Yes, the Florida Home Market Is in Sellers’ Territory, But Can Your House Sell Fast?
January and February figures have it, say our friends at Florida Realtors©, the home market in the Sunshine State remains in seller’s territory, sustaining the trend experienced for the whole of last year.
How’s this so? Well firstly, it’s important to understand that one useful indicator of home market conditions, particularly in pricing, is months’ supply of inventory or MSI. The benchmark for a balanced market in the real estate industry is 5.5 months’ supply, a level favoring neither seller nor buyer in pricing. MSI, simply put, tells us how long the current inventory will last at the current sales pace.
Some Whistle-bait Figures
For folks who want to sell their house fast, recent Realtors© MSI data are indeed whistle-bait figures at first glance. Since last year up to this February, the MSI of single family homes for sale in Florida has been at the 4-month level, well into the seller’s territory.
As encouraging for prospective home sellers, inventory in terms of active listings on the market has continued to drop in the last 12 months. For February, the decline was registered at 4 percent nearly equal the 4.4 percent slide in inventory registered in 2016, the steepest for last year.
Warning: This Could Prick Your Bubble
However, some recent Realtors© data too could dampen the enthusiasm of would-be home sellers who enthusiastically expect that their houses would sell fast based on the current tight inventory of available properties. What could prick their bubble is that total home sales closed in February were flat with merely a fractional gain of 0.5 percent, mirroring the marginal rise of just 0.9 percent posted for all of 2016.
What may be holding back the market from a strong takeoff is the sustained rise in median home sale prices. For February, the median sale price statewide was registered at $225,000, up 12.5% from a year earlier. Notably, this spike represented the 63rd consecutive month that median prices rose on a year-over-year comparison.
Cash Sales Down, But We Can Help
A reading of the recent real estate stats indeed send mixed signals, some of which may douse cold water on the rosy expectations of some home sellers. This is more so especially for those who need to sell their houses not only quickly but also in cash. For one thing, cash sales have continued to decline, recent Realtors© data also show. In February, cash sales dropped by nearly 20 percent, which was preceded by a 10.3 percent decline in January and a 16.3 drop for all of 2016.
But don’t be bothered by some of the market readings which seem to tell you that finding a serious buyer for a resale home now will be a bit harder than usual. Contact us at once at 866-886-5345 or complete our form. We buy homes all over Florida, from Tallahassee and Pensacola to down south in Fort Myers and Sarasota. We’re investing across the state because we are Floridians ourselves. We believe in our community, its future prospects, and, of course, our people here!
About Arturo Cuevas:
Arturo Cuevas covers real estate news in Florida as a Contributing Writer at Sarasota Bay Real Estate and The Motley Fool.