Unaffordable Housing in Port Tampa

I check zip 33616 on REALTOR.com a couple times a week just to see what's happening to housing prices in the area. It's not an exhaustive list of homes for sale as it doesn't include the full Multiple Listing Service (MLS), but you don't have to register and risk getting sales calls. Anyway, my non-scientific analysis reveals 65 properties for sale excluding bare lots, up from 29 in August '05. Many of these are not within the Port Tampa boundaries because 33616 includes West Shore Yacht Club, Casa Bella and portions of Sun Bay South (aka Gandy). However, the new construction listings in Port Tampa City include a variety of builders, sizes and styles, of single family homes. The price range is $329,000-$559,000 and I'm still smarting from the coffee I snorted through my nose. Three of these houses are within one block of our house which was built in 2005. One is the exact same floor plan priced $140,000 more than we paid and we've only been in it four months, though the contract was signed almost a year ago.

When I'm not busy taking care of that broken arm from patting myself on the back (for my astute real estate choice) I'm worried that the neighborhood has become unaffordable for military families like ours. We chose Port Tampa primarily so the husband could ride his bike or run to his office at MacDill, then we fell in love with it. We've been downright obnoxious in our declarations of how little gas we use and how much more family time we have than his co-workers who commute from FishHawk Ranch. We'll have to silence or crowing soon, there's no point encouraging people to consider becoming our neighbors when they'd have to win the lottery to do it.