South Florida Home Sales Prices

The Facts:

Sales numbers are in for December 2006. The market has shown resiliency. In Dade County, the median price of a Single Family Home did not change from Dec 2005 to Dec 2006 at $370,000. The median price of a condo actually ROSE from $250,000 to $260,000. IN Broward County the median price of a Single Family Home DROPPED from $385,000 to $371,000, and the median price of a condo remained unchanged from $205,000. Experts have stated that this represents a more normal market and that we have a good balance between Sellers and Buyers. The stable prices have occurred despite the inventory of resale homes more than DOUBLING from approx 31,000 in 2005 to 65,287 available in 2006.

My Opinion:

As with most facts, I think you have to go a little deeper. The median price can sometimes be misleading and I believe it is too general to answer the most important question: how has the price of my home changed? We need to look at everything one neighborhood at a time, and see sales now versus sales last year. One important factor is that there were thousands of condo conversions that hit the market where 1 bedroom units were priced in the 160's and 2/2 units priced in the 200s. Estimates show that we had anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 condo conversions in the last few years. Whenever you flood a market with units that are priced at the lower end, then statistically, it will lower the average, and the median.

What's Next

We are now compiling our own sales figures from the MLS that will show what I believe is the most important sales figure: new pending contracts each month. I believe this is the most relevant because it will show you who is out there now writing contracts on real estate, versus pending contracts from last year. Closings do not mean anything because they could have been written a long time ago, some as much as 2-3 year. There may be closings now, but they may have been from buyers who bought under different market conditions.
If you would like a copy of our sales date, please email us and we will forward to you when we get it shortly

Deal of the Day:

THE EDGE CONDO in West Palm Beach: Large 2/2 direct water view, one of the waterfront condos in a high tech luxury building for under $500,000. Ready for closing in the late summer. Visit www.theedgewestpalm.com to view the project info and then contact me for specifics on this unit since the developer has sold them out.

Roman Pavlik