Ft. Laud, Boca, and PBeach Mirror Miami, But With Less Insanity

The Fourth quarter 2012 Douglas Elliman real estate market reports are out for Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach. We've got Jonathan Miller, author of the reports, and Curbed Miami contributor, on the line to give us the inside dish on South Florida's real estate prognosis. Jonathan?

Today we released our research for the Douglas Elliman report series covering the markets of Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach. Unlike Miami, these markets have less exposure (but still plenty of exposure) to distressed sales and have a somewhat lower reliance on international buyers than Miami does. For the most part, these markets saw similar patterns when comparing the fourth quarter results to the same period a year ago.

We've been seeing these markets gain firmer footing in 2012 and the fourth quarter was no exception. Macro factors like tight mortgage conditions, record low mortgage rates and a slowly improving economy.

The general year-over-year housing trend stream-of-consciousness goes something like this:

- Overall sales are higher in all markets - falling mortgage rates and an improving economy have resulted in more across-the-board activity.
- Prices jumped - it's generally not because larger properties sold. We are seeing more higher quality properties be absorbed as well.
- Listing Discount fell - buyers and sellers moved closer together on price but with upward price pressure, it's not clear how long sellers will remain rationale.
- Days on market fell - Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale experienced shorter marketing times. Palm Beach saw older listings being sold off, driving the metric higher for sales that closed in the quarter.
- Condos and single families both performed well based on price and sales.
- Luxury market (top 10%) performed about the same as the overall market did.

With the macro factors of tight credit, low mortgage rates and slowly improving economic conditions, we may see more of the same in 2013.

· Douglas Elliman market reports [Douglas Elliman]
· Jonathan Miller archives [Curbed Miami]
· Market Analysis [Curbed Miami]