Did you sell your swamp shack in time or are you now stuck for a while longer?
Electric Florida boomtown is now America's foreclosure ground zero... as four failings ignite perfect storm
By MARTHA WILLIAMS, US NEWS REPORTER Published: 10:17 EST, 15 November 2025
Hurricane season may be winding down, but Tampa’s housing market is getting battered by its own perfect storm.
New foreclosure data shows the Florida city now has the highest foreclosure rate of any major US metro.
One in every 1,373 homes received a filing - the first step in the process, when a lender warns a borrower they're in default - in October, far worse than any other city with a population above one million.
Foreclosures in general are up in America. In October alone, there were 36,766 national foreclosure filings. That's up 19 percent from a year ago.
Tampa’s spike is particularly alarming. The city had 1,087 total foreclosure filings in October. That is significantly more than the 366 in October 2024.
Analysts at ATTOM say Tampa's increase is partly explained by the addition of backlogged records from Hillsborough County, but the city's foreclosure numbers have been high in recent months as well.
And foreclosures are only one piece of the city's deepening housing slump.
Local real estate agent Jeff Lichtenstein of Echo Fine Properties told the Daily Mail that Tampa's troubles come down to four main issues.
The first is hurricane damage in nearby areas on the coast, which has made buyers far more cautious about purchasing in neighborhoods viewed as vulnerable. Even if a particular suburb wasn’t hit, he said the fear lingers.
Secondly, there are less Canadians moving to America in general, a major shift that he said has cut into one of Tampa’s most reliable sources of demand.
Third, condo assessments have exploded since the Surfside tragedy - and that’s having a huge impact.
After the deadly 2021 collapse of a 12-story building in Surfside, Florida introduced strict new safety rules requiring buildings to undergo expensive structural inspections and repairs. Many condo owners are now facing massive special assessments of tens of thousands of dollars.
Experts have said that has spooked buyers across the state, especially in older or high-rise buildings, of which Tampa has many. Deals are falling apart because buyers don’t want to inherit surprise bills or uncertain future costs.
Finally, Lichtenstein said Tampa simply isn’t as high in demand as warmer areas in the south of Florida. Buyers chasing the 'Florida sunshine' increasingly favor Miami, Naples and Fort Myers, which all see smaller seasonal dips in temperature.
Aside from his 'big four' reasons, Lichtenstein added that tariffs have driven up the cost of materials and renovations, leaving consumers with less money to spend on homes, and making new construction pricier across the region.
For months now, Tampa has been in buyer's market territory.
A buyer's market happens when there are more homes for sale than people willing to buy them. That gives buyers all the power: They can haggle down prices, demand repairs or incentives, and take their time before making an offer.
While that might sound like good news for anyone house-hunting, a strong buyer's market can quickly turn dangerous for the wider economy.
Whether an area is a buyer's or a seller's market is measured by months of supply - how long it would take to sell all homes currently listed if no new ones hit the market. Two to three months of supply signals strong demand and favors sellers. Six months or more means homes are sitting unsold, tipping the balance to buyers.
Tampa had a 7.2-month supply of homes in August - up from a 6.3-month supply in June, placing it firmly in the buyer's market zone and making it the fifth strongest of the top 50 US metro areas.
Tampa was a pandemic boomtown, and now its housing market is paying the price for overdeveloping as a result of the 2020 to 2022 demand.
People flocked to the city in search of space and sunshine when lockdown hit, but now demand is dwindling, and brand new homes are sitting on the market with little interest.
In fact, Tampa had a net inflow of just 10,000 residents last year, according to data from Redfin. That is less than a third of the 35,000 in 2023.
The condo market in particular has been suffering.
Potential condo buyers have been abandoning deals, spooked by high prices, rising homeowners association (HOA) fees and insurance costs, while sellers are growing increasingly desperate to offload properties.
There were an estimated 72.3 percent more condo sellers than buyers (108,945 more) nationwide in August - the fifth straight month in which that figure has been over 70 percent.
Among the 50 biggest US cities, five of the 10 with the biggest surplus of condo sellers over buyers are in Florida. Tampa, where there were 241.2 percent more sellers was hit especially hard.
Tampa also had the country's highest home sale cancelation rate in September, with a staggering 20 percent of home-purchase agreements being called off - up 17.7 percent from the same time last year.
Adding to the Florida city's many struggles across the board, its home values are plummeting 3.3 percent year-on-year, according to August data.
This is the steepest drop in the country, and Tampa has now notched 10 straight months of falling prices.
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