Miami-Dade home sales accelerate year-over-year: report

An aerial view of Miami's Brickell neighborhood (Credit: creative commons user Towpilot)
An aerial view of Miami's Brickell neighborhood (Credit: creative commons user Towpilot)

Amid growing prices and shrinking supply, home sales in Miami-Dade County continued growing during 2015’s third quarter.

The county saw a total of 7,811 residential sales — both condos and single-family homes — during the months of July, August and September, according to a quarterly report from the Miami Association of Realtors. That translates to a 2.4 increase in sales activity compared to the same period last year.

Although the number of transactions has increased overall, condos and single-family homes acted much differently: condo sales actually fell 0.8 percent year-over-year, while single-family homes picked up the slack with a 4.1 jump in closings.

That could partly be explained by changes in supply over the past year. Miami-Dade’s condo and townhouse inventory has swelled to 11,835 units, up 6.3 percent from 11,133 last year. At the current sales pace, that puts condos at 8.7 months of supply — near the upper limit for a healthy market.

Meanwhile, the supply of single-family homes decreased 5.4 percent to 10,799 homes during the third quarter. That equates to roughly 5.4 months of stock, according to the association’s report.

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Prices, on the other hand, are going up across the board. The median cost of a single-family home grew from $250,000 last year to $273,000. For a condo, the median price went up from $189,900 to $199,000.

Chris Zoller

Chris Zoller, the Miami Association of Realtor’s 2015 residential president of Miami

“Miami real estate remains a bargain compared to other world-class global cities,” Christopher Zoller, the association’s 2015 residential president of Miami, wrote in the report. “Today’s prices coupled with historic-low mortgage rates and South Florida’s diversified job market are encouraging more consumers to purchase property in Miami.”

Brokerage reports have indicated that Miami’s residential market is headed for a slowdown. Sales activity and price growth, while robust, have begun to ebb in the face of fluctuating supply. — Sean Stewart-Muniz