Black October for local housing market
If you're a long-time reader of this blog, then you know that each month, I highlight some "unofficial" local sales data. It comes courtesy of the real estate brokerage firm Illustrated Properties. These figures never line up exactly with those provided by the Florida Association of Realtors. But they do tend to point toward the same trends. And based on the early data, it looks like we had a "Black October" for sales in the greater Palm Beach County, FL area.
Some details:
* There were just 484 sales last month, down from 782 a year earlier. That's a decline of 38.1%.
* The supply of homes for sale jumped to 24,823 from 21,479 a year earlier. That's a rise of 15.6% and it puts us back within spitting distance of the May-June inventory peak. Worse, it equates to a whopping 51 months worth of supply at the current sales pace.
* Lastly, the median price of an existing home plunged to $250,000 from $290,000 in October 2006. That 13.8% drop is the biggest decline I can recall seeing yet. "Average Days on Market" also surged to 150 from 116 a year earlier.
These figures are a stark reminder of just how much the Florida real estate market has soured in the past two years. The Federal Reserve is starting to cut interest rates in order to jump start sales. But it's up against tighter mortgage markets, declining consumer confidence, and a major supply overhang. In other words, home sellers are still in a tight spot, and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
Some details:
* There were just 484 sales last month, down from 782 a year earlier. That's a decline of 38.1%.
* The supply of homes for sale jumped to 24,823 from 21,479 a year earlier. That's a rise of 15.6% and it puts us back within spitting distance of the May-June inventory peak. Worse, it equates to a whopping 51 months worth of supply at the current sales pace.
* Lastly, the median price of an existing home plunged to $250,000 from $290,000 in October 2006. That 13.8% drop is the biggest decline I can recall seeing yet. "Average Days on Market" also surged to 150 from 116 a year earlier.
These figures are a stark reminder of just how much the Florida real estate market has soured in the past two years. The Federal Reserve is starting to cut interest rates in order to jump start sales. But it's up against tighter mortgage markets, declining consumer confidence, and a major supply overhang. In other words, home sellers are still in a tight spot, and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
posted by Mike Larson at
1:15 PM
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