According to Florida Realtors housing data, the market is showing the same monthly trends with more closed sales, higher median prices, and more new listings compared to a year ago.
Florida Realtors 2021 president, Cheryl Lambert, said, “Coming out of a record spring home-buying season, the state's housing market continued its strong gains in June. Of course, the impact of the pandemic last June is still a factor to consider when looking at the comparison data.”
Median sales price for single-family existing homes in June was $351,000, up 24.5% from the previous year. For condo-townhouse units, the median price was $256,945, up 22.4% from last year.
Single-family home closed sales totaled 34,165 in June, up 23.6% year-over-year. Existing condo-townhouse sales totaled 16,155, up 79.6% over June 2020.
“In a positive sign, new listings for single-family existing homes in June rose 21.6% year-over-year, while new listings for condos-townhouse properties increased 10%. However, while Florida Realtors' data shows that new listings have remained at fairly typical numbers even throughout most of the pandemic, it hasn't been at the levels needed to keep up with greater buyer demand,” Lambert added.
Dr. Brad O'Connor, chief economist of Florida Realtors, suggests recent data trends indicate the ratio between buyers and sellers is finally easing a bit. "Florida's red-hot rate of home price growth could begin to cool down somewhat in the coming months,” he said, “Although that will also depend on whether interest rates start to trend higher again, as well. For now, though, the numbers continue to astound.”
Additionally, Dr. O’Connor noticed the share of closed sales that are all-cash purchases has been on the rise. “The last time Florida had more than 31% single-family cash sales in June was in 2015, when the state was still working the last foreclosures from the Great Recession out of the system," he said.
Dr. O’Connor suggests two possible reasons this could be. First, he points out, "This year, higher-end sales have made up a greater share of closings than in previous years, and those types of sales are historically much more likely to be all-cash sales. About 56% of single-family sales over a million dollars in June were all cash. That's actually not much different than last June's share, which was about 55%. But since luxury sales are a greater share of overall sales this year, that's pushing up the overall cash share."
The second reason is a rise in the percentage of single-family home sales paid in cash in price tiers below $400,000. "This indicates a rise in investor activity, so of course Florida Realtors will be watching these numbers closely," he added. "The most prevalent price tier where this is occurring depends on the area's market and its overall price level. The trend started emerging first in the state's major population centers, but has since expanded to a degree into small- and mid-sized markets, as well.”
To read Florida’s housing market data for June 2021, including charts and graphs, click here.
