a small step down from a year ago, when Tampa Bay made it into the study’s top 10 for the first time. But the margin separating it from 10th place is thin, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate-2020 report.
Population growth, a friendly business climate and low prices are contributing to Tampa Bay’s ranking, along with Florida’s low taxes. Housing costs in the area - when compared to other communities - is also a factor.
That’s according to Anita Kramer, Senior Vice President of the Urban Land Institute, a network of real estate and land use professionals.
“There's a growing cool factor, the lifestyle attracts people to the city, and I'm sure you've noticed that yourself,” said Kramer.
The group interviewed people from the Tampa Bay area, who said they were enthusiastic about the area’s quality of life and talent pool, but saw real challenges in both physical infrastructure and “soft” infrastructure, including education, regional collaboration, and marketing.”
The report says there's a new market that real estate investors are interested in and Emerging Trends coined the term “Hipsturbia” for it. “It's a suburban area for hipsters and it's what's most desirable,” the report said.
