Hillsborough County is not an old county. Census QuickFacts puts 16.5% of residents at 65 or older, against 28.7% across the bay in Pinellas and 22.8% for Florida as a whole. It sits more than twelve points below its neighbour.
That statistic misleads if you stop there. Hillsborough's retired population is not spread thinly across the county, it is pooled in particular places, above all Sun City Center in the south with roughly 9,500 age-restricted homes. So the reverse mortgage picture in this county is not one market, it is several, and the answer changes enormously between a 55 plus villa in Kings Point and a house on Davis Islands.
Tampa and Hillsborough County by the numbers
| Figure | Value | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Tampa median sale price | $465,547 | Redfin, June 2026, up 1.2% year over year |
| Hillsborough single-family median sale price | $445,155 | Suncoast Tampa Association of REALTORS monthly report, June 2026 |
| Hillsborough condo and townhouse median | $270,000 | Same report, June 2026 |
| Condo months of supply, Hillsborough | 5.5 months | Same report, June 2026. The Florida condo average was 7.8 months in July 2026 |
| Tampa residents aged 65 or older | 13.7% | US Census QuickFacts, ACS 2020-2024 5-Year Estimates |
| Hillsborough County residents aged 65 or older | 16.5% | US Census QuickFacts. Pinellas is 28.7%, Florida 22.8% |
| Median year built, Tampa | 1974 | City of Tampa Housing Needs Assessment, March 2024, using ACS 5-Year Estimates |
| Average home insurance premium, Tampa | $5,393 per year | Insurify, August 2026, at $300,000 dwelling coverage and a $1,000 deductible. Florida average on the same basis $5,599 |
| Median annual property tax bill, Tampa | $3,477 | Ownwell, updated April 2026, median effective rate 1.24%. Private aggregator, tax year not stated |
| FHA HECM maximum claim amount | $1,249,125 | HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-22, for 2026 case numbers |
Figures are as published by the cited sources as of August 2026 and will move. Nothing here is an offer of credit or a quote for your property.
Which side of the FHA line is your neighbourhood on
Tampa's citywide median of $465,547 sits comfortably inside the FHA ceiling. Several of its neighbourhoods do not, and the gap is large enough to change which product you should be looking at.
Above the limit
Davis Islands ran a median around $2,048,787 in the three months to June 2026, and Hyde Park around $2,028,794. Both are roughly $800,000 past the point where FHA stops calculating. If you own in either, a HECM leaves most of your equity out of reach and the conversation should start with proprietary and jumbo programs, some of which reach $4 million.
Straddling it
Palma Ceia at about $970,000 and Beach Park at about $823,464, both to June 2026. The medians sit below the ceiling but the upper half of each market crosses it. These are the addresses where running both options side by side is genuinely worth the hour.
Clearly HECM territory
New Tampa at about $449,844 across 264 sales, the most reliable neighbourhood figure in the city, Town 'n' Country around $390,000, Old Seminole Heights around $375,000 and Temple Terrace with a Zillow typical value near $318,891. Here the federal programme works as designed.
Neighbourhood medians are Redfin unless stated, and periods differ by neighbourhood. Thin-volume areas such as Hyde Park and Ybor City move sharply month to month; treat the levels as indicative and ignore the year-over-year percentages on small samples.
Sun City Center and Kings Point
If you are reading this because of a 55 plus community rather than a city neighbourhood, this is the section that matters.
Sun City Center is an unincorporated place in southern Hillsborough with about 9,500 age-restricted homes built between 1961 and 2018, a mix of single-family houses, attached villas and condominiums, with association fees running anywhere from $44 to $726 a month. Median sale price was around $251,250 in late 2025.
Kings Point, the gated community inside it, is about 5,277 homes built between 1973 and 2015, largely attached villa condominiums, with fees of roughly $425 to $770 a month covering exterior maintenance, insurance, cable, landscaping, trash, security and water.
What Milton revealed about insurance here
A reverse mortgage requires you to keep hazard insurance in force for the life of the loan. In Tampa that is not a formality, and the 2024 storms produced numbers worth knowing.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation recorded 74,851 Hurricane Milton claims in Hillsborough County. Of the claims that had closed as of December 2025, roughly 38% closed with no payment at all, 25,871 of them. That is a deductible and coverage-gap story rather than a claims-handling one, and it is the reason we ask about hurricane deductibles and flood coverage early rather than at closing.
Helene, the year's other storm, hit Pinellas far harder than Hillsborough, with preliminary county assessments putting 151 homes destroyed and 1,709 with major damage on this side of the bay against roughly $1.8 billion in residential damage. Tampa's exposure profile is wind and inland flooding rather than the barrier-island surge that dominates Pinellas.
One piece of good news that many homeowners never claim: the City of Tampa and unincorporated Hillsborough both hold Community Rating System Class 5 status, which earns a 25% flood insurance discount for properties inside flood zones and 10% outside. If your flood premium does not reflect that, ask.
Older housing, and what it means at appraisal
Tampa's median year built is 1974. In Seminole Heights and much of the older city that means bungalow stock approaching or past fifty years old, which is where roof age, electrical panels and plumbing show up in an appraisal.
None of that stops a reverse mortgage. Required repairs can usually be handled through a repair set-aside carved out of the loan rather than paid from your pocket. But it does mean the appraisal on a 1950s house in Tampa carries more weight in the timeline than the same appraisal on a 2015 house in New Tampa, and it is better to know that at the start.
Counseling in Hillsborough County
Federal rule 24 CFR 206.41 requires counseling with a HUD-approved agency independent of your lender before any HECM. Hillsborough has exactly one HUD-approved agency listed for reverse mortgage counseling: Real Estate Education and Community Housing, Inc. in Tampa, at (561) 491-1670. The nearest alternative is Consumer Credit and Budget Counseling in Clearwater at (866) 395-5769.
Several other HUD-approved agencies operate in Tampa for other services and are not reverse mortgage counselors, so it is worth checking before you call. HUD permits HECM counseling by telephone, and national intermediaries include GreenPath at (888) 860-4167, Money Management International at (877) 908-2227 and Credit.org at (800) 947-3752.
Find your own through HUD's counselor search or by calling (800) 569-4287.
Questions we get from Tampa homeowners
My house on Davis Islands is worth about two million. Does a HECM work?
Not well. FHA stops calculating at a maximum claim amount of $1,249,125 for 2026 regardless of what the appraisal says, so on a two million dollar home a HECM leaves a large amount of equity untouched. Proprietary and jumbo reverse mortgages, some reaching $4 million, are the relevant products for Davis Islands and Hyde Park. They are not FHA insured, so the terms and protections are the lender's.
How do Kings Point fees affect what I can borrow?
Dues of roughly $425 to $770 a month count as an ongoing property charge alongside taxes and insurance. A HECM financial assessment considers whether you can keep all of them current, and where the payment history is thin the lender may set aside part of the loan to cover them. It does not stop the loan, it changes the shape of it.
Do the condo inspection laws apply in Sun City Center?
Where the building is a condominium or cooperative of three habitable stories or more, yes. Much of Kings Point is attached villa condominium built from 1973 onward, so parts of the community sit inside the milestone inspection and reserve study regime and carry special assessment risk. Single-family homes in an HOA are outside it entirely. We check the specific building rather than the community name.
My insurance claim after Milton was denied. Does that affect a reverse mortgage?
A denied claim does not by itself, but the underlying condition might, because the property still has to appraise and be insurable. Roughly 38% of closed Hillsborough Milton claims closed without payment, so this is a common situation here rather than an unusual one. What matters is the condition of the home now and whether coverage is in force.
My Tampa bungalow is from the 1950s. Is it too old?
No. The city's median build year is 1974 so most of what we look at here is that era. Condition at appraisal is what counts, usually roof life first. Where repairs are required, a repair set-aside from the loan generally covers them rather than you paying up front.
Talk to someone who works Hillsborough
Tell us the neighbourhood and we can usually tell you on the first call whether this is HECM or jumbo territory. Free, no obligation, and if a reverse mortgage is not the right answer for you we will say so. Hablamos Español.
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Sunshine State Home Loans, LLC. NMLS ID 1901827, Florida license MBR3278. We are not affiliated with, and are not acting on behalf of, HUD, FHA or any government agency. Proprietary and jumbo reverse mortgages are not FHA insured. Reverse mortgage proceeds are loan proceeds rather than income; consult a tax advisor about your situation. Borrowers remain responsible for property taxes, homeowners and flood insurance, association dues and property maintenance, and the loan may become due if those obligations are not met. This is not a commitment to lend.