Palm Beach County home sales take hit during May, condos hold steady: report

It’s been a rough spring for residential real estate in Palm Beach County, and May proved to be no different.

Single-family home sales in the county have fallen four months in a row now, according to a new report from the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, while condo deals showed some improvement during May despite a similarly beleaguered track record.

A total of 1,648 single-family homes were sold last month at a median price of $311,000 per property, according to the report. Sales were down 4.8 percent from the 1,731 deals done in May 2015, but median prices still rose by $16,000, or about 5.4 percent.

Meanwhile, sales for condos and townhouses picked up slightly year-over-year. The market saw 1,275 unit sales last month, up 1.9 percent from 1,251 sales the year before. Prices also spiked 9.6 percent from $150,950 per unit to $165,500.

As the association’s figures show, sales for both sectors have fallen consistently since January, all while housing prices for Palm Beach County — and South Florida in general — continue their steady climb.

At the same time, a bevy of new housing inventory is hitting the market. May saw 2,224 single-family homes hit the market in Palm Beach County, a rate that jumped 11.6 percent compared to May 2015.

Condo listings actually decreased 2.2 percent to 1,580 properties, although they surged by 11.9 percent just a month before.

Though the overall figures paint a gloomy picture, there are still bright spots to report: home and condo sales between $300,000 and $600,000 grew considerably year-over-year, indicating that the luxury and distressed portions of the market — both of which saw declines — are to blame for an overall slowdown.