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Posted
January 25, 2024 at 8:00 AM EST
More homes and condos were for sale last month in South Florida compared to November. However, the supply of homes looking for buyers remains very low. That helps explain why the number of home sales dropped sharply last year and prices kept growing.
The median price of a single family home in Miami-Dade was $610,000 in December, up more than 15% from a year earlier. Home prices in Broward and Palm Beach counties jumped by about half that rate last year.
The median sales price of a condo in Miami and Broward was up about 8%. It was flat in Palm Beach County, according to data from the Miami Association of Realtors.
Cash remains key. Over half of condo sales in South Florida last month were in cash.
The increase in the inventory of homes for sale may help buyers — so may a drop in mortgage rates. South Florida is consistently rated as one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation. Population growth has underpinned the continued strength of the regional housing market even as the COVID-19 pandemic eased.
One gauge of population growth is people exchanging their out-of-state driver’s license for a Florida license. That number grew by 8.3% in 2023 in the region made up by Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties.
One in four people exchanging their out-of-state driver’s licenses last year did so in South Florida, according to state motor vehicle data analyzed by the Miami realtors group. Three states — New York, New Jersey and California — were the top origination states for people swapping out their driver’s license for one from the Sunshine State.
“Migration from other states and from abroad into Southeast Florida is likely to remain strong in 2024 due to the area’s strong job growth, a rising retiree population and Florida’s low tax environment,” Miami Association of Realtors Chief Economist Gay Cororaton wrote in a statement.
READ MORE: Major legal fights over longstanding commission practices may upend Florida’s real estate business
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