Property values in university area on the rise

Tampa has seen a boom in real estate growth in recent years, due in part to the growth of both USF and the University of Tampa (UT).

Online real estate database Zillow predicts home values in Tampa will increase overall in 2016. The highest growth is in the Terrace Park neighborhood, with an estimated 6.7 percent increase. 

Terrace Park is located directly across Fowler Ave. and stretches down to Busch Blvd. between Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and Temple Terrace. 

The neighborhood may seem like an unlikely location for increased home values, but the reasoning is.

Andrew Duncan of Tampa’s Duncan Duo & Associates attributes the growth of the Terrace Park area to the increased availability of restaurants and shopping centers.  

“People wanted to live in areas like South Tampa because of the proximity to restaurants and businesses. Once they realized they could have the same experiences 15 minutes up I-275, they made the economic decision to move to Temple Terrace,” Duncan said.

Dr. Joseph DeSalvo, an urban economics professor at USF, offered another perspective.

“Economics always falls back on supply and demand … If demand is increasing, you’d expect that rents would be going up, as well as the market values of the housing,” DeSalvo said.

Both seemed optimistic for the future of real estate in the Bay Area.

“There’s a lot of positive buzz around Tampa right now,” Duncan said.