Florida Market Analysis

When you list your home for sale the initial listing price you choose is extremely important for a successful sale.  Your homes list price is always an important key to selling however there are times when a real estate markets allows the seller the room to ‘list a little higher’ or ‘test the market’, perhaps listing at 5-10% above the suggested list price.  This is not the case with the current Florida real estate market.

Not only is aggressively pricing your home at the onset of the listing period crucial, constant monitoring of the market trends is a must if a seller wishes to compete with the competition.  The competition in most areas of Florida right now are REO and short sales.  Short sale listings make up a huge portion of the listing inventory.  These home are priced to receive an offer quickly in order to have a contract to submit to the lender for approval.  Your home is competing against short sales for the limited number of home buyers in the market place today.

2010 should see an increase in home sales in many areas of Florida.  If you want your home to be one of those that sale this year, price it aggressively at the start.

When called to prepare a market analysis for a home owner who is not facing foreclosure or in a short sale situation the task has been made difficult by the number of distressed sales throughout the majority of the Florida market place. 

Traditional sellers have maintained the condition of their homes better than distressed home owners in most cases.  Non-distressed sellers can offer buyer incentives that distressed sellers cannot.  Regular sellers can allow for inspections and are willing to make repairs as needed when required.  However even with these enhancements the non-distressed seller is finding their home value affected by the comparable sales consisting largely of distressed property.

Hopefully 2010 will see the beginning of stabilizing home values and more traditional homes selling to offset the past 2-3 years.

Florida’s existing home sales rose in August - marking a full calendar year (12 months) that sales activity increased in the year-to-year comparison.  more

Are you planning on selling your home?  Your chances appear to be improving according to statistics released by the Florida Realtor Association.

According to a recent press release:

Existing home sales rose 37 percent last month with a total of 15,882 homes sold statewide compared to 11,595 homes sold in July 2008, according to FAR. Press Release

Of course keep in mind that sales are up compared to 2008.  We all remember 2008 as being no walk in the park when it came to selling a home.

The Orlando real estate association reports that the median sales price of all existing homes sold in July rose 2.92 percent to $135,000 from the $131,175 recorded in June.  Press Release

Rising home prices will be taken into consideration as agents complete market analysis for Florida homeowners thinking of selling.

There is is still a long way to go but rising home prices should be viewed as a positive.

Are Florida home prices going up?  According to the Florida Association of Realtors® the State’s median sales price was higher than reported for the previous month.  This is potentially good news for home owners across the State.  Should this trend continue and home prices rise, home owners will start seeing their value return over time.

Potential home sellers may be pleased to find out that any market analysis conducted on their home may be influenced by the increase in home sales during May.  Why localized and every home owner should check the trends for their area, an uptick in sales will eventually lead to stabilized prices.

Are broker price opinions reducing the value of your home?  The lender will often rely on a broker price opinion to determine at what price they will sell their REO property.  Tampa Bay Online wrote an interesting article discussing this issue. 

I have heard of BPOs being conducted without the agent ever stepping foot into the house.  I believe a BPO is only as good as the agent assigned the task and should never take the place of an appraisal to determine real value.

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The median sales price for a Florida home decreased by 31% when comparing April 2008 to April 2009 according to the Florida Association of REALTORS.  The huge decrease can be contributed to the increase of home sales being fueled by distressed property sales of foreclosures and short sales.

Citing unemployment, tighter lending restrictions and the excessive inventory of homes, The Seattle Times reports in an article Home prices may be lost for a generation,  that home prices throughout the majority of the country will remain depressed for some time.

In Florida bank owned sales continue to drive the market.  These sales continue to hold down an increase in value of homes as banks sell at distressed prices