Davidson Realty, Inc.

Jacksonville FL Real Estate Trends in August – This Month’s Pending Sales up over 21% From August 2013

September 23, 2014

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Posted by in News, Northeast Florida Market Trends

“It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” Paul “Bear” Bryant

With football season underway, it is nice to start with a quote from a true legend. I will not discuss football or baseball since the teams I love all seem to lack the additional preparation to win.

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats for August continue to show the positive trends that we have been seeing since March of this year. The most impressive to me is pending sales. There were 21% more contracts written in August 2014 (2,305) than in August 2013 (1,901). There have been 17,061 contracts written year to date for an 11% increase over 15,429 last year.

There were 1,996 closings in August which was down 2% from 2,045 last August. This small drop does not concern me when you see that distressed closings were down 12% and traditional closings were up 3%. The year to date closings are up 6% over the same period last year.

RealtyTrac reported that Florida properties starting the foreclosure process in August are up 24% from a year ago. This is the first year-over-year increase in foreclosure starts after 17 consecutive months of year-over-year decreases. This is not surprising after foreclosures were delayed due to legal action and a settlement regarding the foreclosure process used by many lenders. The foreclosure situation in Duval County and Clay is very different from St. Johns County. Duval had 1 in 257 homes in foreclosure, Clay had 1 in 258 and St. Johns County 1 in 783.

Although the foreclosure crisis for the most part is over, clearing out the backlog caused by the judicial process has taken way too long. I don’t expect these foreclosed properties to have a large impact on our local market in 2014.

The median sales price was down 7% from last August, but is up 2% year to date. There will always be monthly fluctuations in the price. The average sales price is up 1% from last August and up 3% year to date.

The inventory of homes for sale of 9,758 is down 8% from last August. We have 4.9 months supply of inventory. A balanced market is 5 to 6 months of supply.

To recap, pending sales are up, closings were down slightly, prices are generally stable and inventory is down. All are positive signs for our local market.

If you have any questions about the statistics, feel free to give me a call at (904) 940-5000. The headlines you read can be pretty confusing. If you have concerns about our local football teams or the Atlanta Braves, you better call someone else because I have no answers. Please let me know if we can help with any of your real estate needs!

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About the Author
Sherry Davidson
President of Davidson Realty

Since launching Davidson Realty in 1989, Sherry Davidson has built the firm to include nearly 60 agents and exceed $100 million in annual sales. She is known throughout the First Coast as an authority on all things residential real estate, having served on the Board of Directors for Northeast Florida Association of Realtors, Florida Realtors® (a division of the National Association of Realtors), and Builders Care (charitable arm of Northeast Florida Builders Association).

Thanks to Sherry’s leadership, Davidson Realty has been recognized as one of the state’s Best Companies to Work For (Florida Trend Magazine), as well as one of the region's Best Places to Work and 50 Fastest Growing Companies (Jacksonville Business Journal). Get to know Davidson Realty’s talented team of agents by clicking here or call us at (904) 940-5000.

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