On the rebound

Median prices continue to rise

Home sales are up and median prices continued to rise across South Florida.

Home sales rebounded in August, and median prices continued to rise across South Florida, local Realtor boards said Thursday.

Broward County had 1,658 existing, single-family sales last month, up 9 percent from a year ago, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors. The August improvement follows an 11 percent annual decline in July.

Palm Beach County snapped a string of six consecutive year oversales declines, the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches said. August transactions rose to 1,683, up 12 percent from a year earlier.

In Miami-Dade County, there were 1,239 sales, up 9 percent, the Miami Association of Realtors said. It was the county’s best August on record and ended 10 months of sagging sales, the board said.

“Homes that are presented well and fixed up are still selling very quickly,” said Howard Elfman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors. “If you don’t jump on it, somebody else will.”

Median prices also increased in the three counties. Broward saw the median climb 6 percent to $325,000, while Palm Beach County’s median rose 7 percent to $315,000. Miami-Dade’s median price jumped 15 percent to $300,000. The median means half the properties sold for more and half for less.

A persistent shortage of homes for sale has kept sellers in control, but more listings are trickling onto the market, at least in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, figures show.

Palm Beach County had 6,808 listings in August, up 6 percent from a year ago. The county had a 4.6-month supply of homes, meaning itwould take that long to sell all the homes if no more were listed for sale. A balanced market has six months of inventory, real estate agents say.

Despite the increase in listings, the market remains competitive, said Judy Ramella, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. She said some buyers are losing two or three homes to higher offers before they realize howthe game is played.

“There are still so many more buyers out there than inventory,” she said.

In Miami-Dade, listings rose 10 percent to 6,346, and the county had a 5.7-month supply of homes.

Broward listings are much harder to find. These dropped 11 percent in August, to 5,395 homes. The county had a 3.7-month supply of inventory.