Residential’s rough ride

Coldwell Banker’s power duo of Jill Hertzberg (left) and Jill Eber topped <em>TRD</em>’s ranking of top single family-home brokers (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)
Coldwell Banker’s power duo of Jill Hertzberg (left) and Jill Eber topped TRD’s ranking of top single family-home brokers (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

From the March issue: Soft, challenging, slow, tough. Those are the adjectives describing South Florida residential sales of late, as external forces and oversupply at the high end cooled down the previously red-hot market.

As the market settled into its “new normal,” agents and sellers began putting their own spin on a relatively dismal reality. Email blasts and social media posts now proclaim “Massive $1,500,000 reduction,” “Major Reduction” and “Seller motivated. Bring offers!!!”

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And the agents themselves are publicly acknowledging the market shift and the economic realities related to it: worries about the Zika virus, the continued strength of the dollar, the chaotic presidential election and a pileup of available high-end homes. Urged on by brokers, sellers who were attached to the peak prices of 2014 and 2015 but looking to finally close a deal began to slash their asking prices in 2016, albeit begrudgingly.

But while prices have adjusted, there’s still more inventory in the multimillion-dollar market in Miami than ever before, according to Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Realty International. Sales are still down in both single-family homes and condos. “You don’t hear many people talk about months of supply … but it’s the most critical number in our industry,” noted Shuffield. [more]