Are you one of the many Floridians with Miami homes for sale priced over $300,000? Most sellers of these medium to high priced homes are expecting it to be another two years before it sells.
While sales of Miami homes continue registering strong gains, approximately three-quarters of the Miami homes that are selling are priced at less than $300,000. Homes offered for less than $100,000 are producing bidding wars and now regularly selling for more than their list prices.
According to figures released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors, the median price for Miami homes was down 28% to $178,500 in October, compared to a year ago. The median sale price fell 16% to $211,600, the Broward. The median price for Miami Beach condos was down 30% to $138,400 and 28% in Broward to $83,200. Since the first of the year, however, median prices for both homes and condos have bounced within a range of roughly $30,000, suggesting a bottoming out, at least at the lower end. While the median may be steadying, recovery may still be a long way off for homes in higher price categories.
As first-time buyers of Miami homes and investors grab up the deals while others are sidelined by difficulties in getting loans for pricier properties, those homes have stacked up.
Between August and October, in Miami-Dade, sales of homes priced at $300,000 or more were down by more than 25%, compared with the same three months a year ago.
Mortgage broker Grant Stern said the market for so called “jumbo loans”, or those worth more than $423,750 in South Florida, dried up more than two years ago.
President of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors in Coral Gables, Ron Shuffield, said three-quarters of Miami houses sold between August through October in Miami-Dade were priced under $300,000. And 23% of sales were for homes listed under $100,000, even though they represented only 8% of all listings, he said.
Sales of existing single-family homes were up 26% in Miami-Dade County and in Broward 32% in October compared with a year ago. In Miami, month-to-month, sales fell 8% from 619 in September to 571 in October, however. The number rose from 800 to 826, a 3% increase, in Broward.
Contributed by MLR Realty
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