The number of homes on the market for buyers to select from in the Northern Palm Beaches has been steadily rising. As of April 1st, inventory levels are up again, but starting to slow. Over the past couple weeks inventory has only risen about 6 tenths of one percent. In real numbers that means a total of 14 more listings for buyers to choose from throughout the entire Northern Palm Beach region. Barely noticeable.
So what does that mean for the market? We cannot say it often enough. The local real estate market is constantly changing and each property is totally different when one looks at the factors affecting it’s value. Yesterday, we were researching a property for a client along The Avenue in Delray Beach. Undoubtably, one of the hottest, fastest appreciating markets we have seen in South Florida over the past few years. The building we were researching has a 6 year inventory based on 12 month sales volume. The lowest priced active listing is priced above the highest priced sold listing. There are no properties in this development currently under contract. A 6 year inventory and nothing under contract. Guess what? A savvy buyer can get a pretty good deal with numbers like that working in their favor.
If demand stays steady we should see prices go down when inventory rises and increase when inventory shrinks. But that is not what we have been seeing. Since August sales of single family homes in the Jupiter area have been pulling back with prices rising. Paradise Sharks is still about a week away from publishing the latest median single family numbers but they will be up again. Not as high as we thought a few weeks ago but still probably high enough to push the median single family home price in the region to new 10 year highs.
The question is will we see these price increases, in both the single family and condominium market, continue? Pending home sales are a big clue to that puzzle. Remember the Delray Beach property we discussed above with nothing under contract and a multi-year inventory. Prices there will not be going anywhere until we see a measurable increase in pending home sales. In Jupiter, and the surrounding towns, pending home sales are up again as of April 1st. Up for the 3rd straight month which is a bullish sign. Over that 3 month period we have been seeing average monthly increases of about 13% per month. Big numbers and a significant reason why prices have been moving higher regardless of climbing inventory levels. However, over the past 2 weeks pending homes sales have been slowing. Up only 1%.
So we now have slowing sales, slowing inventory growth, another “season” coming to an end and a lot of questions. Paradise Sharks wants buyers and sellers of real estate to be informed. Know the numbers surrounding any property you are making a decision on. Make sure you have a real estate broker on your team who knows the numbers. Those numbers are critical to you making educated choices. If we can be of help in any way we are super easy to reach at info@paradisesharks.com or 561.308.0175
Fins up…..
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