The trends happening across the country in several major housing markets—low housing inventory, higher sales, soaring home prices, and competitive bidding on homes—are happening in south Florida and the area of Boca Raton.
In other vacation destinations like Cape Cod, Lake Tahoe, and even President Biden’s vacation home of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, sales and home prices have picked up substantially. However, South Florida is really heating up as homeowners flee big cities in the Northeast for warmer climate—a trend due, in part, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Association of Realtors reported existing-home sales fell 2.2 percent in the Northeast from December 2020 to January 2021 and 4.4 percent for the West region. In the South, however, for the same timeframe, existing home sales grew 3.2 percent.
In our home of Boca Raton, sales have soared by nearly 50 percent from one year ago. Meanwhile, home prices have increased by nearly 15 percent over the past year and housing inventory is down by nearly 50 percent. This is an unprecedented level of activity, and it’s happening throughout south Florida, in Palm Beach, Miami Beach and Key West. Further northwest, inside and outside of Tampa, home prices are also growing substantially.
It probably goes without saying that it is full steam ahead for originators, but it also reminds lenders of how valuable their real estate relationships are—because none of us would be able to survive without them.