The Lamacchia Realty South Florida Housing Report presents overall home sale statistics and highlights the average sale prices for single families, condominiums/townhomes in Broward County, Miami-Dade County, and Palm Beach County for February 2022 compared to February 2021. It also looks at other metrics like New Listings and New Pending Sales as they are often the best indicators for predicting future trends in the market
The inventory crisis last year caused demand to spike higher than ever by fall and into the winter, which in turn caused prices to continue to increase significantly. This rise has continued to the present day without reason to expect they’ll decrease anytime soon, though the hope is that the rate of increase will slow down.
Broward County
Broward County single family sales, new listings, and pending sales decreased, but the average price increased year over year. For condos/townhomes, sales, average prices, and new listings increased, but pending sales decreased year over year.
Miami-Dade & Palm Beach Counties
In February of 2022, Miami-Dade single families saw decreases in closed sales, new listings, and pending sales, but an increase in average price. Condos/townhomes show an increase in closed sales, average price, and pending sales, but a decrease in new listings year over year.
Palm Beach County saw an increase in single family sales and average price, but new listings and pending sales are down. Condos/townhomes in Palm Beach County as well saw an increase in closed sales and average price but pending sales and new listings decreased.
What’s Ahead?
Spiking mortgage rates will start to impact closed sales in the next few months as buyers start to pull out of their search due to decreasing buyer power. Supply, for now, remains historically low while demand remains as strong as ever. But that may change sooner than expected with the rate increases.
Securing financing as soon as possible to keep home buying costs from increasing remains as important as ever, especially for first-time home buyers and/or renters looking to buy. Particularly important for the South Florida market, securing financing for a 2nd home will be more expensive as we head further into 2022, as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) will be changing lending practices as a result of the pandemic and the Surfside Tower collapse. Additionally, major mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have updated their lending guidelines for condominium buildings to address elevated safety concerns for similar structures throughout the country in the aftermath of the tragic collapse.
Even with increased regulatory changes, the tightening of single-family inventory has made condo living a popular alternative for buyers who are unwilling to sacrifice conditions like location, non-communal living, or square footage. However, inventory levels for condos are just slightly higher than single-family homes currently, so this increased demand for condos will deplete inventory and raise the average price, eventually intensifying competition even more, especially with new construction and development down year over year.
The Omicron variant slowed the market in an unanticipated way at the beginning of the year, not only South Florida, but the effects of the variant were felt across the country in regard to listings as sellers remained hesitant to list.
Not only are South Floridians competing with domestic buyers (e.g., snowbirds, employees/companies relocating, etc.), but international buyers tighten competition as well. Specifically, the supply of single family homes remains low still, consequently sky-rocketing demand and competition, causing a resurgence of bidding wars, cash offers, waiving contingencies, etc. to combat this increased and intense competition. With the demand so high, prices have not stopped increasing as a result.
*Data provided by Florida Realtors® SunStats