SoFla market intel: home price appreciation slows, foreclosures fall…and more

Home Prices

South Florida saw yet another month of rising home prices during December, but the rate of growth actually began to shrink compared to November.

The cost of buying a home in the tri-county area was 7.1 percent higher in December than the same month in 2014. However, when compared to November, homes were 0.3 percent cheaper.

This data comes from the S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Indices, a market watching report that records price fluctuations across the U.S.

“While home prices continue to rise, the pace is slowing a bit,” David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, wrote in the report. “Sparked by the stock market’s turmoil since the beginning of the year, some are concerned that the current economic expansion is aging quite rapidly. The recovery is six years old, but recoveries do not typically die of old age. Housing construction, like much of the economy, got off to a slow start in 2009-2010 and is only now beginning to show some serious strength.”

South Florida’s housing market in particular has been hit hard by worsening economic conditions in countries around the globe. Buyers from Latin America, one of Miami’s biggest feeder pools, have become discouraged due to a strong U.S. dollar that has made real estate here more expensive.

A June 2011 photo of the downtown Miami skyline (Credit: Marc Averette) and a foreclosure sign

Foreclosures

The foreclosure rate in Miami-Dade County kept falling in December, according to a new report from CoreLogic.

Of all the home loans in Miami-Dade that month, only 3.16 percent were in some stage of foreclosure. That figure has fallen by a little more than 1.5 percentage points compared December 2014.

Delinquency rates, in which mortgage debtors fail to pay their bill for more than 90 days, also fell by a significant amount. Roughly 7.15 percent of home loans in December were 90 days delinquent, down 3.25 percentage points year-over-year.

These falling rates reflect a national trend as the U.S. housing market gains its stride back from the financial crisis of 2008. The national foreclosure rate stood at 1.2 percent during December, down 0.3 percentage points from a year before.

And on the state level, Florida’s home loans saw a 1.4 percentage point reduction in foreclosures — down to 2.41 percent from 3.79 percent.

Fort Lauderdale beach (Credit: Daniel Dudek-Corrigan)

Broward Housing Market

Broward County’s housing market saw a mixed bag for the first month of 2016, with single-family and multi-family home sales heading in different directions, while prices are up across the board.

According to a new report from the Greater For Lauderdale Realtors, the median price for a single-family home rose to $265,000 during January, a growth of 7.5 percent compared to January 2015. Condos and townhomes saw similar gains with a 7.2 percent increase to $131,250 per unit.

“It is extremely encouraging to start 2016 off with a steady increase in median sale prices for both single-family homes as well as townhomes/condominiums,” said Howard Elfman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors in a statement. “That kind of sustainable and projectable growth is the kind of consistency we hope continues throughout the 2016 calendar year.”

Pricing is where the similarities end. Inventory for single-family homes has fallen by 2.4 percent to 2,492 properties up for sale during January, while multifamily is up 5.8 percent with 3,246 units.

Home sales saw a 6.8 percent gain during January, with a total of 1,044 single-family properties closing compared to 983 from the previous year. Condos and townhomes, on the other hand, had a 5.9 percent reduction in sales during the same time period. That sector saw 1,073 closings during January, down from 1,140 in January 2015. — Sean Stewart-Muniz