Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Jorge Guerra Treasurer at Florida Realtors | Official Website

Florida housing market sees shifts amid hurricanes and economic factors

Closed sales of existing single-family homes in Florida reached 18,671 in October, marking a 5.6% decrease compared to the previous year. Sales of existing condo-townhouse units also saw a decline, totaling 6,499—a drop of 19.9% from October 2023. These figures were reported by the Florida Realtors Research Department in collaboration with local Realtor boards and associations.

The median sales price for single-family homes increased slightly to $415,000, up 1.2% from $410,000 one year earlier. Conversely, the median price for condo-townhouse units decreased by 2.2%, falling to $315,000 from $321,990 in October 2023.

Dr. Brad O’Connor, Chief Economist at Florida Realtors, attributed some market disruptions to Hurricane Milton's impact on Florida's Gulf Coast. Although inland areas avoided severe winds due to the storm weakening before landfall on October 9th, power outages affected regions along the western I-4 corridor including Orlando.

“Along with a renewed strengthening of the mortgage rate lock-in effect,” Dr. O’Connor noted that “Hurricanes Milton and Helene likely had a bigger impact on new listings of homes for sale in October.” He added that “new listings of single-family homes fell by 10.3% year-over-year but were still up 9.5% for the year to date." For townhouses and condos, new listings dropped by 9.5% compared to last year but rose by 12% over the entire year.

Dr. O’Connor explained that "while the rate of new listings coming onto the market was already slowing ahead of the storms," there was a notable decline in October linked to these events.

In terms of supply, Florida had a 4.7-month inventory for single-family existing homes last month—an increase of 34.3% from last year—and a 7.7-month supply for condo-townhouse units—up by 67.4%.

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