Real estate market rebounded in August — and prices were up, too

Real-estate market watchers can breathe a little easier: August’s existing home sales were much stronger than the previous month’s results in Miami-Dade County, and Broward’s market rebounded, too.

Overall, the volume of existing home and condo sales in Miami-Dade County decreased 3.3 percent compared with August 2015, according to a monthly report released Thursday by the Miami Association of Realtors. Still, a strong showing in single-family home sales — which hit the highest level in 22 years — saved the market from another drop like the surprising 20 percent freefall in the previous month’s overall sales numbers.

A lack of affordable housing for locals and a lack of foreclosure inventory for investors continue to slow down Miami’s real-estate market, which is also seeing a drop-off in the number of foreign buyers burned by the strong dollar, said trendwatchers. Still, prices are going up.

“Our sales are not where they were because foreclosed properties have been bought,” said Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of EWM Realty International. At the height of the downturn, 65 percent of sales were short sales or foreclosures; now only about 16 percent of total sales are distressed properties.

“We’re returning to a more normal market,” Shuffield said. “The investors are not in the market like they were before. … But it’s still very positive. At the end of the day our business is supply and demand.”

With a glut of luxury condo offerings in Miami-Dade, condo resales fell to 1,150 in August, down 13.6 percent from the same month in 2015, the Realtors’ group found. But that percentage was more cheerful than the 24.7 percent decline in the previous month.

Single-family resales were a bright spot in the report, rising to 1,232 in August, a 8.7 percent increase from August of 2015. That was the highest number of sales since August 1994.

Shuffield said single-family homes only began to outsell condos in the last three months. Condo sales have dominated the market since 2003.

The median sales price for single-family homes in Miami-Dade jumped 14.5 percent over August 2015, to $300,000. “We’re still below the peak prices of nine years ago, but prices have been rising steadily since 2012,” Shuffield said.

Condo prices hit $215,000, up from $204,500 a year ago, a growth of 5.7 percent. The median means half the properties sold for more and half for less.

Broward County’s real-estate market rebounded in August, rising 7.8 percent, following an 11 percent decline in July.

Broward saw 1,658 existing single-family sales in August, up 8.7 percent from the same month in 2015, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors. Year over year, existing condo sales rose 6.9 percent, to 1,522, the report said.

In Broward, the median single-family home price was also up, jumping 5.9 percent to $325,000. The median condo/townhome price was up 8.8 percent, to $144,755.

In Miami-Dade, wages and housing prices remain deeply out of whack. Foreign investors have driven up prices beyond what many locals can pay and developers have built almost exclusively for the luxury market. As a result, the inventory of single-family homes priced below $300,000 fell 30.6 percent over the last year, according to the Realtors’ association. Cash is still king, with 40.7 percent of all sales transacted in cash.

Single-family sales between $300,000 and $399,000 in Miami-Dade powered the market, rising 50.3 percent year over year.

“Home buyers are increasingly focusing on mid-market priced Miami homes,” said Mark Sadek, chairman of the Miami Association of Realtors. “ A significant growth in mid-market sales coupled with increased non-distressed or traditional home purchases catapulted Miami to a historic month.”

Low inventory at affordable prices is a nationwide problem. Sales of previously owned homes fell for a second month in August as the inventory of homes for sale continued to shrink. Existing-home sales declined 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That was only 0.8 percent higher than a year ago.

At the current pace of sales, it would take 4.6 months to exhaust all national inventory, lower than the six months that’s traditionally been the marker of a balanced market. Inventory was lower compared with a year ago for the 15th straight month in August. As inventory tightened, it pressured prices higher. The median sales price was $240,000, up 5.1 percent higher than in August 2015.

This story was originally published September 22, 2016 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Real estate market rebounded in August — and prices were up, too."