Florida’s real estate market is seeing higher prices and more inventory – but sales levels across all property types have dropped down to pre-pandemic levels, reports Florida Realtors®.
In October, single-family home sales totaled 20,837, a 24.5 percent decrease from last year. Condo-townhouse sales were also down 26.9 percent year-over-year.
According to Florida Realtors® chief economist Dr. Brad O’Connor, a look at market conditions from 2021 to the latter half of 2022 offers insight into how sales have been affected.
“The beginning of 2022 marked the end of a nearly two-year period of record-low mortgage rates as the Fed began to reverse its course in order to fight pervasive inflation in the economy,” he explained. “The rapid pace of the resulting increase in interest rates has dramatically increased the monthly payments required for new mortgages, and home price growth has only recently started to show signs of responding.”
“The second half of 2022 has seen the level of existing home sales in Florida more or less fall in line with the typical pre-pandemic seasonal trends,” he added. “The fact that monthly sales still remain in the neighborhood of pre-pandemic levels despite today’s significantly higher home prices and mortgage rates only illustrates that despite these headwinds, housing demand in Florida continues to receive support from its recent surge in post-pandemic in-migration, vacation home purchases, and the ever-increasing number of millennials looking to find a home for their growing families.”
The median sales price for a single-family home in Florida increased to $401,990 in October, up 12 percent from this time last year.
Condo-townhouse prices also saw a 19.2 percent year-over-year increase to $310,000.
Statewide inventory was higher last month than a year ago across all property types, with single-family homes and condo-townhouse units seeing increases of 88.4 percent and 31 percent respectively.
“The supply of for-sale homes continues to slowly build, easing inventory constraints in many markets across the state,” Florida Realtors® president Christina Pappas said. “Having more supply available will begin to ease some of the pressure on home prices, which in turn will help buyers dealing with higher interest rates.”
