Home sales fall; Realtors point to Irma
Medium price of a home in Palm Beach County stays at $325K.
Palm Beach County home sales fell in October, while the median sale price of a house stood at $325,000, unchanged from September’s number, according to data released Tuesday by the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale.
The number of home sales in Palm Beach County dropped to 1,261 in October, down 3.8 percent from a year ago but up from September when Hurricane Irma disrupted the state’s economy and halted real estate deals.
Sales of condominiums and townhomes were also down, falling 8.5 percent from Oct. 2016, according to data released by the association.
Meanwhile, the median sale price for a single-family home was $325,000, up 4.8 percent from Oct. 2016, but down from summertime levels that went as high as $345,000.
Realtors blamed October’s decline on the hurricane, saying the housing market is still feeling the effects of the storm.
The storm, which made landfall Sept. 10, did not do major damage in the county. However, Floridians spent days preparing and evacuating. And after Irma, millions were without power.
Irma also delivered a glancing blow to the state’s labor and housing markets in the fall. While the jobless rate in Palm Beach County and Florida has fallen to the lowest point in a decade, 3.6 percent, Irma did slow the rate of job growth in the state.
For example, the October jobs report, the first following the storm, showed that Irma knocked Florida from its perennial perch as the nation’s leader in job growth.
In August, before the storm hit, Florida boasted annual job
growth of 2.6 percent, the best among large states and near the top overall. In September, Florida’s year-overyear job growth slowed to just 0.9 percent, placing it in the bottom half of all states.
Realtors, however, pointed to other positive signs, including the year-over-year rise in the median sale price of a single-family home and a double-digit increase in pending sales of townhouses and condominium units.
“In October we saw some residual effects of Hurricane Irma, however, prices are still appreciating and new pending sales are up,” a West Palm Beach broker and first vice president of the Realtors of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale. “Most impressive was the 20.9 percent increase in pending sales of townhomes and condos, likely attributed to the more affordable price point and greater inventory.”
There were 1,188 pending sales of condos and townhomes this past month, up from 983 in October 2016.
The median sale price of condos and townhomes stood at $169,000 in October, up 10.6 percent from a year ago, but down from September’s $172,000, the association said.
Cash sales fell slightly in October. Roughly 32 percent of home sales closed without a mortgage in October, down from about 34 percent in Oct. 2016. For condos and townhomes, 55 percent of sales this past month were cash, down from 60 percent a year ago.
Home prices still remain well below record levels. During the housing bubble, the county’s median resale price peaked at $421,500 in November 2005. Within a few years, the median price had crashed to less than $200,000. Palm Beach County’s housing market has yet to return to pre-bubble patterns.