Home Sales Plunge Across Florida
The Florida realtors have their March numbers out. “Slowly rising mortgage rates and higher levels of for-sale inventory influenced Florida’s housing sector in March as the state’s market continued to adjust.”
“Statewide, sales of single-family existing homes totaled 18,881 last month compared to March 2005’s sales of 24,091 homes for a 22 percent decrease. Sales of existing condos also decreased in March, with a total of 6,481 condos sold statewide compared to 8,388 in March 2005 for a 23 percent decline.”
“Used home sales in March decreased by more than 30 percent in Palm Beach and Broward counties from March 2005. But sales rose 21 percent in Miami-Dade. Sales of used condominiums were down in all three counties, year over year.”
“In Miami-Dade, the median fell 4 percent to $249,200. Miami-Dade has more than 71,000 condos built or planned, and that supply is affecting prices there, real estate analysts say.”
“The Orlando Regional Realtors Association reported its numbers last week and said the local inventory hit a record 14,559 homes in March nearly five times more than a year ago. The metro Orlando median sales price was flat in March at $240,000, down slightly from February and well below the peak of $249,900 in November when the 2005 sales frenzy was still under way.”
“In Collier County, the number of sales fell 31 percent to 371. (In) Charlotte County, the number of sales decreased 27 percent to 315.”
“In Fort Lauderdale, the number of sales fell 32 percent. In West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, the number of existing single-family homes Realtors sold declined by a third. The number of homes sold in Fort Myers-Cape Coral declined 29 percent. The number of homes sold in Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie declined 19 percent. The number of homes sold in Melbourne-Titusville-Naples declined 31 percent. The number of homes sold in Punta Gorda declined 27 percent.”
“Near South Florida, for existing condos, March over March: the number of condos sold in Fort Myers-Cape Coral declined 53 percent. The number of condos sold in Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie declined 34 percent. The number of condos sold in Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay fell 74 percent. The number of condos sold in Naples declined 51 percent. In one of the biggest swings, the number of condos sold in Punta Gorda fell 91 percent, to 7 condos from 82 condos.”
The Florida realtors split out condos and SFH starting in January, which makes year over year comparison difficult. What I do see from printouts is a flat statewide median for SFH since the beginning of 2006 and statewide price declines in condos:
1.06 $221,300
2.06 $218,700
3.06 $214,200
Here is a press release with a detailed breakout.
Isn’t this a wonderful thang
The flippers are heading for the exits before the hurricanes…..
Notice they said very little about inventory. Hmm.
That’s a taboo.
FL Realtors group doesn’t release the inventory with their monthly stats like a lot of other regional groups. But as I pointed out elsewhere in this topic, inventory has more than tripled in my neck of the woods, and is soaring pretty much across the state.
“Used home sales in March decreased by…”
Notice? USED, not previously owned, not resale, no fancy language, just “used.” This is the two months of “normal” market between hot and cold.
Next symptom: NAR lackeys claiming the Silent Spring was “the worst of it” and the situation has stabilized.
No, it’s stabilizing rapidly
Robert,
A very astute observation on the new language. Remember back in the sellers mkt. they were “existing home sales” (a mere 85% of the RE mkt.) How times change!
Naples just went over 10,000 on Realtor.com and the hurricanes are still on their way.
“Used home sales in March decreased by…”
Next thing you know they’ll start calling them houses and condos instead of the more touchy-feely “homes”!
house across the street from me has been on the market since December … 5 open house signs at the entrance to my neighborhood on Sunday, the most I’ve seen to date … local inventory is up 268% (from 150 units to 552) between 6/15/05 and today by my tracking (zip code 33458, 100k-500k price range, at least 2 beds, 2 baths on Realtor.com) … lots of units still going up, etc., etc.
Nice to be honored as the first MSA in FL with a SFH YOY median price decline!!!
Fort Walton Beach
Sales
March 2006 / 359
March 2005 / 488
% Chge / -26
Median Price
March 2006 / $240,400
March 2005 / $242,100
% Chge / -1
Not to mention the fact that there are currently ~4000 SFH on the market right now… and growing daily…
Consumer confidence is suppose to be up this month or last according to comsumer confidence board.
However a little interent search and below is who these people.
The Conference Board is as serious as it sounds. The not-for-profit membership organization focuses on increasing the effectiveness of businesses through its nearly 110 member councils. It does research on corporate citizenship and governance, HR issues, and strategic planning and sponsors conferences, makes forecasts, and publishes reports and other products. In addition to research and executive action reports, it publishes Across the Board, a magazine for senior executives, and newsletters for US, European, and Asian members. The organization traces its roots to 1916 when a group of business leaders banded together to bolster public confidence in business and quiet growing labor unrest.
It appears to be made up of business people to bolster public confidence in business. An industry group. Duh. can you spell NAR?
The level of deceit with all economic statistics in this age is just mind bending.
it really is. from CPI to GDP.
OT - the 10 year is approaching 5.1% Once those ARM’s start re-setting this is going to get ugly.
I, for one, am thrilled with these numbers (housing and consumer confidence). Let them twist and spin the measly .3% rise as a great thing and an indicator that the economy is not slowing. Consumer confidence, while I really don’t see why it went up, rose to the highest level in 4 years, anothe rindicator that the economy is not slowing. This will FORCE BB and co to continue to raise rates, which we sorely need to do if we ever want to get back to a normal economy. Save more and get a higher rate, borrow and pay more in interest–that is the best way to kick our overconsumption habit, but these past few years have taught us that if there’s money out there, some dumbass will borrow it at any cost. Keep those artifically inflated numbers coming, boys–you’re only hastening your own demise, to the delight of many on this blog!!
baltimorehousing.blogspot.com
Is there something fishy about today’s existing home sales report. Sales are up 38.4% over Feb’s sales and about flat with last years. There seems to be a disconnect between the information presented on this blog (and others) and what the NAR is reporting. Are they theying the truth?
telling the truth (typo)
Think “Seasonally adjusted”
Sales in Miami increased from 607 in Feb. to 942 in Mar., with median incrasing from 368K to 383K. What the hell is going on here?
Inventory stands around 32,000 in April in Miami, with current sales rate, SFH and condos combined (2,000 in March), that’s 16 months’ supply.
i think u r mixing it up..benengbreth does it for the dade+broward+palm//
dade & broward i think would be around 40-50 k inventory…i think dade=miami and broward=ftl in their report…That is still way more than 6 month inventory
dade+broward in zip realty yields 52,223 listings!
http://www.ziprealty.com/buy_a_home/logged_in/search/results/detailed.jsp?msg=&page=1&cKey=d6l5tx4g
Do these numbers represent sales that have cleared escrow? If so, then these numbers are actually representative of what things were like in February, not March. That is, these numbers show us what was happening two months ago. Imagine what it must look like out there right *now*.
It’s all spin to maintain the country’s housing boom created “wealth effect”.
But these press releases do nothing really - too few “folks” bother to read this stuff. It is the over-the-back-fence/BBQ discussions that have the greatest effect on pples view of their situation and the summer bbq party season is just starting.
I got a guy painting my house right now . I starting talking to him about the bubble and I turned in on to the HOUSING BUBBLE BLOGS. The painter got a real education reading the blogs last night and might change his housing decisions . Alot of people feel the bubble in their soul , but they just need access to the information that is contrary to the main media.
Any thoughts on the impact of Zillow? A friend of mine was seriously looking at a home purchase till I mentioned the Zillow site and the information on it. He told me later that the house had been bought just 18 months before @ 180K, and with a new coat of paint had been re-listed at 320. Besides that, he was even more astonished at the Zillow estimate of 240K. Point is that as the overall comps fall, will these estimates play into buyers offers and their sense of over-paying? In my neck of the woods, seems yes to that.
I don’t think many people look at the Zestmate yet because it’s still in beta stage.
But what I like is that it made it easy for buyers to look at the last sales price. This is sometimes not easy to get, and requires people to go through county appraiser website, which is not as easy as entering the address in zillow.com. A lot of people will see the recent markups and hopefully will either low ball or walk away.
Punta Gorda: 7 condos sold last month. That’s 84 annualized (keeping the robust month of March*12). 1,128 condo listings = 13.42 years of supply. I know, I know grossly oversimplified, but funny nonetheless!
Well, Punta Gorda got a direct hit a couple of years ago from one of those SW florida hurricanes. That may be why sales there are so slow.
The hurricane hit almost two years ago.
If you look at the data you’ll see that there were plenty of properties sold since the hurricane, the slowdown is just coming now, as the whole state (country) is slowing down.
I drove through Miami last week. Even though I live in Florida, I had not been in the city since 1996. I was left open-mouthed at the changes to the skyline, which now is dominated by gigantic completed and half-completed condominium buildings. It took me awhile to locate the skyscrapers I recalled as landmarks.
After that, I can understand why so many people feel bulletproof. It doesn’t matter that only a handful of individuals can afford those places, or that hurricane risk makes them expensive to insure, or that someday we may not have an energy source to power the air conditioning or the elevators–the sheer magnitude of the construction sends a message.
In Florida, I wish it were a requirement that, on the disclosure forms the potential buyer receives, there were a place for “Estimated property tax for the new owner.” I think a lot of buyers in the past 2-3 years have been shocked at the increases. Where a listing sheet might show taxes as $2,000 on a property that was a principal residence, they could easily be $8-10,000 for the new owner, depending on how long the seller owned the place. By now, perhaps there has been enough word of mouth about this to have become an added drag on sales. It certainly has had a major negative effect on many who simply wanted to trade over to a similarly priced property elsewhere in the state.
Yes, this should be made illegal. I saw a flier that had list price of 400k, and it said 2005 taxes $2800. New owner would be paying $8000.
I bet a lot of out of town buyers that don’t know about save our homes law are getting screwed by that.
I moved to South Florida last summer and did research on buying a home before the move (ultimately decided to rent). I read somewhere that the Florida Legislature passed a law last year that R.E. sales contracts in FL are now required to inform the buyer (in bold print) not to use previous tax figures as any basis in their decision making, and to figure out what their tax will be based on the new basis (the sales price).
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/insurance/2006-04-25-hurricane-usat_x.htm?csp=26
The insurance companies pulling out may be final blow to Florida.
Any news on Sarasota Bradenton? Between property taxes for a new owner and expensive flood and wind insurance (if you can get it!), I’m having second thoughts about trying to buy there to retire. Is insurance a lot cheaper in say the Orlando area? I’m thinking the old laid back low population Florida is gone forever, so what is even the advantage of Sarasot, Naples, etc??
No sir! Insurance rates doubled in the interior too. Of course we are all slapped with a 20% premium surcharge to fund the state insurance crap avaliable to those on the coast.(they can’t get insurance there) Yep, we subsidize the beachfront homes in Florida. Great idea huh? So you buy a 2 million dollar house on the beach and I get to pay $450 of your premium in Orlando. Is this a great country or what?
We were at 100 homes in 33021 last summer. We just passed 600 this week listed on the MLS. 600% increase in listings. Its hard to see houses behind all of the for sale signs. In Fort Lauderdale, where I live now, there are literally 50 houses for sale in the neighborhood behind me (River Oaks). Asking prices start near $400,000 for a 2 bedroom 60 year old house.