Hillsborough County sellers ask $230 a square foot, down from $242

Sellers in Hillsborough County are asking less for each square foot of house than they did a year ago. The median listing price per square foot was $230 in September 2026. That is down 5.0% from $242 in September 2025.

That leaves asking prices below the market's high point. The highest monthly median in the data was $251 per square foot. September's figure sits 8.4% below it, a change of -$21 for every square foot.

For buyers, the shift is modest but real: the same amount of space is listed for less than it was last fall. For sellers, it means pricing against a market that has cooled from its peak, not against the peak itself.

Why price per square foot matters

A median listing price can rise or fall when bigger or smaller homes happen to come on the market. Dividing by square footage strips out much of that swing. It gives a closer read on what space costs across the county.

It is still an asking price. It shows what sellers hope to get, not what buyers end up paying at closing.

A long climb, then a pullback

The recent dip follows years of steep gains. In January 2017, the county's median listing price per square foot was $129. By January 2025, it was $239, up 85.3%. The monthly chart below traces the earlier years of that climb.

A broader yardstick rose even faster. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's all-transactions house price index for Hillsborough County rose 100.1% from 2017 to 2025. It reached 387 in 2025, on a scale indexed to the year 2000.

Over the same stretch, the market got thinner. The total count of listed homes, active plus pending, fell 16.0% between January 2017 and January 2025. Set side by side, the lines show prices pulling away from the supply of homes for sale.

The FHFA index and listing prices measure different things. The index is calibrated using appraisal values and sale prices on mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (St. Louis Fed). The listing figure reflects what sellers ask, which helps explain why the measures can drift apart.

The county-level FHFA numbers also come with a warning. The source says these annual county indexes should be considered developmental (St. Louis Fed). Readers should treat them as a rough guide rather than a final count.

Fewer listings, lower asking prices

The past year broke from the familiar pattern of scarce homes and rising prices. Total listings stood at 8,126 in September 2026. That is down 4.0% from 8,461 a year earlier.

So asking prices per square foot fell even as the number of homes for sale shrank. The listing data show both moving down together. They do not show why.

Other reporting points to a softer regional market. The Business Observer reported that Tampa Bay housing prices declined again, with condo prices in what it called a "free fall" that legislative fixes had yet to resolve (Business Observer).

Sellers have been adjusting. HousingWire data showed that a majority of active listings in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro had reduced prices (housingwire.com). That is a metro-wide figure, not limited to Hillsborough County.

Price cuts feed directly into the median asking price. A falling median per square foot fits with more sellers trimming what they ask. But the data here cannot separate price cuts from new listings that started out lower.

For buyers, the numbers suggest more room to bargain than at the peak, though space still costs far more than it did in 2017. Owners who bought years ago still hold most of the long-run gain. Those who bought near the top are selling into a market that has given some of it back.

The next monthly listing update, covering October 2026, will show whether asking prices per square foot keep sliding into the fall. Watch the gap to the $251 high, and whether listings keep shrinking or begin to build. When FHFA publishes its next annual county index, it will show whether closed sales and appraisals tell the same story as asking prices.

How we did this

We used monthly listing data for Hillsborough County, comparing the median listing price per square foot and total listings (active plus pending) in September 2026 with September 2025 and with the highest month in the series. For the long-run view, we compared January 2017 with January 2025 to avoid seasonal swings, and set those changes against the FHFA all-transactions house price index for the county, which rose 100.1% from 2017 to 2025.

Median listing price per square foot: the middle asking price per square foot among homes listed for sale in a month, with equal numbers of listings asking more and asking less. Total listings: homes actively for sale plus those under contract (pending) but not yet closed. FHFA all-transactions house price index: a measure from the Federal Housing Finance Agency built from appraisal values and sale prices on mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, indexed to the year 2000.

Limitations

• Listing prices are asking prices. They show what sellers hope to get, not what homes actually sold for.
• The FHFA annual county index is labeled developmental by its source and may change as new data arrive.
• The FHFA index is built from mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so it does not reflect every home sale.
• The figures are county-wide medians. They do not show how prices moved in individual neighborhoods or ZIP codes.
• The listing data show what changed, not why. Explanations come from other reporting and cover the wider Tampa Bay area, not Hillsborough County alone.

Sources

• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price per Square Feet in Hillsborough County, FL, latest period September 2026, released Oct. 1, 2026; retrieved Oct. 12, 2026. Data
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): Housing Inventory: Total Listing Count in Hillsborough County, FL, latest period September 2026, released Oct. 1, 2026; retrieved Oct. 12, 2026. Data
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): All-Transactions House Price Index for Hillsborough County, FL, latest period 2025, released March 31, 2026; retrieved Oct. 12, 2026. Data
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): Market Hotness: Median Listing Price in Hillsborough County, FL, latest period August 2026, released Sept. 10, 2026; retrieved Oct. 12, 2026. Data