Local market ‘encouraging' in face of state decline

The local market continued to fare well in June, according to the latest stats released by the Florida Association of Realtors, particularly when median sales price is taken into consideration.
While recent media reports have indicated that home prices across the nation are skidding at record levels, the local area is consistently reporting either increases in median sales price or decreases that are usually well under the national and state averages.
The median sales price is determined by taking the precise middle of all homes sold. It is not the same as an average sales price, a figure that is derived by taking the sum total of all homes sold and dividing by the number of sales.
In June, sales of existing condo units along the Emerald Coast were up 2 percent and the median sales price rose 1 percent. The state averaged drops of 5 percent in sales and 13 percent in median sales price.
“This is an encouraging sign,” observed ECAR President Cliff Chaplin, after reviewing the FAR stats. “What determines the state of a market is price, demand and inventory,” he said, explaining the relevance of the numbers. “The demand in this area has always been relatively good compared to other parts of Florida but up until recently we’ve had too much inventory.”
“Now it seems that inventory isn’t increasing like it was and prices are beginning to stabilize as well. So, we view what’s happening as encouraging.”
Just as encouraging were sales of existing single-family homes, despite a dip in the numbers. Although sales were off 14 percent as compared to last year, it was still markedly less than other areas of Northwest Florida such as Panama City and Pensacola where sales dipped by 35 and 26 percent respectively.
Likewise, the median sales price was down locally as compared to last year. But the 6 percent decline was still markedly less than the 16 percent drop averaged by the state, and so is viewed as a sign of increasing stability.
“Ideally, you don’t want to see extremes in the market, either way-up or down,” Chaplin said.
Meanwhile, at least one market in the state experienced some sharp declines in June. Sales of existing individual condo units in Ocala sank 67 percent and existing single-family homes 33 percent. The corresponding median sales prices also dipped, losing 32 and 15 percent.
Still, other markets around the state showed marked improvement in June.
After experiencing some rather significant declines in the past year, often in the double digits, the Miami market took on 6 points in condo sales and its single-family home market declined only by 6 percent.
Moreover, its condo market lost no ground with median sales price. The median sales price of Miami’s existing single-family homes, however, decreased by 21 percent.
Another market experiencing noteworthy activity was Marco Island, where sales of existing condo units jumped a whopping 422 percent and median sales price increased 26 percent.
The gains in Marco Island’s existing single-family home market were less extreme. Sales were up in this category by a more modest 9 percent while median sales price eased off by 10 percent.
This article was contributed by Joni Williams and the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors.