Hobe Sound bucks local trend with strong sales in July
The local real estate market continues to intrigue. Inventory levels continue to drop and prices continue to rise and the two are certainly related. As the number of properties available for buyers to consider drops the laws of supply and demand take over. As supply diminishes and demand stays constant prices will rise. There are certainly appraisals to contend with but everyone agrees prices are finally on the upswing.
There are buyers everywhere looking to act on interest rates that continue to amaze. Foreclosed properties continue to be snapped up and in a future article we are going to take an in depth look at a remarkable change in who is ending up with these properties. Buyers are reading to act but suitable properties are not out there in many price categories. If demand stays strong we could see even more significant increases.
This demand is growing as many buyers do not want to miss out now that they feel the bottom has passed and the fear of buying into a dropping market dissipates. But the inventory issues has finally shown itself in the numbers and sales volume has dropped as buyers run out of options. Let’s take a look where these numbers ended up for the month of July in the northern Palm Beach County region.
#1 Hobe Sound - up 20%
#2 Jupiter - down 17%
#3 Palm Beach Gardens - down 25%
#4 Tequesta - down 27%
#5 North Palm Beach - down 37%
We again see a wide range in the northern Palm Beach County area during July with a median sales decrease of 25% and an average increase of 17.2% from the reporting municipalities. No doubt inventory is affecting different neighborhoods and cities in a variety of fashions and the range in sales we witnessed again last month shows that very clearly. We next move in this months report to the top finisher of Hobe Sound where sales were up 20% when compared to June. They were the only local municipality where sales jumped and a fantastic signal to the rest of the area. During July a total of 24 Hobe Sound single family homes changed hands compared with 20 during the previous month. With this performance we remain far ahead of the 12 month average which stands at 18.42 and also way ahead of the 2011 pace when 17 Hobe Sound homes sold in July. 
While sales rose they were also heavily weighted in the $0 to $150,000 price category which weighed in with 11 sales representing 46% of the overall market. The move up market between $300,001 and $500,000 also put in a solid performance with 7 sales and 29% of the overall market. The chart below shows the percentage of sales by price category for the month of July.
With so many sales in the lowest price category we would expect a poor performance in the median sales price of Hobe Sound homes. In fact, the median sales price for single family homes increased significantly to $360,000 from the $320,720 we saw in June. With this showing we stayed far ahead of the 12 month moving average which stands at $306,698 and also well above the median price from July 2011 which stood at $258.500. All signs still point to 2012 being the year we finally see prices rising after 7 years of decline. The chart below shows median prices on a monthly basis over the previous 12 month period.
The big question is the overall economy and it’s effect as we move forward........
