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Florida Keys Market Report 2019

By Lilas "Lela" Ashkarian

Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Schmitt Real Estate 622790

May 01, 2019 11:13 AM

Florida Keys Market Report in 2019

Great News For Buyers who are Planning to Purchase a Vacation

Retirement Property in the Keys

www.SearchFloridaKeysHomes.com

305-395-0814

Lela Ashkarian, PA, CRS, GRI, ABR, e-PRO

Here are some key takeaways concerning the first quarter of 2019: We started this year with higher interest rates which were scheduled to increase to over 5%, coupled with predictions for a national recession. As a consequence, we experienced fewer sales and more sellers put their properties on the market. Starting in March, interest rates declined and subsequent jobs report numbers dispelled the “recession” talk and the market began to recover. After a very slow start in January and February, March sales rebounded reducing the deficit for the quarter. Going forward, there continue to be signs of caution with more sellers having to reduce prices and expectations to attract buyers. Older pre-FIRM homes with higher flood insurance premiums (which will continue to increase) are seeing fewer buyers while elevated homes with lower premiums are preferred. We can understand this market by careful study of the inventory which we are closely watching. More sellers always mean fewer buyers. Click HERE for the Market Report

These charts show the overall relationship of buyers-to-sellers and the seasonal out-of-phase relationship between buyers and sellers. Looking back to 2004-2006 which was the period of the last market rise and decline, there was an almost imperceptible increase in the number of listings starting in Q4 2004 that mushroomed as a result of Wilma in late October. Prices were rising in 2003 and 2004 at unsustainable rates which priced buyers out of the market. All of this occurred prior to the subprime crisis and the great recession starting in 2007-2008. We have seen increased listing inventories thus far in 2019 with continued smaller price increases which began in 2015. We are carefully monitoring the listing inventory this year so that we can determine if we are headed into a prolonged slowdown in sales which is always presaged by a sustained increase in the number of listings

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305-395-0814