Short sales getting scarcer in Broward, Palm Beach

The previous deluge of short sales has diminished to a trickle in South Florida’s residential real estate market.

The Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches reported 50 sales of single-family homes for less than the mortgage amount in July, down from 83 a year earlier, a 40 percent drop.

The Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors reported 108 short sales in Broward County in July, a 22 percent decline from the same month last year.

From 2013 to 2014, the number of short sales declined by 53 percent to 963 in Palm Beach County and by 38 percent to 1,741 in Broward County.

Higher home prices have discouraged the use of short sales, which were notoriously time-consuming during the downturn in the housing market in the late 2000s.

Some bidders frustated by delays in short sales would back out before closing. Some real estate agents would not show homes whose owners were pursuing short sales.

But times have changed, said Mike Pappas, president of Keyes Co. Pappas said the short-sale segment of the housing market “used to be a ponderous, dragged-out market. Today, you can close in 30 days, and there’s certainty in the deal.” [Sun-Sentinel] – Mike Seemuth