Home Sales Rising; Values Aren't
MIAMI - (CBS4) - If you've noticed a rise in the number of moving trucks around Broward County, this may be why: home sales and condos are on the rise, according to recently released figures by the Miami Association of Realtors and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service.
The latest figures show that the total number of home sales have increased to 7.7 percent in February compared to a year earlier.
But county officials warn that the housing picture remains thorny.
"Values don't seem to be increasing," Broward County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish told CBSMiami.com. "There are still thousands of foreclosures. I don't think our values are ever going to stabilize until foreclosures are resolved. Some of these homes have been vacant three years or more and pools are disgusting. We need people and start buying and start stabilizing our neighborhoods."
Still, officials with the realtor group are optimistic. Their reports show the following trends:
Condominiums sales are on the rise and faring better than single-family homes with pending sales in Broward about 12.3 percent higher than they were in February of last year – from 4.343 to 4,878.
Single-family homes increased 2 percent from 3,448 to 3,513 over the previous year.
"Rising pending home sales in Broward County are a positive indication of future market activity," Terri Bersach, president of the Broward County Board of Governors of the Miami Association of Realtors said in a statement. "Pending sales are rising month-over-month and year-over-year for both single-family homes and condominiums, reflecting demand for local properties even beyond periods when we were already seeing healthy sales levels."
A similar trend is occurring in Miami-Dade with home sales also on the rise.
Compared to a year ago, single-family sales in Miami-Dade county increased by 55 percent, from 436 to 676. However, the report includes foreclosure sales and short sales in its statistics.
Home values aren't where they once were. Consider, the average price of a condo in Miami-Dade was at $169,959 and the average price of a single-family home was at $244,619, the report states.
In Broward, the average price of a condo was at $106,957 and the average price of a single-family home was at $252,583.
