REMAX Realtor in Tampa, FL

These are our own numbers, pulled from Stellar MLS closed sales inside the City of Tampa over the trailing twelve months all 9,058 of them, with rental records and manufactured housing removed. Not a vendor estimate, not a three-month snapshot.

Single-family homes: 6,114 sales, $460,000 median, 27 days on market. Condominiums: 1,187 sales, $260,000 median, 48 days. Townhomes landed between at $380,000 and 42 days across 1,023 sales. Villas were the quickest category at 22 days.

Be careful with the headline numbers you see elsewhere, because the public portals disagree sharply on Tampa right now. One widely-cited figure put the Tampa median at $479,000 and up 10% year over year on a rolling three-month basis; another put it at $445,000 and down 3.3% for a single month; a third at $400,000 and up 2.6%. Those cannot all describe the same market, and the differences come from different boundaries, different windows, and different property mixes. We publish the MLS figures above and tell you exactly what window they cover.

On competitiveness, Redfin scored Tampa 46 out of 100 “somewhat competitive”, with the median sale closing at 96.9% of list price, only 14.3% of homes selling above list, and 42% of listings carrying a price drop. That is a market where buyers can negotiate and where overpricing gets punished.

Hillsborough County has only three incorporated cities, Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Plant City. Everything else, including Brandon, Valrico, Riverview, FishHawk, and Lithia, is unincorporated county. Which side of that line a parcel sits on changes both your tax bill and who issues your permits.

For tax year 2025, a City of Tampa parcel carried 19.8428 total mills: the city’s own 6.2076, school levies totaling 6.3400, countywide 5.5212, Library Services 0.5583, HART transit 0.5000, the Children’s Board 0.4589, SWFWMD 0.1831, and the Port Authority 0.0737.

An unincorporated Hillsborough parcel carried 18.2515 mills about 8% less. It pays no municipal millage at all. Instead it pays a General Purpose County MSTU of 4.6163 mills, which funds the municipal-equivalent services, plus the same Library Services levy. Net of everything, the unincorporated municipal-equivalent bundle runs about one mill cheaper than Tampa’s city rate.

One wrinkle worth knowing because it is counterintuitive: Temple Terrace has the highest municipal rate in the county at 6.4550 mills, yet a lower all-in total than Tampa (19.5319), because Temple Terrace parcels pay no Library Services millage. Plant City pays neither Library nor HART transit, which is why its total of 18.2926 nearly matches unincorporated despite a 5.7157 city levy. Never infer a tax bill from the city rate alone.

Note that every figure above is ad valorem millage only. Non-ad valorem assessments, things like solid waste, stormwater, and fire assessments, are billed separately and are not included in any millage number. Pull the actual parcel on the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser site before you budget.

This is the number that reframes Tampa for most buyers: the city covers roughly 114.5 square miles of land and 63.6 square miles of water. More than a third of Tampa’s area is water, between Tampa Bay, Hillsborough Bay, the Hillsborough River, and the bayous threading through South Tampa. Flood exposure is not an edge case here; it is a central feature of the market.

On the insurance side, FEMA’s Community Rating System gives NFIP premium discounts based on how well a community manages its floodplain, and the gap here just widened. The City of Tampa is rated Class 5, earning a 25% discount, while unincorporated Hillsborough County improved to Class 4, earning 30%, effective October 1, 2026. FEMA notified the county of the upgrade in July 2026, and the county estimates it saves unincorporated residents roughly $7.1 million a year. So being outside Tampa city limits is now worth five percentage points on your flood premium, on top of the lower millage.

The exception is worth knowing: Temple Terrace is rated Class 8, earning only a 10% discount, and Plant City is Class 6 at 20%. Each municipality is its own NFIP community, so never apply the county’s number to a city parcel or vice versa.

For the detail on zone types, elevation certificates, and how to look up a specific address, see our Tampa waterfront and flood zone guide and the Tampa Bay buyer due diligence checklist. The practical move on any Tampa tour: ask for the current flood premium and declarations page, the elevation certificate if one exists, and the permit history, then get the policy quoted in your own name before your inspection period closes.

Every jurisdiction in Hillsborough County uses the same 50% threshold for substantial improvement and substantial damage, if the cost of repairs or improvements to a flood-zone building reaches half the structure’s market value, the whole building must be brought into floodplain compliance. What differs, and what costs people money, is how long the clock runs and when it starts.

Unincorporated Hillsborough County uses a 12-month cumulative look-back: repairs, alterations, and additions are added together, and the accumulation period begins when the permit for the first improvement is issued and runs through 12 months after the certificate of occupancy or final inspection, whichever gives the longer period. The City of Tampa also uses a one-year cumulative window, but it begins on the later of the final inspection on trade permits or the certificate of occupancy. Plant City runs a one-year window from the first permit issued after June 13, 2016. Temple Terrace has no cumulative window at all it applies the plain single-project 50% test.

So a contractor who tells you “Hillsborough uses a 12-month look-back” is right for a Brandon address and wrong for a Tampa one. Confirm the rule with whichever department issues your permit before you phase a renovation, because splitting a project across two permits does not reset the clock in three of the four jurisdictions.

Tampa also carries a trigger the county does not, and it matters in South Tampa: a structure counts as substantially damaged if it sustains flood-related damage on two separate occasions within ten years where the repair cost each time averaged 25% or more of market value. That is the NFIP repetitive-loss test. Two moderate flood claims can push a Tampa house into mandatory-elevation territory without either single event approaching 50%.

On valuation, both the county and the city define market value as the structure only, excluding land, established either by a qualified independent appraiser’s actual cash value or by 120% of the Property Appraiser’s assessed structure value. The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser publishes a FEMA 50% Rule lookup and calculator enter a folio or address and get the threshold for that parcel. Use it before you budget a flood-zone remodel. Hillsborough’s pre-FIRM cutoff is June 18, 1980; homes predating it are where this bites hardest.

Florida splits sinkhole protection into two completely different coverages, and the gap between them is where owners get hurt.

Catastrophic ground cover collapse is mandatory. Under Statute 627.706(1)(a) every insurer writing property insurance in Florida must provide it. But it pays only when all four of these are true: an abrupt collapse of the ground cover, a depression clearly visible to the naked eye, structural damage to the building including the foundation, and the structure being condemned and ordered vacated by the authorized government agency. The statute states explicitly that damage consisting merely of settling or cracking does not qualify.

Sinkhole loss coverage is optional and costs extra. Under 627.706(1)(b) the insurer must make it available for an additional premium and may require an inspection first. It is far broader, structural damage caused by sinkhole activity, with no condemned-and-vacated requirement. Residential sinkhole deductibles run 1%, 2%, 5%, or 10% of your dwelling limit; on a $500,000 dwelling limit a 10% sinkhole deductible is $50,000.

Put plainly: without the optional endorsement, a cracked slab and a sinking foundation are your problem. Florida requires insurers to spell this out in bold type no smaller than 14 points when sinkhole coverage is excluded, read that page of the policy.

Two things to do in Hillsborough. First, search the address: the Property Appraiser runs a public Subsidence Search by folio, owner, address, or subdivision, flagging parcels as unremediated, remediated, or inconclusive. It is limited data and the office disclaims its accuracy, so treat it as a starting point, not a clearance. Second, know that a seller must disclose a paid sinkhole claim before closing under Statute 627.7073(2)(c), including whether the full proceeds were actually used to repair the damage, and the insurer’s report and payment amount get recorded with the clerk of court, so a paid claim is discoverable in the public record.

One more deadline: a sinkhole claim is barred unless notice was given within two years after the policyholder knew or reasonably should have known about the loss, per 627.706(5).

This is the most useful thing in our Tampa sales data and you will not find it on a portal. In the 33629 and 33606 luxury corridor, time on market does not rise smoothly with price, it breaks at roughly $1.1 million.

Below that line, high-end South Tampa is genuinely liquid. Southland sold at a $1,100,000 median in 9 days. Virginia Park went at $962,450 in 15 days. Palma Ceia Park 26 sales, the busiest luxury pocket in the city, cleared a $1,000,000 median in 17 days.

Above it, the same neighborhoods stall. Sunset Park took 116 days at a $1,150,000 median. Davis Islands took 122 days at $1,340,000. Beach Park took 157 days at $1,519,000, more than five months.

If you are selling in that upper band, plan for a materially longer marketing period and price accordingly from day one; the data says chasing the market down from an aspirational number costs you a season. If you are buying above $1.1 million in South Tampa, you have far more negotiating leverage than the neighborhood’s reputation suggests.

Tampa condos sold at a $260,000 median in 48 days over the trailing twelve months, against $460,000 and 27 days for single-family. So condos trade at roughly 57% of a house and take nearly twice as long to sell. Independently, the Zillow Home Value Index for Tampa condos fell 7.5% over the year ending August 2026 while the single-family index was essentially flat at −0.35%.

The cause is largely Florida’s post-Surfside structural safety law, and it applies statewide. Condo and co-op buildings three habitable stories or more must complete a milestone inspection under Statute 553.899 by December 31 of the year the building turns 30, then every 10 years, with local authorities able to require it at 25 years. Separately, Statute 718.112(2)(g) requires a Structural Integrity Reserve Study at least every 10 years, and associations that must have one can no longer vote to waive or underfund reserves for the covered structural components. Buildings that deferred maintenance are now legally required to price it and fund it.

Downtown Tampa shows the carrying-cost side clearly. In our sales data, Grand Central at Kennedy condos moved at a $367,500 median but took 110 days, with median HOA dues near $960 a month. The Quarter at Ybor ran $171,156 with dues near $799. Those dues are not incidental, at $960 a month you are carrying roughly $11,500 a year before taxes or insurance.

None of that makes Tampa condos a bad buy. It makes the documents decisive. Before you waive due diligence, get the completed milestone inspection, the SIRS, current reserve balances, the last 12 months of board minutes, and any special assessment voted or under discussion. A well-funded building at a higher price is usually the better deal than a cheap one whose assessment has not landed yet.