Market trends, home prices and relocation advice from real estate experts
The demand for Florida real estate has been very strong over the past few years, but now in latter May of 2024 the Florida market is undergoing a healthy rebalancing with the higher interest rates and a greater number of homes now spending more days on the market. As the median price of a Florida home just achieved another all-time high in April, combined with lingering 7% mortgage rates and rising home insurance costs, some buyers are now becoming more challenged with overall home affordability.
At the end of April 2024, the median single family Florida home price was $430K and this represents a 5% year-over-year price increase. Of course this is very much location dependent, some areas in Florida have not faired to well, especially in the vacation home areas in the Disney zones. This type of market is always the first to see a deeper correction prior to more residential areas.
With so many people moving to Florida in recent years, this has caused housing prices to rise significantly in a relatively short period of time. This strong demand has also caused the amount of homes for sale, often referred to as available inventory, to remain somewhat low at a 4.2 month supply (a 6 month supply is considered a normal, balanced market). Additionally, as the majority of Florida homeowners have a mortgage rate well under the current 7% rate, many are choosing to remain in their current home with their low monthly payment, versus moving and taking on a higher payment. In today’s Florida real estate market, correctly priced homes are continuing to sell fairly quick after hitting the market and for homes in choice neighborhoods with good schools and preferred location, some multiple-offer situations are still occurring, but at a much lesser pace than was during the market peak.
Florida’s new home construction market is also experiencing a pullback in consumer demand with the now higher rates. As such, some national home builders are now offering buyers, who opt to use their in-house lenders, a more attractive rate as well as credits to buyers to help buy down their rate. In terms of the build time for new Florida homes, wait times are running roughly 9 -12 months, versus the more typical 7 – 9 months build time (from initial contract to close) as construction labor shortages are now causing delays for home builders in various metropolitan markets around the state. While many who are relocating to Florida are eager to escape the cold weather or to start their retirement years as Floridians, and not necessarily wanting to wait this extended length of time for a home to be built, many are opting for recently-built homes in the resale market and will often pay full ask price (or slightly above) to secure a deal.
In summary what is the outlook for the vacation home areas around Disney, which is our area of expertise and focus. In summary the Disney zones vacation home areas are seeing a month on month correction with appraisals coming in lower. This trend is set to continue throughout the latter 2024 into 2025. 2025 will be a continuation of 2024 with further corrections being predicted by real estate economists.
Are you thinking about selling your vacation home? Are you wishing to see a predictive report for your property, outlining possible ROR for your property in 2025 as opposed to 2024, also bearing in mind that the exchange rate for your home country (or the country where you are moving your funds to), could also change in a less favorable or more favorable position for you.
Contact us today for a FREE Property Evaluation Report & Predictive Report as well as our Seller’s Guide for Saving funds at the Closing table!
