Home prices in the Tampa Bay area fell 19.6 percent this past year, the seventh worst drop among 20 cities in the S&P Case-Shiller home price index. Miami was the second worst with a 24.6 percent drop. The label of “Tampa Bay Area” encompasses a wide and diverse area, though and it’s worth pointing out that many of the factors of the housing bubble don’t necessarily apply to south Tampa.
Discouraged by all the bad news about the real estate market? Maybe something good can come from the housing slump. Starbucks has blamed the housing market decline, particularly in California and Florida for it’s decrease in revenues:
The St. Pete Times reports that “Preliminary figures from the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s Office show a 3 percent drop from 2007 to 2008. The office has records dating back to 1974. The only other drop since then was in 1992, when values declined by 2 percent.”
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