Pending home sales in South Florida increased in February amid a glut of cheap homes and condos. National sales slipped due to weather woes.
Pending home sales in Miami-Dade and Broward counties were up in February, as low prices and a tax credit for first-time home buyers appeared to drive sales.
In Miami-Dade, the number of people who agreed to purchase a home in February was up 9 percent versus January at 9,164 homes and condos. Compared to year-ago levels, the number of pending home sales was up 61 percent, the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches reported Thursday.
In Broward County, pending home sales increased 4.7 percent versus January to 7,791 homes. Compared to last year, pending sales in Broward were up 62 percent.
Pending sales are recorded when a contract has been signed but the transaction has yet to close.
Most pending sales close in one or two months, making the data a good barometer of future sales.
One factor that may be driving the figure is the growing number of condominiums and townhomes priced under $250,000.
According to Condo Vultures, a Bal Harbour-based consultancy, 53 percent of all townhomes and condos for resale in Miami-Dade are priced under $250,000. For Broward that figure is 65 percent; and in Palm Beach County the number is 51 percent.
``Residential real estate prices have tumbled significantly since the peak of the market in the fourth quarter of 2005,'' Peter Zalewski, a principal at Condo Vultures, said in a press release.
``The challenge for many buyers is the under-$250,000 properties are increasingly located west of Interstate 95 in the suburban areas of South Florida.
``Prices east of Interstate 95 in the coastal areas have continuously crept up as buyers have associated the proximity of water with quality,'' he said.
National figures for pending home sales, which run one month behind the local data, fell sharply in January, a sign that demand for housing is sinking this winter as stormy weather slams Eastern states.
Record snowstorms in January and February had many Americans shoveling sidewalks and driveways instead of combing through listings for open houses. Partly as a result, an index that tracks sales agreement showed a 7.6 percent drop from December to a seasonally adjusted January reading of 90.4, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
It was the lowest reading since last April and a disappointment to economists, who had expected it would rise to 97.6.
The weakness, however, was not confined to the wintry Northeast. The biggest month-to-month drop was in the West, where sales fell 13 percent. Sales fell almost 9 percent in the Northeast and Midwest and 2 percent in the South.
The weather isn't the only culprit, wrote Jennifer Lee, an economist with BMO Capital Markets. ``The impact of government incentives . . . appears to be running out of steam, which is, frankly, a scary thought,'' she wrote.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/05/1513489/pending-home-sales-on-the-rise.html
BY JIM WYSS
jwyss@MiamiHerald.com
The Criscitos has been selling South Florida luxury and commercial real estate for over a decade and has sold over $1 billion dollars of property. They work as a multi-lingual team speaking english, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. They carved out a niche as a leading boutique real estate company with two distinct divisions -residential and commercial- both personally overseeing by Marcela and Anthony Criscito.
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