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Florida’s Housing Market: School in Session, Median Price, New Listings Rise in August By Selective Realty Group
price for condo-townhouse units was $253,000, up 20.5% over the year-ago figure. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for Florida Realtors’ data: Median prices for single-family existing homes more, half for less. rose 20.3% year-over-year to $355,000; up 20.5% to $253,000 for con- The data revealed signs that the state’s housing market is heading on dos/townhomes. a steady path toward normalcy, at least in some respects. Craig Luiz, Broker with Selective Realty Group says July/August data “The 2.1% drop in closed single-family home sales marks the first shows signs Fla.’s housing market is heading on a steady path toward time that sales in this category have been down year-over-year at the normalcy. statewide level since May of 2020, near the beginning of the pandemic,” he says. “But remember, last year’s spring buying season was In July, Florida’s housing market reported higher median prices, effectively postponed until the summer and fall by the pandemic, so more new listings and a rise in all-cash sales compared to a year ago, the second half of 2020 ended up being the strongest second half for according to Florida Realtors® latest housing data. sales in at least 15 years. It’s not too surprising if sales counts over the next few months fail to surpass their totals from one year ago. In a positive sign for Florida’s housing market, new listings rose yearover-year in July for both single-family homes, up 12.1%, and for “However, looking at 2019 – the last full year of anything resembling condo-townhouse properties, up 4.6%. Active listings (inventory) a normal market due to COVID-19 – we find that July 2021 sinof single-family homes continued to rise throughout July (from its gle-family home sales were over 9% higher compared to July 2019.” lowest level), which eventually could be good news for buyers who have been sidelined by the shortage of homes for sale. However, any In a continuing trend, the share of closed sales that were all-cash purrebound in inventory is going to be slow, and it will take a long while chases rose in July compared to the previous year. In July, single-famto get back to the levels we had pre-pandemic. ily existing home sales paid in all cash increased by 49.9% year-overyear, while all-cash sales of condo-townhouse units rose by 44%. Closed sales of single-family homes statewide in July totaled 30,740, a slight decrease of 2.1% year-over-year, while existing condo-town- On the supply side of the market, inventory (active listings) remained house sales totaled 13,481, up 21.1% over July 2020. Closed sales may extremely tight in July. Single-family existing homes continued at a occur from 30- to 90-plus days after sales contracts are written. very low 1.2-months’ supply while condo-townhouse inventory was at a 1.8-months’ supply. The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in July was $355,000, up 20.3% from the previous year, according to According to Freddie Mac, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate data from Florida Realtors Research Department in partnership with mortgage averaged 2.87% in July 2021, down from the 3.02% averlocal Realtor boards/associations. Last month’s statewide median aged during the same month a year earlier.
