According to a recently released report from Condo Vultures, a Bal Harbour-based brokerage and consulting firm, the number of homes and condominiums for sale in South Florida has dropped by 68 percent in exactly four years.
The report says that nearly 108,000 properties were on the market in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties during Thanksgiving week 2008, but now there are fewer than 34,250 houses available for sale. Strong sales over the past year have taken many homes and condos off the market. Lenders are apparently waiting for prices to rise some more before listing foreclosed homes and some homeowners who would want to sell cannot because they owe more than the properties are worth.
Strong demand and shortage of available homes for sale have helped push prices higher in October. Values are on an upswing as a lack of available properties gives sellers more negotiating power. Some analysts though believe that the recent gains will start to level off once lenders list more foreclosed homes for sale. Summer Greene, president of the Florida Realtors and a general manager for Better Homes & Gardens in Broward, said, “I do not believe pricing will come back down. I think that time has passed.”
Statewide, the median price for existing homes was $145,000, a 9 percent increase from a year earlier, according to the Florida Realtors. Home sales across Florida rose 25 percent in October.
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