St. Petersburg Real Estate

The median value of an owner-occupied St. Petersburg home is $371,100 in the ACS 2020-2024, against $355,100 for Pinellas County as a whole.

Both are ACS five-year estimates covering 2020 through 2024 (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04). Of the city's 141,508 housing units, 55.3 percent are single detached houses and 18.3 percent are in buildings of 20 or more units (ACS 2020-2024, DP04). Only 2.2 percent are mobile homes, against 9.0 percent across the county (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04).

Compared with Pinellas County, St. Pete has a larger share of early homes: 9.0 percent of units were built in 1939 or earlier, compared with 3.5 percent countywide, and just 1.7 percent were built in 2020 or later (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04).

At the top of the market, 7.9 percent of owner-occupied St. Petersburg homes are valued at $1,000,000 or more and 22.6 percent at $500,000 to $999,999; the county's million-dollar share is 6.3 percent (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04). Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $1,987 a month in selected owner costs, and owners without one pay $695 (ACS 2020-2024, DP04). In the city 43.5 percent of owner-occupied homes carry no mortgage, against 48.9 percent countywide (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04).

Turnover is recent for many households: 23.0 percent of St. Pete householders moved into their unit in 2020 to 2022 and 5.5 percent in 2023 or later (ACS 2020-2024, DP04).

Values swing widely by neighborhood. The Digital Towns St. Petersburg neighborhoods guide compares Census tracts across the city, and the market trends guide follows recent sale prices and inventory.

Median gross rent in St. Petersburg is $1,663 a month in the ACS 2020-2024, slightly above the Pinellas County median of $1,642.

Renters occupy 37.2 percent of the city's occupied homes, compared with 30.5 percent in the county (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04). Rent is a heavy load for many of them: 47.8 percent of St. Petersburg renter households spend 35 percent or more of household income on gross rent (ACS 2020-2024, DP04). The rental vacancy rate is 8.4 percent and the homeowner vacancy rate 1.6 percent (ACS 2020-2024, DP04).

For a renter comparing St. Pete apartments, the city and county medians differ by only $21 a month (ACS 2020-2024, DP04; Pinellas County, DP04), and the Digital Towns neighborhoods guide shows how rents differ from one Census tract to the next.

Only 7.3 percent of occupied St. Pete homes have no vehicle available (ACS 2020-2024, DP04).

St. Petersburg issued permits for 2,641 new housing units in 2025, and 1,905 of them were in buildings of five or more units.

The Census Bureau's 2025 Building Permits Survey row for St. Petersburg shows 629 single-family units valued at $286,673,748, 88 units in 44 two-unit buildings, 19 units in 5 three- and four-unit buildings and 1,905 units in 20 buildings of five or more units, valued at $225,991,511 (Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, 2025). The total of 2,641 units is a sum of those four columns (629 + 88 + 19 + 1,905); the file has no total column.

Construction in a flood zone also follows local permit rules, and the city's permitting line for those questions is 727-893-7231 (City of St. Petersburg, Flooding). The Digital Towns St. Petersburg new construction guide follows the pipeline, impact fees and freeboard rules, and the downtown condos guide covers milestone inspections and reserve studies for older towers.

A St. Petersburg buyer should look up the FEMA flood zone first, because a home in a Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally backed mortgage must carry flood insurance by federal law.

The city points buyers to the FEMA Flood Map Service Center and to its own Prepare, St. Pete map, which also shows the city's stormwater floodplain; many areas in it are not included in the FEMA floodplains (City of St. Petersburg, Flooding). New FEMA flood maps took effect on August 24, 2021, and in a Coastal A Zone building requirements are the same as the V Zone standard (City of St. Petersburg, Flooding). Owners in a flood zone also need to know the city's 49% Rule before planning a renovation (City of St. Petersburg, Flooding).

Reading the map letters matters. Pinellas County explains that Coastal A Zones lie landward of a V Zone and can see breaking waves of 1.5 to 3 feet in a base flood, that shaded Zone X marks moderate risk between the base flood and the 0.2 percent annual chance (500-year) flood, and that unshaded Zone X is minimal risk (Pinellas County, Flood Maps and Zones). The county also warns that the base flood elevation printed on the maps is accurate only to plus or minus half a foot, so an exact figure comes from the Flood Profiles or Flood Elevation Tables in the Flood Insurance Study (Pinellas County, Flood Maps and Zones).

St. Petersburg has taken part in the National Flood Insurance Program since its first flood rate map of May 28, 1971, and it has held Community Rating System class 5 since October 1, 2016, which brings a 25 percent premium discount inside the Special Flood Hazard Area and 10 percent outside it (FEMA NFIP Community Status Book).

The Digital Towns St. Petersburg waterfront guide covers seawalls, dock permits and sea level, and the safety hub's flood zones guide explains zones and evacuation levels.

Storm recovery money is the newest change: on October 9, 2026, the city announced an additional $173 million allocation for its Sunrise St. Pete program, with $126 million for housing recovery.

The city says it first received $159.8 million in HUD disaster recovery funding after the 2024 hurricanes, for Hurricanes Helene and Idalia, and that the first allocation could not help residents hurt only by Hurricane Milton (City of St. Petersburg, Sunrise St. Pete release). The new money will focus on residents previously denied who have a Milton impact; the remaining $47.6 million goes to infrastructure and mitigation projects with Pinellas County (City of St. Petersburg, Sunrise St. Pete release). People who already applied to a single-family Sunrise St. Pete program do not need to apply again (City of St. Petersburg, Sunrise St. Pete release).

Five Digital Towns guides cover St. Petersburg real estate: neighborhoods, market trends, new construction, downtown condos and waterfront property.

• Which part of the city fits a budget, and how values and rents differ by area: the St. Petersburg neighborhoods guide.
• What homes are selling for now and how long they sit: the St. Petersburg market trends guide.
• How many homes are being built, what fees apply and how high new homes must sit: the St. Petersburg new construction guide.
• What to check before buying in an older downtown tower: the St. Petersburg downtown condos guide.
• What owning on the water involves, from seawalls to dock permits: the St. Petersburg waterfront real estate guide.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, for St. Petersburg against ACS 2020-2024 table DP04 for the city and county, the 2025 Census building permits file, the FEMA community status record, the city flooding page and the October 9, 2026 Sunrise St. Pete release.