If you are trying to purchase a home anywhere in South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward or Miami-Dade counties), we are sure that you are finding it extraordinarily difficult.  Asking prices have reach stratospheric levels and new listings are receiving multiple offers in the first few days.

We are constantly being asked, why is this the case?  

Simply put, it comes down to supply and demand.  During the pandemic a larger than usual number of out-of-state buyers became interested in purchasing homes within South Florida, thereby inflating the demand level.  More significantly, the amount of inventory declined as home sellers removed their properties from the marketplace.  

With dozens of headlines in major news sources explaining how the housing market is setting new records every month, what more can be said?  In over 25 years of working in this industry, we have never experienced this level of volatility.  Just a few months ago, single-family home sales in the state of Florida were down more than 20% (year-over-year).  This past month the number of sale transactions were up by 22% and the overall dollar volume increased by 50% (year-over-year); a staggering change from earlier in the year.

Nationwide, sale transactions rose by more than 20% (year-over-year) and home prices across most markets and most price points are also up considerably, marking 103 straight months of year-over-year price gains.

We are constantly being asked, “How high will it go?”.  That’s a tough question to answer but at the current pace of sales, there is less than a three-months supply of homes on the market for sale, so unless we see additional inventory, 2021 could get even more volatile with respect to supply / demand equilibrium.

If you have clients, colleagues or friends considering selling, now may just be the perfect time to do so.

The National Association of Realtors just published the Weekly Housing Market Monitor for September 14th to September 17th.  The highly detailed report provides updated data on the housing market, mortgage forbearance programs and general economic conditions. 

According to this report, “The housing market continues to recover strongly, fueled by low mortgage rates. Contract signings during the past four weeks ended September 13 were up 23% from one year ago, a strong pace despite the slight decline from last week’s pace (26%) as we enter the Fall season.”