Florida home buyers are returning to the market – a fact evidenced by both Existing Home Sales and New Homes Sales posted improvement versus month-prior figures this April.
On the national front – the NAR reported that existing home sales totals increased by 130,000 units in April, with new home sales moving up by a meager - yet positive 1,000 units in April.
As a twist in the story, however, though housing sales are increasing – inventory totals are moving up even more rapidly! (Boo!)
When compared with the March 2009 hosing inventory figures, there were 300,000 more homes for sale nationally in April — an increase of 9 percent. In addition, the national absorption rate rose to 10.2 months, its highest level since October.
Of course, the increased home inventory number does mean more good news for home buyers, because home prices are a product of Supply and Demand. More inventory means buyers remain in the position of being able to demand lower home prices.
The housing market has not fully rebounded by any means - but it continues to show signs of strength. With a few more months like March and April, it’s reasonable to assume that home buyers will lose some of their leverage for contract negotiation. When that happens, expect home prices to rise.
A Look at Florida’s Housing Numbers in More Detail
Existing home sales for Florida increased by18 percent last month with a total of 13,111 homes sold statewide compared to 11,133 homes sold in April 2008.
Florida Realtors also experienced a 21 percent rise in statewide sales of existing condos in April – an uptick of 6.2 percent over the total units sold in March of 2009.
Fourteen of Florida’s metro statistical areas (MSAs) reported increased existing-home sales in April and 11 MSAs also showed gains in condo sales. A majority of the state’s MSAs have reported increased sales for 10 consecutive months.
More detail, including an extensive statistical analysis of Florida’s April 2009 Housing Sales may be found over at Chris Myers’ Orlando Property Group Blog.
I hope you found this post useful! As always, if you or anyone you know is in need of a local Florida mortgage loan originator, I’m your guy. Call me at 888-859-7418 or apply online for your Florida mortgage. We’ll keep you posted and let you know when it’s time to pull the trigger!
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The good news is that we are starting to see some positives come out. Previously, inventory’s were increasing and sales were still falling. In Destin Florida, where I live, sales have increased about 20% year over year while inventories have stabilized and declined slightly in some instances.
It’s exciting to see buyers coming back!
This is really a good news. My sister is in the real estate industry and she mentioned about Florida. I really hope the real estate industry will recover soon from this economic crisis. *crossing my fingers*