Home Resales, Prices In South Florida Continue Recovery
SOUTH FLORIDA – Despite a lagging economy, South Florida's housing market continues to improve.
The median price for an existing single-family home in Miami-Dade rose 5.8 percent to $185,000 in October from a year earlier, CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald reports.
The latest report from the Miami Association of Realtors marks the eleventh consecutive month of year-over-year price gains for single-family homes in Miami-Dade.
Miami-Dade condo prices have marched higher for 16 months in a row.
October sales of single-family homes spiked 41.9 percent in Miami-Dade from a year earlier to 1,142 units while the number of condo sales climbed 13.1 percent to 1,437 units year over year.
"Intense demand for Miami properties continues to fuel robust price appreciation," said Martha Pomares, chairman of the board of the Miami Association of Realtors said in a statement.
The inventory of residential listings in Miami-Dade County dropped 22.2 percent in October to 11,769 from 15,127 a year ago.
In Broward County, existing home data was also decidedly rosy.
The median sales price for an existing home in Broward jumped 15.9 percent to $211,000 in October from $182,100 a year earlier, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors.
The median sales price for an existing condo or townhouse in Broward rose 14.6 percent year over year in October to $90,000 from $78,500.
October sales of single-family homes in Broward soared 20.9 percent while townhouse and condo sales in the county increased 16.5 percent from a year earlier. Those double-digit increases came amid a 49.1 percent plunge in the inventory of single-family homes for sale and a 43.2 percent drop in the number of condos and townhouses on the market in Broward in October compared to a year earlier, the Realtors group reported.
"The year-over-year median price of Broward County residential housing has continued to strengthen while the decrease in the number of months supply of inventory and available inventory provides a support base for rising housing prices,'' Stephen B. McWilliam, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors, said in a statement.
The outlook for Broward also looks good: The number of pending sales of single family homes in Broward spiked 70.8 percent to 1,981 in October from 1,160 in October 2011. For townhouse and condos, pending sales, or the number of transactions under contract, leaped 45.5 percent year over year to 1,992 units from 1,369, the Realtors said.
