South Florida Housing Market Update [October 2021]

Hey, it's Andy with the Mandel Team at REMAX. And I'm here to bring you your October 2021 Housing Market Update. As always, when we do these videos, we want to look at the leading indicators to show you where the real estate market is headed, not where it's been. And we're going to do our primary focus on Boca, Parkland, and Coral Springs. Those are the areas where we do the predominant amount of our business. We're talking single family homes only, no country clubs, no 55 and over. So let's get into it.

The first stat we'd like to look at is the number of new listings hitting the market, the supply. That on average between the three cities is down 13%. At the same time, we're seeing the number of homes going pending and coming off the market also down 21%. So fewer homes hitting the market, fewer homes are selling than they were this month of last year. What does that mean for the real estate market?

Let's look at the second stat is the Number of Days on Market. So a few months back we were seeing the low single digits five, six, seven. And to me at that time, that felt really, really long . Right now, on average, we're at 11 days on market between putting your home on the market and getting a contract. That still feels long to me, but the number is picking up. So it's taking a couple of days longer for these properties to sell. The market's not crashing. It's just shifting and slowing down a little bit from the craziness of having 25 offers in 24 hours on every single property.

The third stat we'd like to look at is the Closed Price to List Price. So what percentage of the asking price are sellers getting? And on average that's 99.6%. So still really, really, really high. It's a little bit less than what we were a few months ago. Buyers are being a little bit pickier. A couple of months ago, we were at 101 point something percent sales price to list price. So now we're at 99.6. So what does that mean? If you're a seller, you just gotta be a little bit more careful about what you're putting your home on the market for, you know, being able to just pick whatever price you want and get these crazy offers in 24 hours. We're seeing a lot less of that. It's taking a little bit longer. The market is slowing just a bit. For buyers there's a little bit more wiggle room in the price right now. I wouldn't say anything substantial. Obviously 99.6 being the average. There's not a lot of wiggle room, but it's slightly less competitive now for buyers than it was, let's say four or five, six months ago.

The fourth stat we'd like to look at is what I feel is the most important stat. It's the number of months supply of inventory. So what this stat shows is that if no more homes hit the market in South Florida, how long would it take for all of the homes that are currently on the market to go under contract and sell? They say a balanced market is six months. More than that is a buyer's market. Less than six months is typically a sellers' market. Right now, on average we're at 1.08 months of inventory. So that is a extreme sellers' market. This is where we've been for basically the last year. Even in previous years, we were still in a sellers' market. We were still about three or four months worth of inventory. But right now  we are just over, one month of inventory. In Parkland and Coral Springs, it's actually less than one month. So even though fewer homes are selling, what is coming on the market is selling so fast that the market doesn't have time to catch up. It's still such a crazy sellers' market right now, it's hard to really even put into words, but it's getting a little bit easier for buyers. There's a little bit more negotiating room. The market's slowing a little bit. What we have seen is that there's about 15% to 20% fewer buyers who are out there looking at these new prices. A lot of people got buyer fatigue, so there's a little bit less competition. So instead of getting 25 offers and bidding the price up to these ridiculous amounts, we're seeing four or five, six offers on every listing. So a little bit more manageable for buyers. You still got to write a really strong offer. You still have to be very competitive, but it's way more manageable than it was six, seven months ago. For sellers, what does this mean for you? Again, you can't just pick whatever crazy price you want and you know, shoot for the moon. That's the kiss of death in this market is overpricing your listing. It's still going to sit on the market, even in this market, if it's not priced correctly. So what we're recommending to our sellers is price the property exactly where you know it's going to sell. Right where the comps say it's valued and you'll end up getting that multiple offer situation again. If you shoot way too high, you're gonna end up negotiating down. If you price it right where it needs to be, you'll still get those multiple offers. You'll still get a really good price. So that was our October 2021 Housing Market Update.

If you have any questions on the housing market, make sure you give us a call, shoot us a text, or send us an email. We'd love to be your realtor of choice in South Florida.