The weather in Tampa on Tuesday morning could not have been better — temperatures in the low 80s and partly cloudy skies. But it’s not going to stay that way.
Hurricane Milton — currently a Category 4 storm — is scheduled to make landfall in Tampa late Wednesday or early Thursday. The strength of the storm has prompted officials to call for an evacuation, one that has already had a stark impact on the city’s housing market.
Data from Altos Research shows that new listings and pending home sales have fallen off a cliff since the storm’s formation.
New listings in Tampa were at 775 on Sept. 27, but they’ve since dropped to 555. Pending sales have experienced a similar pullback, from 741 to 561.
The lower level of activity makes sense. People trying to get out of the way of a major hurricane aren’t overly concerned with putting their house on the market. Additionally, the storm has prompted buyers and home insurers to hit pause.
Tampa-area agent Jeff Borham of eXp Realty said that protocols for insurance are having an impact. According to him, you can’t bind insurance once a storm is named, but if insurance was bound before the storm was named, homebuyers can still close.
The trend is even more dramatic when considering that the Tampa market — which had slowed considerably over the past year — was starting to gain steam.
“Two weekends ago, even right after [Hurricane] Helena, my team had our busiest showing weekend of the year,” Borham said. “Right now we have zero scheduled showings because everybody’s stressed out over the storm. People are evacuating. We’re still getting plywood up, cleaning up their house, getting ready for the storm. There’s literally zero activity right now.”
Borham said that during situations like this, his team transitions from being real estate agents to being members of the community who are helping their neighbors brace for the storm.
“You step up and be a leader, because if you’re a high-producing Realtor, you know a lot of people and have a lot of connections in the trades community and different things,” he said. “Our connections and our leadership ability can really help after a natural disaster.”