clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Miami Report: Good Times, More (Sales) or Less (Inventory)

New, 1 comment

The Douglas Elliman Q2 2013 South Florida Market Reports came out today for Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach, giving an updated look at the goings on of our crazy real estate market. Here now, the author of all four reports, Jonathan Miller, has some sweet commentary on the Miami Report. Take it away Jonathan.

Miami's housing market continues to improve faster than expectations. Douglas Elliman just published their Elliman Report: Miami Sales 2Q 2013 that my firm Miller Samuel authors. Here are a few key takeaways:

- The highest number of sales since we began tracking the market in 2006: 6,416
- The highest overall average sales price since 3Q 2008: $453,556
- The lowest overall inventory since we began tracking this metric in 2Q 2011: 9,490
- Inventory fell 18.8%, but much of the drop was distressed properties, which fell 44.1%.
- 67.2% of all sales were non-distressed, the highest share in 14 months. The low was 1Q 11 with 35.3%.

Cash Dominates
The use of mortgages for purchasing property remains the exception with cash accounting for 63.5% of all sales (condos 75% and single family 44.2%). Within the condo market, there remains little difference between the market share of distressed sale for cash (79.9%) and non-distressed sales for cash (72.9%). This suggests that the Miami housing market could be in better shape many US housing markets to weather the recent spike in mortgage rates, which began during the second quarter and are expected to continue to rise as the Fed slowly exits QE (trying to keep rates low) as the economy slowly improves.

Average size of sale slipped, so no skew in prices
Both condos and single family homes saw prices rise over last year during the same period and it wasn't skewed by larger sized home sales. The condos and single family homes that sold in the second quarter were 1.7% and 1.4% smaller than last year respectively. However median sales prices for condos and single family homes rose 16.2% and 20.2% over last year.

There's lots more market insights captured within the report to read while you're at the beach - an alternative to the latest Stephen King novel. Douglas Elliman also published 2Q 2013 reports on Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach as well which showed very similar results: rising prices, falling inventory and reliance on cash.
· Douglas Elliman Q2 2013 South Florida Market Reports [Douglas Elliman]