Crescent Beach Club on Clearwater's beautiful Sand Key.

Building a condo is now a major event in Florida's Tampa Bay area, especially when the condo to be built has buxom Gulf views. It's not the Super Bowl or a Britney Spears concert, but you may not realize that when you see the mass of people camped out to ensure themselves a new condo.

At least that's what happened when Belle Harbor's Phase I, to be completed this month, was under construction. Is Spears, who recently put her New York pad on the market, planning a purchase in Phase II? No, but given how hot the Tampa Bay condo market is, it wouldn't be a surprise if the blond celebutante decided to purchase in an area where her ex, Justin Timberlake, used to own.

Britney Spears' New York loft courtesy of Curbed.

Investors buy them at pre-construction prices then sell them at profits of as much as 25 percent - before they're built. Many say they would rather invest in them than put their money in higher risk investments, such as stocks. Joe Martin, a retired builder from Tampa is one.

"I'd rather have my money in condos than in the stock market," said Martin, touching upon yet another powerful force propelling the real estate market. "It's not like a tech stock, which can go bankrupt."

Martin is not alone. Many investors have switched from stock to real estate as investments, citing higher returns and investment security as reasons. But others buy condos as second homes with future plans to retire in beautiful, sunny Florida. No wonder so many small, family-owned hotels are being snatched up by developers to build new condo communities.

Mansions by the Sea on Treasure Island.

Many say low interest rates are fueling condo purchase popularity, but purchases include buying with a mortgage, as well as with cash for condo units priced well-above $500,000. Prices, currently ranging from $300,000 to quite a bit more than $1 million, continue to rise and will continue to as long as high demand continues to flourish and money is available to purchase them. Here's a snapshot of new construction throughout Tampa Bay courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times:

Information from the St. Petersburg Times was used for this report. Want to find out what kind of person buys these kind of condos? Click here to get the scoop from the Times' article, Who lives there?, which profiles three Tampa Bay area condo owners.

This article was originally posted at Hundred Acres, a Sensory Media Web magazine.

-John Mudd
"Mr. Real Estate"