Tampa Bay housing inventory numbers down

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - If you are in the market to buy a home, you may have a harder time finding one right now. Realtors say the number of homes for sale in the Tampa Bay area are hitting new lows.

According to Coldwell Banker's Market Trends, from May 2011 to this July, total inventory in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco Counties is down 29%.  Realtors say homes that usually sell in seven months are now taking five.

Barbara Jordan, with the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, said,  "It is turning quicker and there's less coming on the market. So at this point, we have a bit of a shortage especially in some price ranges."

Jordan says there are two reasons for the drop.  "Sellers who currently own homes who would like to sell but cannot sell because they are currently upside-down in their mortgages. Their houses are worth less than their mortgages." Or, she says, the homes are bank-owned and tied up in the foreclosure process and low inventory is creating a seller's market.

Pam Kravitz wants to move her family to St. Pete from New Jersey. She hopes to call the Isle of Caya Costa home, but it wasn't her first choice.

Kravitz said, "The things that are really well-priced, and done up well, they go fast. We find that even within five to seven days if the house is realistically priced, and it's done up well, it's gone. You can't even look at it a second time."

Pam bid on several other homes, but says the one in this neighborhood is the only one someone else didn't buy first. Kravitz said, "We've been looking for four months, thinking that this was going to be an easy thing to do, and it has been anything but easy."

Kravitz says she's excited move into the home in September.