Pinellas County, Florida

It's one of the most livable stretches of the Gulf Coast, with beach towns, walkable downtowns like St Petersburg and Dunedin, and quick 20-minute access to Tampa and its airport. Distinct communities from Palm Harbor to Seminole give you very different lifestyles within a small area. Whether you want island beaches or a leafy neighborhood, the peninsula covers it.

It sits in the middle of the Florida range: the median list price is $412,500 and homes sold over the past year came in at a median of $393,500. Average price per square foot runs about $368 on a median home size of 1,339 square feet. You can find homes under $200k on the low end and more than 1,000 listings above $1 million at the top.

Active listings span from $11,500 to $37,500,000, with a median of $412,500. The market leans toward smaller footprints — a median 1,339 square feet at roughly $368 per square foot — reflecting the heavy condo share. For waterfront, expect to pay a premium; there are currently more than 1,500 waterfront homes available.

There are 6,824 active listings and 17,644 homes sold over the last 12 months, so it's an active, well-supplied market. Homes take a median of 58 days to sell and sellers are getting about 96% of asking on average, which points to room for negotiation. Watching just reduced listings is a smart way to spot motivated sellers.

The median HOA runs about $630 a month, driven largely by the county's big condo inventory, and median property tax is around $3,968 a year. If you prefer to skip monthly dues, single-family homes generally carry lower or no HOA costs. For comparison, median rent in the county is about $2,450 a month.