Seminole, FL Real Estate. How Much Will It Cost To Live There?

Seminole, FL is continuing to grow at a rapid pace with a rising demand to live here.  Seminole is a smaller city compared to it’s counterparts in Pinellas County covering a little over 5 and a half square miles.  This means that property is limited and with the continued re-development of Seminole City Center Mall, this will have a direct impact on home values.

Renting In Seminole, FL

If you are new to the area, your first thought may be to find a rental.  There’s many avenues you can go through so let’s take a quick tour of what is happening in Seminole in the rental market.

When considering renting a home or a condo, the average range for a 3 bed room 2 bath home is around $1400-$2000 a month in 2017.  You can use portals such as Zillow and Craigslist to get a rough idea.

If you’re looking on the cheaper end, you may be able to get a tiny studio condo for around $850-1100.

Rental rates are notorious for constantly going up.  Very rarely will you ever find yourself in a situation where the land lord decides to bring your costs down no matter how good of a tenant you are.

Because there’s a lot of demand to live here with it’s central location to the many activities of Pinellas County, it makes for a great rental market if you are a land lord.

Buying In Seminole, FL

If you like the area and think you’re going to be around for a few years, it’s more likely to your advantage to buy.  The current trend in 2017 is the interest rates are slowly increasing.  If you’re reading this way in the future then you might have better insight.

Average interest rates across the United States tend to bounce up and down like the stock market and anytime there’s an announcement of a hike by the Federal Reserve.  The Federal Reserve has already announced two rate hikes as of June 2017.  One was March 15th and the other was June 14th.

Another way of looking at this is the average interest rate was at an all time low of roughly 3.5% this time last year, where as today it averages around 4% to 4.5% depending on your source.

That, with the rising appreciation in the Seminole, FL market makes it very costly to save up money and wait.

The average sales in Seminole, FL went from $164,775 in 2013 to $217,220 in 2017.  That’s an average appreciation of 7.25% a year.

If that trend continues into the next year, 7.25% appreciation would turn the average sales price from $217,220 to $232,968.45.  That’s a $15,748.45 average increase in the course of a year.

If we added in rising interest rates especially on a higher loan value then it gets even more expensive but I’ll save you the pain of getting too technical.

Everyone’s situation is different so it doesn’t always mean that buying will be the best case scenario for you.  There’s a lot of factors into owning a home, but it definitely helps to know the numbers so you can make an informed decision.  

Your thoughts may be to save up more money for another year.  But if that home ends up being $15,000 more expensive next year was it really worth it?

Seminole, FL is not isolated in this trend, as the rest of the Tampa Bay Area is experiencing higher than normal appreciation rates across the board, some even much greater than Seminole.

Final Thoughts

I’m a firm believer in practicing what you preach.  As a local realtor that lives in Seminole, FL, I have studied the trends and I see the strong growth in this area.

Just to give some perspective, my wife and I bought our first home together for $193,000. This home is in a great neighborhood within walking distance of Publix and the new Seminole City Center Mall.

I did some research after two months of living in my home and feel comfortable stating that it is valued around $220,000 – $225,000 based on a market analysis I ran on the neighborhood.

It doesn’t always happen this way, but sometimes if you look for the trends, you can find yourself a good catch.  The one trend that was a major reason for buying my home in Seminole, Fl was the growth and development of the Seminole City Center Mall.

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If you’re ready to take the jump and start looking for your home, you can email us at the727team@gmail.com  to get the process started!

Our goal is to provide you all the information you’ll need to see if now is the right time for you to buy.  Our approach is pressure-free and we always put ourselves in the shoes of our clients, they will always come first!