South Florida Housing Market Update [November 2022]

Hey! It's Andy with the Mandel Team at Remax and I’m here to bring you your November '22 Housing Market Update.

As always for the purposes of these videos, we’re gonna be giving you the leading indicators showing you where the real estate market is headed, not where it’s been. So we’re showing you what’s going on in the market right now so you can make the most informed decision for you and your family.

When we talk about these stats, we’re typically talking about single family homes only in Boca, Parkland, and Coral Springs. Those are the areas where our team does the predominant amount of our business. We’re not talking about condos, townhouses, no 55+, and no country clubs. So let’s get after it.

The first stat we’d like to look at is the number of new listings hitting the market. That’s actually down 26.6% from this time last year. So you hear all this stuff in the news about “more homes on the market, more homes on the market”. The number of homes on the market is actually down, but because it’s taking longer to sell, which we’ll get into, there’s more options to choose from for buyers.

The next stat we’d like to look at is the number of pending sales. The number of homes that are coming off the market and going under contract. That is also down but it’s down 44%. So way fewer homes coming on the market, but even fewer homes selling. There's fewer buyers who are looking right now so there obviously are fewer home sales, but 44% is a very dramatic shift down in the number of homes selling compared to October of 2021. It’s a big, big difference.

As we were talking about, the number of days on market, how long it’s taking to sell a home, is up 154% from this time last year. It was 14 days, it’s currently taking on average 33 days to sell a home. And that’s just on average, meaning some homes sell quicker, but some homes are taking a lot longer than that. And again, that’s because there are fewer buyers who are out there looking to buy right now.

The average sales price to original list price is the next stat we wanna look at. Now to be fair, this is a backwards looking stat because whatever sold in October really went under contract in September, or maybe even August. But in October, the average sales price to original list price to include price reductions and stuff like that was 94.5%. That is down almost 5% from this time last year when it was 99.1%. So buyers are able to negotiate much lower prices than the listing price compared to what they were getting last year. That does not include closing costs that are paid for by the seller, or anything else that’s not included in just the purchase price.

So buyers right now, they’re in a good spot. They’re able to getting much better deal than what they’ve been getting, and they’re negotiating good prices for them. Sellers are coming down off of their list price.

The last stat we’d like to look at is what I think is the most important. It’s the number of months supply of inventory. So all during COVID, we were seeing roughly one month, or maybe a little bit less depending on the city, and the time of year. But right now we’re sitting at about 2.96 months of inventory. So we’ve been at about three times as much inventory for the last couple of months as we were seeing in the last two years. So, while there’s fewer listings hitting the market, because homes are sitting on the market a lot longer, buyers have more to choose from and there’s a bigger supply because it’s taking longer to sell.

A seller’s market is anything less than 6 months. A buyer’s market is anything more than 6 months. I’m gonna go ahead and call this a buyer’s market right now regardless of what this number says, it feels like a buyer’s market when you’re in this market right now. It’s just taking a long time.

If you get one offer, you’re really lucky at this point if you’re a seller. I don’t wanna say lucky, but you know, that is what’s expected. As you’re getting, basically one offer, and it’s taking roughly a month so sellers have to negotiate.

So let’s talk about what this means. If you’re a buyer, this is a better position than you’ve been in the last two years at least because there’s more to choose from. You can take your time. You can go see all of the homes that match your criteria.

You don’t have to be forced to rush into the home the second it hits the market and to write an offer, you know, fifty grand above list price. You’re able to get a much better deal, and get a home that really fits your needs. You don’t have to sell because there’s only one home on the market in the school district you wanna be in.

For sellers, what does this mean for you? Well, you really gotta price your home correctly. What we’re looking at right now is we’re telling sellers, “Look at where the market says your home was about 6 months ago, and you should really be priced at least 3% under that to make your home competitive” because the market just isn’t what it was 6, 7 months ago when interest rates were two or three percent lower. You gotta factor that in to your price because buyers are looking for a deal, and they’re getting it. So if you want to get your home sold, you have to come down a little bit on the price to compensate for the new market that we’re in.

So you can’t just pick what the market said your home was 6 months ago because that’s what your neighbor got. Unfortunately, this is a different time in the market and it’s just a different market right now, so this is a good time for both buyers and sellers. It’s still a great market. There’s a lot to choose from.

Sellers, you can still get good prices. Prices haven’t come crashing down. You have to reframe your mindset. It’s not, you know, “I’m losing money”. You’re still making a ton of money when you factor in that home prices are up almost 40% over the last two years. So if you come down 3%, then you’re selling for 37% above what the home was worth in 2019. You’re still making out really, really good. Maybe not as much as you would have done 6, 7 months ago but we can’t control the market. We can’t control what the fed is doing. We can only adjust our pricing and our expectations to match what’s going on in the world. So if you have any questions about the South Florida real estate market, make sure you reach out to us.

Give us a call, shoot us a text, or send us an email. We got your back when moving in South Florida.