Big builder rates Tampa market an "F-minus-minus"

Big national builder Toll Brothers is having a poor year but said some markets are worse for new home sales and cancellations. Guess which he rated among the two worst markets? Yep, it's Tampa. Las Vegas was the other.

To be fair, the company has only a small presence in Tampa Bay area if you exclude Manatee and Sarasota counties. It's best known project locally is The Estates at Harbour Isles in Apollo Beach southeast of Tampa.

Toll's chief executive talked about the company's travails for the New York Times. His main point in the article was - here we go again - the media's to blame for the suffering of the housing industry.