Median home prices reached an all time high in December.

Hi everybody and happy holidays to you all.  Joe Hillner with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, where we will sell your home for just a 1% commission, guaranteed! I missed the last couple of weeks due to issues with Covid, but I'm fully recovered and ready to hit the new year running!
Ok, so every week, I share market data to keep you informed with the local real estate market.  
Here is this week’s Boca Market Watch.

First, Single Family Homes:

This past week, an terrible week, with only 26 new homes on the market, ranging from $345,000 to $11,777,000!  I think that some agents think that such crazy listing prices make their properties stand out - go figure.  9 homes back on the market, while just 5 homes listed took a price decrease, and 3 sellers raised their asking price.  And  a really poor week with 22 different properties under contract, and 14 going pending.  And just 9 homes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired outright.  And a pretty good week for sales with 69 homes closed in the past week,  ranging from $245K to $17.3 Million - nice! 

Next up, Condos and Townhomes:

32 new listings, very few, and ranging from $89 Grand to $8.95 Million.  
18 units came back on the market, 5 properties with a price decrease, and 4 sellers with an increase.  30 different properties went under contract, and another 26 went pending, like single family homes, a down week.  And just 13 condos or townhomes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired. 71 closed sales this week, another decent week for condos, and ranging in price from $70 Grand to $2.9 Million!

Here's what's making news right now.

The median price of homes in the U.S. rose to an all-time high during the week ended Dec. 19, up 15% from the prior-year period to $360,500, according to a new Redfin report. Meanwhile housing inventory continues to drop and has hit another all-time low. 

Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said that as available home-sale inventory continues to hit new lows each week, those in the market for new homes can’t help but feel that the “well is running dry.”

“Fewer homes are selling because of a lack of supply, while demand remains strong,” he said in a press release. “That’s why home prices continue to climb higher and higher. But once mortgage rates increase in 2022, you can expect the rate of price growth to slow down significantly.”  

The Fed has made it clear that they intend to take probably 3 interest rate hikes next year.  That means the days of 3% mortgage rates are just about over.

In our area, median list prices for single family homes had been in a narrow trading range since May, hovering around $1.2 M.  But from mid -Nov through Dec, we've seen the median price break through on the downside to just under a $M.

So have we hit the top and can we now expect prices to start actually dropping?  We won't know until we're actually looking in the rear view mirror, but it seems unlikely that prices will begin falling in the short term.

Our inventory has hit another all time low, to just 31 days of supply, and with continued demand, homes are still selling fast and typically above asking price.

That lack of inventory, plus people feeling safer having been vaccinated, has made condo sales a bright spot.  Condos have gone up 10% just since Oct, while inventory has also hit a new low and days on market has been a straight line down for most of the year.

In other news, you’re probably familiar with the headlines that suggest that the pandemic forced mass migration out of crowded cities. However, recent U.S. Census Bureau data indicates a contrary trend.

Data released on Nov. 17 found that roughly 27.1 million Americans reported living in a different residence than a year earlier—down from 29.8 million in 2020. The findings marked the lowest rate of movement that the bureau recorded in 70 years—an 8.4% mover rate.

Experts say the findings also indicate a decades-long trend that has been exacerbated by various factors predating the 2020 outbreak of COVID-19.

Aging in place has become a significant long-term contributor to the downward trajectory of the nation’s movement rate.

“Many aging families and individuals choose to and wish to remain in the homes where they raised their families and spent the last 20 or 30 years.  And the lack of new construction inventory to appeal to people is a huge problem in the country right now, and it’s a big reason why people don’t move.

That being said, Florida still leads the country in net inflow, so our market should remain very dynamic into the forseeable future.