The Lamacchia Realty South Florida Housing Report presents overall home sale statistics and highlights the average sale prices for single families, condominiums/townhomes in Broward County, Miami-Dade County, and Palm Beach County for February 2021 compared to February 2020. It also looks at other metrics like New Listings and New Pending Sales as they are often the best indicators for predicting future trends in the market. This month’s report will be unlike years past due to the lingering effects of COVID and the massive amount of home sellers that didn’t list last year.
Broward County
Broward County closed sales increased for single families by 239 transactions, now at 1,243 from 1,004 in February 2020, a 23.8% increase. Condos/townhouses increased by 296 transactions, now at 1,451 from 1,155 last February, a 25.6% increase.
Average prices increased for both singles and condos/townhomes by 16.3% and 21% respectively. Singles are now priced at $632,584 from $544,134- an $88,450 climb year over year. Condos/townhomes are averaging $290,581 from $240,071, a $50,510 increase.
Newly listed homes are up for singles by 2% and down for condos/townhomes by 3.3%. Listings for single families in February 2021 are at 1,693 from 1,659 in 2020. Condo listings fell to 2,081 from 2,152.
Pending sales increased for both property types, up 15% for singles and up 25.6% for condo/townhomes. Singles saw 1,887 contracts accepted over 1,642 and condo/townhomes rose to 2,318 from 1,846.
Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County exhibited an increase in closed sales for both single families and condos/townhouses by 23.6% and 42.3% respectively. Singles are up to 1,093 sales from 884 in February in 2020, and condos/townhomes are up to 1,392 from 978 in the same timeframe.
Prices for this county increased by a significant amount year over year for both single families and condos/townhomes in February. Singles increased by 81% to $933,279 from $515,206 which is a $418,073 difference and very likely due to a handful of very highly-priced properties as outliers. Condos increased to $617,292 from $380,764, a $236,538 dollar difference year over year.
Newly listed properties decreased by 4.8% for single families, down by 80 properties year over year, now at 1,594 from 1,674. Condos/townhomes however exhibited an increase of 186 listings now at 2,454 from 2,268.
Properties placed under contract increased for both singles and condos/townhomes; singles are up by 16.6% to 1,688 from 1,448 and condos are up 62.3% now at 2,480 from 1,528.
Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County single families saw a slight 1.8% decrease in closed sales, a deviation of 22 transactions, now at 1,211 from 1,233 year over year. Condos/townhomes increased by 9.1% to 1,107 sales over 1,015 last February.
Average prices increased by 38.9% for singles families and 31.1% for condos/townhomes. Singles are up to $845,677 from $608,819 and condos/townhomes rose from $332,494 to $435,929 in February 2021.
The number of new homes listed decreased for both singles and condos/townhomes by 13.5% and 2.7% respectively. Singles saw 276 fewer listings now at 1,763 and condos/townhomes saw 50 fewer listings now at 1,788.
The number of pending sales increased by 4.1% for single families to 1,975 from 1,898 and by 17.8% for condos/townhomes to 1,841 from 1,563.
What’s Ahead?
Luxury property sales have been soaring and are driven by many out-of-state buyers, which is what is causing the average prices to be climbing by staggering numbers in parts of South Florida, particularly Miami-Dade County.
Condo sales are also on the rise as buyers who struggled to find single families ended up going with townhomes to finally secure the property they were looking for. Buyer interest in condos started to increase (again after really slowing down following the pandemic) last fall and now we are seeing the results of that rekindled interest with the closings in January and February. Single-family homes have continued to be a tight commodity and so condo/townhome sales will continue to contribute more and more to the number of closed sales we see each month.