Home Sales in Palm Beach Gardens Jump 20%

Home Sales in Palm Beach Gardens jump 20% in November

Another month has passed us by, Hanukkah is in the rear view mirror and Christmas is only 4 days away. Our northern friends are in the middle of a snow storm that has snarled holiday travel but here in South Florida the heat is still turned on, especially in the real estate market.

We had been at a crossroads with limited inventory and buyers having fewer choices plus higher prices and sales had slowed a bit. Suddenly the drop in inventory levels abated a bit and even headed slightly higher and buyers in November reacted; in a big way. Sales, pending sales and prices all were up strongly. Builders of new home communities have also had a robust year with a 25% increase over 2011 and they are projecting another 35% increase in 2013. Believe it or not one of their biggest challenges is finding lots to built on in some markets where development has been on hold for 7 years.

Over the past couple months we have seen home sales in Palm Beach Gardens and the neighboring towns stall slightly as buyers had a hard time finding the perfect home. The month of November showed a strong reversal of that trend and it is a combination of slightly higher inventory levels and buyers moving forward at prices higher than they could have negotiated a few months back. In November the median number of sales increased 20% in our reporting area with a move upward in the average sales figures by 12%. What makes these numbers even more incredible is they were heavily held back by home sales in Hobe Sound who reported a 24% decrease in sales. Add in that November sales were an amazing 70% higher than year ago numbers and you can see the sizzle back in South Florida real estate.

So with all this positive news let’s take a look at home sales in Palm Beach Gardens and the surrounding communities for the month of November and see what has happened since our last report.

Tequesta - 

North Palm Beach - 

Palm Beach Gardens - up 20%

Jupiter - up 6%

Hobe Sound - down 24%

We move next in this months report to home sales in Palm Beach Gardens where sales volume jumped significantly after last months decline. During the month of November a total of 83 Palm Beach Gardens single family homes sold compared with 69 during the previous month. With this showing we stay ahead of the 12 month average sales volume which currently stands at 81. On a “seasonal” note home sales in Palm Beach Gardens  were far ahead of the 56 sales we had in the same month in 2011.

As we saw sales volume increase in Palm Beach Gardens we saw the heaviest sales activity in homes priced between $150,001 and $500,000 with 53 sales representing 64% of the market. With these sales the median sales price increased slightly from month ago numbers to $312,000. We did however fall below the 12 month average which stands at $337,417. From a “seasonal” perspective we were slightly behind the median sales price in November of last year which stood at $312,500. Below are the charts showing the percentage of single family home sales in each category for the month of November as well as median prices over the past 12 months in Palm Beach Gardens.

Our next sales report will be interesting as we see how robust holiday home shopping was in 2012.

Until next year............