September home sales slid across South Florida

Realtors reported the number of September sales of single-family homes in South Florida dropped, compared with last year, while median prices rose.

September single-family home sales in Miami-Dade County fell to 1,066 closings, down 11 percent from last year’s level. However, the median price of a Miami-Dade single-family home sale in September increased to $314,500, up 10 percent from last year.

The September sales slide was smaller in Broward County and Palm Beach County, where median sale prices increased at a faster rate than in Miami-Dade.

September home sales declined from last year by 2 percent in Palm Beach to 1,475 closings and by 3 percent in Broward to 1,423 closings.

Median home sale prices in September rose to $325,000 in Broward, up 12 percent from last year, and $316,000 in Palm Beach County, up 11 percent.

Larry Revier, a Fort Lauderdale real estate agent, told the Sun-Sentinel motivated home buyers are scarcer than a year ago: “We just don’t have buyers lining up and saying, ‘I’ll take it.’”

Douglas Rill, a real estate agent in West Palm Beach, told the Sun-Sentinel political uncertainty ahead of the November 8 presidential election has slowed the pace of home sales: “The election has people anxious,” he said.

But Stephen B. McWilliam, who runs Florida State Realty Group in Fort Lauderdale, told the newspaper that the single-family home market is healthy because “it’s not over-inflated.” [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth