Florida Real Estate Sales, Prices and Closings Are Up!

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Recent data released by Florida Realtors Association indicates that the Florida housing report for Q1 was quite favorable. In fact, sales, pending sales, median prices, and closings all saw increases! Single family homes, townhomes, and condo properties experienced increases in median sales price, which is the 15th consecutive month we have seen such an increase in Florida! All of this real estate activity continues while housing inventory and mortgage rates remain extremely low.


Home buyers are feeling the constraints of the low levels of inventory, especially in the new home purchase arena. Prices continue to climb, some on a month-to-month basis and others less frequently. The median days on the market for a home to sell has dipped down to only 57 days for single-family homes and 61 days for townhomes / condo properties. At least 50% of the homes in Florida re selling in less than 2 months, GREAT NEWS!

Closed property sales, typically 30-90 days after buyers and sellers go to contract, of single-family homes in Florida were up 9% from Q1 last year totaling 19,631. Meanwhile, pending sales are also up in the range of 23% compared to the end of Q1 in 2012, and the average price of these single-family homes is around $160K, a 15% increase from this point last spring.

Not only are single-family homes seeing huge increases in real estate activity, but townhome, condo properties are experiencing the same. Pending sales for these types of properties are up at least 10% from Spring 2012 and the median prices are also in the green by 15% (about $120K).

Single-family home inventory stands around a 5.3 month supply while condo/ townhome supply is around 5.8 months according to Florida Realtors.

“We continue to be encouraged by the depth and breadth of the housing recovery. State numbers are up in virtually all important categories and down where they should be down”, says Florida Realtors chief economist, Dr. John Tuccillo.

Our first hand experience with the current conditions in the local Tampa, Florida market has mirrored what is going on statewide. We have seen many builders cut back on their home buyer incentives and prices rise at faster rates we are used to. A recent first time home buyer of ours was appalled on how quickly the prices rose on a townhome she viewed only 6 weeks prior.

Do not allow this opportune time to pass you by. Many real estate consumers (all of us at some point or another) will soon look back at this time and wish we could have done more. If you are a curious buyer or eager home seller, consider putting a SI Real Estate professional in your corner so you can prepare yourself to reap big time rewards!

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