Month: November 2024

Tampa realtors are “wait and see” for hurricane real estate recovery

Posted on by olympiamoving

Tampa realtors are “wait and see” for hurricane real estate recovery

It’s no secret that residential real estate listings in Tampa and surrounding areas are in limbo after hurricanes Helene and Milton raged through the region. Even as cleanup and recovery has been underway for weeks, it’s shaping up to be a slow trudge to the finish line.

“Most of us are coming up for air right now,” said Virginia Bond, License Partner-Global Advisor for Engel & Volkers Tampa Downtown. “We’ve experienced damage through this experience or know someone that suffered large losses during the storms.”

While it will take some time, Bond knows there may be a mass sell-off but cautions homeowners to pause and seek advice before making major decisions.  She believes real estate will rebound based on an article published by Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Volume 118, March 2023. “Because the market is so localized, things will be totally different from area-to-area,” she said.

Discussions about interest rates that began at the beginning of 2024 and manifested in a half point drop in September have not yet made a material difference in markets across the country. But the expectation of as much as another point reduction in 2025 are more likely to create movement.

“Florida will need that. Especially considering that there are people who will have to move now but weren’t planning to,” Bond said.

A September survey of consumers by Fannie Mae found 42 percent of respondents said they expect mortgage rates to decline over the next year. At the same time, consumers expect prices to rise, a factor that seems to have replaced interest rates as what consumers consider to be the biggest barrier to housing affordability.

An already small inventory of available homes will be even smaller, at least before they get repaired. Homes that avoided hurricane damage and that are out of flood zones will be in even higher demand, Bond said.

Getting properties fixed and ready to be sold in a post hurricane environment is proving challenging. Bond recounted the story of a client who owns multiple properties in the Tampa area with upwards of $50,000 of deductibles that need to be paid to remediate hurricane damages. Hiring companies to do the work has been next to impossible so far because demand is outpacing capacity.

Bond and Engel & Volkers Tampa Downtown are gathering resources and creating a list of various vendors that can help clients with their recovery – from roof repair and flood mitigation to moving and storage. We’ve also hosted an event for agents to attend and get information for their clients,” Bond said. “People need resources right now so we are planning the same event for homeowners who need help.”

About Olympia

Olympia is a full-service residential and commercial moving company and commercial services firm. In addition to the packing, loading and hauling household goods for homeowners who are moving across the street or around the country, Olympia performs commercial services including warehousing for FF+E projects, decommissioning and liquidation, facilities management and logistics and much more. Olympia is an INTERstate Agent for Wheaton World Wide Moving. You can learn more about Olympia at olympiamoving.com and Olympiaofficemovers.com or call 800-222-4744

Storms of Change: How Hurricanes Affect Tampa’s Older Adults

Posted on by carlosstanza

For older adults in Tampa, moving can be difficult. A lifetime worth of belongings is a lot to sort through in making decisions about what to bring to a new home. Throw a hurricane on top of that and the results are devastating.

“It’s as if you lose someone tragically and you can’t process it,” said Kathy Blair (MS, MBA), Founder and Principal of KRB Move Management. “The hurricanes came in the middle of the night. They couldn’t process the goodbyes to their belongings like they would during a move.”

 KRB is a Senior Move Management (SMM) company, certified by the National Association of Senior & Specialty Move Managers (NASMM). SMMs provide older adults with assistance in organizing, downsizing, space planning, packing and helping with the move-out and move-in process. SMMs are trained to focus on the physical and psychological needs of their clients to make the relocation process as smooth and seamless as possible for people who might have lived in their homes for many decades and who could have physical infirmities, dementia or other disabilities.

According to a 2022 U.S. Census Bureau report more than three million adults age 65 and over moved during the prior year, or about 6.2 percent of the population 65 or older. The same report showed that about 165,000 people age 65 or older moved in, or out, of Florida during the same time period. It’s a population that continues to be mobile despite overall downward trends in the mobility of the U.S. population.  

As it relates to Tampa-area hurricanes, Blair said mobility has been a huge issue for the older population. “If some people can dig in and remove things from their damaged homes, and get everything out, this group is more challenged physically in doing that.” Blair said Tampa Bay’s older population is tending to rely more on disaster relief companies coming in to help. But,understandably, those companies operate without the same attention to detail that an SMM would.

“Typically what we would do is apply a process,” Blair said. “The hardest thing I’m seeing, and it’s really hard to look at, is that their lives are on the curb. It’s their underwear. Their photo albums. People’s yearbooks. Things they could have made peace with letting go of if it was their decision.”

 Anecdotally, Blair said a lot of older adults decided not to evacuate their homes based on their previous experiences. They really didn’t think the water would reach their homes. Evacuations tend to be harder on older people and they justified their decisions based on the hassle of getting out versus the risk of what they thought would be minor damage.  

 Blair believes the aftermath of the storms will hasten older adults’ plans to leave the Tampa Bay area. Many might have been planning for it to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Now, there’s the added desire to be out of harm’s way and avoid the risk of future storms.

“People have Hurricane fatigue and there’s a shifting of what’s important to people and what they can afford to do. Many of our seniors are retired living on a fixed income. It’s going to impact decisions,” Blair said.

In North St. Petersburg, where Blair lives, flooding was the ultimate cause of damage.

“Some of the [older adults] didn’t carry coverage,” Blair said. “This community had not been flooded before. They didn’t think it would happen.”

Confusion about what flood insurance actually covers has ensued and many have received an education they never wanted. Insurance costs and pressure to increase Home OwnersAssociation (HOA) dues simply add to the reasons older adults might decide to leave Tampa Bay and surrounding areas for other states. Or, at the very least, head inland.  

I do think we’ll see more of people moving inland in Florida thinking, ‘I have to get off the water.’ I can’t live like this. I’m going to move to a condo in a no flood zone,” Blair said.

About Olympia

 Olympia is a full-service residential and commercial moving company and commercial services firm. In addition to the packing, loading and hauling household goods for homeowners who are moving across the street or around the country, Olympia performs commercial services including warehousing for FF+E projects, decommissioning and liquidation, facilities management and logistics and much more. Olympia is an INTERstate Agent for Wheaton World Wide Moving. You can learn more about Olympia at olympiamoving.com and Olympiaofficemovers.com or call 800-222-4744