Buying a house in St. Pete - good or bad idea?

[fionafrances]

Originally Posted by sassyroja

I have lived in st. pete for 16 years and lived in all parts of Pinellas County. I have been broken in on one time when i lived on 5th ave s. between 34th street and downtown. I'm black and although I hate to say it, if I were you I would stay on the north side, clearwater is good, but i prefer st. pete. Right now I live in Gulfport and I love it, 4 blocks from beach, good bars and restaurants, street markets.

I've definitely read to stay north of downtown. If we buy we will take that advice for sure. Even looking at a crime map it's easy to tell that there is a lot more crime south of the downtown area.

[fionafrances]

Originally Posted by stpeteguy

Imagine that. A realtor told you the real estate market is doing great. LOL.

They've been saying that since 2007 nonstop. DO NOT get advice from them about such a long term commitment.

That's a decision that you and your spouse need to make based on your own situation.

Lol, well obviously their job is to try and sell houses and that's why I'm asking the question here. What does the market really look like there? I work in a high end tile showroom here in Arizona and although we aren't as busy as we once were we are still getting new homes and remodels all the time so I would say our housing market is picking up. Anyone have any feedback on whether that is true or not for St. Pete?

[chi_tino]

Originally Posted by fionafrances

So if you can stand in your driveway and see 8 for sale sights does that mean inventory isn't moving? Do you live in a historic neighborhood? If so, can you tell me about it? Would you buy a historic property again or are they just too much work?

No, I live in a pretty nice waterfront community in Shore Acres. Several of the for-sale homes are REALLY nice (should sell for $1M+), some are 50-year old teardowns, and others are decent-sized homes with big lawns across the street from the water.

Besides the 8 properties currently for sale, 4 others have sold in the past year within 200 yards of my house. Three were foreclosures.

The main reason that they are not moving are completely due to pricing. For example, in late 2011 (as I noted on this site at the time) you could easily buy a small, concrete-block home on Tampa Bay for $200-250k, maybe $300k if it had some amenities. One of those 8 currently for sale is a 1,200 sq ft concrete block home with no pool or dock being offered for $550,000. That is not a typo. Another home is one of those foreclosures. The owner bought it a year ago, slapped on a new coat of paint and cleaned it up a bit, and marked it up by $200,000.

Just like 2005-2007, I think that some clueless people are just slapping outlandish prices on their homes to see if any suckers will bite. [at the height of the market, the previous owners offered my house at $700k more, and even turned down an offer $300k more than what I paid.] A neighbor of mine recently took his house off the market where it sat for a year, priced about $100-150k above the price at where it would probably appraise.

I'm not buying the "inventory" thing one bit. Two of the 8 for sale are FSBOs, so those "don't count" as "official realtor" inventory, and there are a pile more in the neighborhood going through the foreclosure process. Those apparently don't count, either. In my daily run through the neighborhood I can count dozens for sale. Anyone crying "there's no inventory" is either too lazy to do their homework or is pushing an agenda.

[vaughanwilliams]

Originally Posted by cocaseco

I'd suggest that any in the $150K range are in the bad neighborhoods.

Baloney.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by cocaseco

I'd suggest that any in the $150K range are in the bad neighborhoods.

I'd suggest that you have no clue what you are talking about.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by sassyroja

I have lived in st. pete for 16 years and lived in all parts of Pinellas County. I have been broken in on one time when i lived on 5th ave s. between 34th street and downtown. I'm black and although I hate to say it, if I were you I would stay on the north side, clearwater is good, but i prefer st. pete. Right now I live in Gulfport and I love it, 4 blocks from beach, good bars and restaurants, street markets.

Probably selling my house in the next 6-9 months and moving back to Pinellas. Was thinking of going back to Clearwater where I used to live but also looking at Gulfport and a few other places. Still not sure if I am going to look for another house or go back to a condo.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by fionafrances

My husband is in the military and we are moving to Tampa this summer in July. We originally were going to live on base, but with the housing prices being so low we are thinking of buying a house...

Our budget is $150,000...

We will be stationed at MacDill for about 4 years, when our time is up here will we be able to sell or rent the house? Or are houses just sitting on the market for months and months? I realize we don't stand to make a bunch of money on the investment due to the economy, but we don't want to loose money...

Thanks in advance for any help you lovely people can offer!

Personally I would stick with St.Pete over Tampa, the drive should not be too bad from St.Pete. One thing I would suggest is to rent since you are looking at 4 years in the area, even if you got lucky and prices appreciated at 3% a year over the next 4 years you still would not recoup the closing costs on a loan plus the costs to sell in 4 years.

[PhotoProIP]

Its Not a good idea to buy a house before you are 110% familiar with an area.
I know moving sucks and all, but buying a home and be stuck with it will suck more!

[va_lucky]

Very true...experienced this first hand.

Originally Posted by PhotoProIP

Its Not a good idea to buy a house before you are 110% familiar with an area.
I know moving sucks and all, but buying a home and be stuck with it will suck more!

[nursejerry]

I have lived in St. Pete for a little over 5 years now and love this city! I originally rented a house out at St. Pete Beach and then decided to buy a house downtown. I live in a bungalow in a historic neighborhood just north of downtown. It's called historic uptown and it's not quite as gentrified as Old NE, but slowly getting there. Although there is a lot of foot traffic in this area, I've had no problems with crime so far.

Downtown St. Pete really has a lot to offer as far as restaurants, shops, museums, waterfront parks and NO TRAFFIC!!! I think buying in St. Pete wouldn't be a bad idea but I haven't looked at prices in awhile and I'm not sure what $150k will get you. Historic Kenwood is close to downtown and close to the highway 275 so you'll be convenient to most things in Tampa Bay. I commute to Tampa for work and it takes about 25 minutes to drive from downtown St. Pete to the south tampa/westshore area.(near the Whole Foods) I've also noticed the traffic is always going the opposite direction from me.
When I'm heading back to St. Pete in the evening, 275 is jam packed with bumper to bumper traffic going into Tampa. It seems a lot more people commute from Tampa to St. Pete than vice versa. The drive to MacDill from this area only takes about 25 minutes or so as well across the Gandy Bridge and I've never encountered much traffic going that way.

The area you're interested in is very convenient to a lot of things in Tampa Bay. You'd be a 10-15minute drive from the beaches, a few minutes from downtown St. Pete, about 20 minutes to the airport, and 25-30 minutes from downtown Tampa and the South Tampa area. (You won't be missing anything in northern Tampa) I think it's a great area with centralized location that is convenient to many areas. St. Pete definitely has a better vibe than any other area in Tampa Bay. The only other area I like is South Tampa, but it's very pricey. You'd also be closer to the Skyway Bridge going south and Sarasota is a fun city to visit.

St. Pete has a farmers market every saturday where you can get local produce etc. I've heard it's the largest farmers market in the southeast. Very family friendly and a great place to grab breakfast and enjoy being outdoors with live music. There is also a natural food store called Rollin Oats on 9th street, a 5-10 minute drive from Kenwood. On 4th street there is a Fresh Market which would be a 10 minute drive from the Kenwood area. I've also seen another natural food store out towards the beach on Central Avenue but have not been there. A couple months ago, I read an article that said Whole Foods was possibly opening a location in St. Pete but no word on that yet.

I would definitely stick to north of downtown or possibly Old Southeast. I don't think you would lose money on a $150K home here and would definitely be able to rent it out if you couldn't sell in 4 years. Downtown St. Pete is really thriving and growing. It's a great place to live and I wish you luck and happy house hunting!