Tampa Bay News: Home Values rising, Zillow Reports, how appreciation impacts financing / re-financing

There are many Tampa Bay area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here to learn about our “Your Home Sold Guaranteed in 29 Days” program or for a free property valuation so you know what your home can sell for in today’s market. You may also call me at (813) 359-8990 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Listen as Andrew Duncan, Tampa Bay's #1 Realtor with guests Arnie and David Diaz from Waterstone Mortgage Corporation talk about how home values in Tampa are rising. They also discuss the Zillow reports and how this appreciation could impact financing or refinancing on The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show on 970 WFLA.

Zillow came into town recently and reported that in the last year, Tampa had a 8.4% appreciation rate. Some areas have a higher appreciation rate that is why it is important to get a professional realtor like Andrew Duncan to go look at your home to make sure you know how much your home is worth.

The home evaluation is not only useful if you want to sell your home. It could also be very helpful if you're thinking about refinancing. Most loans go off on the value of the house. You may have a mortgage insurance on the house which they can take off for you by refinancing. You may have money built up on the house you can use for things like home renovation or adding on to the house.

Arnie advises for consumers to analyze where you're at as far as your appreciation is concerned. Then you can decide how to take advantage of it - if it's the right time to sell or maybe refinance or is it better to wait.


Arnie is a home owner himself and has a property he rents out. He shares that because the rates are going up, his tenant was concerned that he was going to sell the house. The tenant was even willing to up his rent just so that he doesn't have to move. He points out that this news about the rates is good if you are a home owner but bad if you're a tenant.

David adds to the conversation that they are seeing a lot of people who have FHA loans are refinancing out of their current loans. FHA offers low down payment but the have seemingly high mortgage rates. It used to be low in 2009 but after that year it went up. In fact, they have raised their rates 5 times in the past 5 years.

For more Tampa Bay Real Estate news and advice, tune in to The Duncan Duo Real Estate Show on 970 WFLA - Tampa Bay every Sundays at 10 am.