Sales In South Florida Palm Beach County Housing Market Dips 5% Annually

From 2,222 transactions in July 2022 to 2,109 in July 2023, the Miami Association of Realtors reports that the Palm Beach County total home sale has decreased by 5.1% annually in July 2023. Most of the homes purchased in July came in terms when the mortgage rates peaked at 6.71% from 5.09% last year. Even with elevated rates, Palm Beach single-family home pending sales rose 2.6% over the years to 1245 transactions this July.

Home sales are sensitive to mortgage rate changes. As of August 17, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at 7.09%, a tremendous hike from 6.96% the prior week and 5.13% a year ago. Palm Beach single-family homes and condo sales have decreased significantly due to the lack of inventory and rising mortgage rates.

The Palm Beach total luxury ($1-million-and-up) jumped 8.4% year-over-year in July 2023 to 309 transactions. Single-family luxury transactions rose 3.8% to 246 transactions, along with condo luxury transactions by 31.3% to 63 transactions. However, the Greater Palm Beach County single-family home median real estate prices stayed identical year-over-year in July 2023 at $600,000. Existing median condo prices increased 8.3% year-over-year to $315,000 from $290,777.

Historically, a market with less than six months of supply will have appreciating prices. Palm Beach County’s single-family homes and existing condos have a low inventory. The current inventory is 6,959, while the monthly average is 16,196, resulting in 2.9 and 3.6 months of inventory, respectively.

Total active listings at the end of July increased 6% year-over-year, from 6,562 to 6,959, and inventory of single-family homes decreased 11% in July 2023. Condominium inventory increased 30.3%, and new listings fell 16.1%, from 1,499 to 1,257 year-over-year.

A significant increase in the supply of inventory for single-family homes and condominiums indicates a sellers’ market. Only 0.7% of all closed residential sales in Palm Beach were distressed last month, including REO (bank-owned properties) and short sales, lower than 0.4% in July 2022.

Palm Beach’s distressed sale percentage matches the national average. Single-family homes now take longer to sell, with listing-to-contract time going from 14 to 22 days and sale time from 57 to 66 days. Condos, however, sell quicker, with the median number of days dropping from 72 to 54 days. 

Cash sales represented 48.1% of Palm Beach closed sales in July 2023, compared to 51% in July 2022. According to the latest NAR statistics, about 26% of U.S. home sales were made in cash. In the Greater Palm Beach area, cash sales accounted for 54.5% of all condo sales and 42.9% of single-family transactions.