Florida Housing Forecast: No Clouds in Sight

Jan 28, 2020

The Sunshine State’s housing market is expected to enjoy a sunny 12-month stretch, according to a new forecast issued by Florida Realtors.

Speaking at the 2020 Florida Real Estate Trends, Florida Realtors’ Chief Economist Brad O'Connor credit in-migration has helped bring new homebuyers to the state, to the point that it picked up the slack from a slump in international buyers.

"It was exciting to see the almost 6 percent growth–5.9 percent–in closed single-family sales in 2019 from 2018," O'Connor said. "Florida topped over $100 billion–total of $101.9 billion–in volume in home sales last year, up 8.3 percent from 2018. For condo-townhouses, we reached $31.6 billion in volume, up 1.8 percent over the 2018 figure."

O'Connor acknowledged inventory remained tight in 2019, single-family homes down 11.4 percent and condo-townhouse properties down 9.7 percent compared to 2018, and he was not predicting more listings for 2020. But he believed the market will continue to remain vibrant during the course of this year.

"My final point: The median sales price still continues to rise, but looking at what the monthly mortgage payment is, that's still a lot lower due to current historically low mortgage rates," O'Connor continued. "And that continues to drive sales and makes it a good time to buy. Overall, I think we can expect to see a similar amount of price appreciation over the coming year, at about four percent, and I think we'll see a similar amount of growth in closed sales for 2020 at about four percent."

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Phil Hall

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Jan 28, 2020

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