Jacksonville’s Real Estate Trends in January – Low Inventory Makes For a Great Seller’s Market!

“Nothing, Everything, Anything, Something: If you have nothing, then you have everything, because you have the freedom to do anything, without the fear of losing something.” — Jarod Kintz

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats indicate that 2016 is off to a great start with pending sales of 2,141 which is 10% more than last January. The last 12 months have averaged 2,322 pending sales per month compared to the previous 12 month’s average of 1,995 for a 16% increase.

Closings for January of 1,535 are 3% more than last January. We have averaged 2,233 closings per month for the last 12 months compared to 1,995 for the previous 12 months for a 12% increase.

Distressed property closings are down 33% from last January and traditional closings are up 25%. That is a great sign for our market in that the distressed closings continue to drop.

The median sales price of $165,000 is up 15% over last January and the average sales price of $207,774 is up 11% over last January. The prices go up and down every month but looking back at the last 12 months compared to the previous 12 months, the median price is up 7.5% and the average sales price is up 5.9% which is another positive sign for our market.

The inventory of homes for sale at the end of January was 8,874 properties which is down 20% from the 10,777 available a year ago. Of the 8,874 properties, 1,162 are lender-mediated or distressed which is 13% of the total compared to 25% this time last year. The lender mediated homes for sale are down 57% from last year’s 2,705 properties.

There is 3.8 months supply of inventory available compared to 5.4 months supply last January for a 30% decrease. A 5 to 6 months supply is considered a balanced market so the advantage is to the seller in all price ranges below $500,000 at this time.

The inventory of homes for sale is down despite the fact that new listings for the last 12 months are up 7%. Builders are also adding more homes. There were 6,725 building permits in 2015 for an 11% increase from 6,076 in 2014. Of the 6,725 permits, 829 were in Clay County, 2,473 in Duval County, 700 in Nassau County and St. Johns County had the highest number for the year with 2,723.

To recap all the good news, pending sales are up, closings are up, sales prices are up, inventory continues to decline mainly because the distressed properties are down and interest rates have gone down even though the Fed raised rates slightly.

I appreciate all the support we have received for our new Jacksonville Beach office! We have a Realtor on duty 7 days a week to help with any sales or rental needs you may have. Our World Golf Village office is seeing many customers looking at all the new construction in St. Johns County. If we can assist you with anything, please stop in or give us a call at (904) 940-5000.

I am very excited about baseball spring training and March madness. For all the sports fans, I hope your team does well.