Tampa: Beyond the Beach

Five years ago, few would have predicted that. Like most places in Florida, Tampa was hit hard by the real estate crisis. The median home price fell from $210,000 in 2006 to $91,000 in 2011, according to Zillow. But to new arrivals, that can look like an advantage. While prices have risen in the past three years, they’re still more than a third below 2006 peaks. A 1920s three-bedroom bungalow in the Seminole Heights section or a newer four-bedroom home in the planned community of Tampa Palms can be had for less than $300,000.

Tampa’s potential isn’t tied just to affordable real estate. A recent airport expansion helped bring flights from Seattle and Zurich and in turn helped lure a Bristol-Myers Squibb marketing and IT center with 600 jobs. An Amazon distribution plant, opened last year, brought 1,000 more. Moody’s estimates job growth in Tampa at nearly 15% in the next five years. “Tampa still isn’t on the radar of people in the Northeast and the Midwest,” says Jeffrey Vinik, a former hedge fund manager (and owner of the hockey team), who is also investing in redevelopment projects and a new medical center. He moved his family here from Boston three years ago. “I think it’s going boom,” Vinik says.