House flipping is hot again in Tampa Bay

Data: ATTOM ; Note: A flip is defined as any transaction between an unrelated buyer and seller within 12 months of a previous transaction; Chart: Axios Visuals

House flipping is hot again in Tampa Bay, new reports show.

Why it matters: Buying a fixer-upper is one way for wishful homeowners to squeak out a deal in hot housing markets like ours, if they can beat investors to it.

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State of flip: Tampa was named one of the top U.S. cities for fixer-upper deals in a recent StorageCafe study , with potential average savings of $80,000 on sales.

• Savings were even higher in Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville.

Zoom in: Despite a national downturn, the trend had a recent spike in Tampa Bay, a recent report from real estate data company ATTOM shows.

• 11% of Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Lakeland-Winter Haven home sales were flips in the last quarter of 2023. That's compared to the national average of 7.7%
• North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton was just under that, at 7.6%.

The big picture: In 2023, house flipping activity nationwide dropped by nearly a third, the biggest annual decline since 2008, per the report.

• Return on investment, at 27.5%, hasn't been this bad since 2007. The ROI was down from 35.7% in 2021.

What they're saying: "The biggest challenge for flippers in 2024 is acquiring new properties while housing stock/inventory is limited and there are few 'good deals' available that make sense from an investment perspective," Arvind Mohan, CEO of fix-and-flip lender Kiavi, told Housingwire .

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