Davidson Realty, Inc.

Jax Real Estate Trends in March – Spring Home Buying is Heating Up!

April 22, 2016

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Posted by in News, Northeast Florida Market Trends

“There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happened.” Tommy Lasorda

I want you to be one of “those who make it happen” by buying real estate now whether you upsize, downsize or rent as an investment.

Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors chief economist, shares these thoughts in a recent article. Even though the federal government says there is no inflation, “rents rose at their highest pace in seven years and home prices nationally increased by 6 percent.” He explains why housing costs are expected to keep rising.

“From 2009 to today, new construction of single-family homes, condominiums, and apartment units totaled 5.6 million. Over the same period, approximately 1.7 million housing units were deemed uninhabitable or obsolete and were demolished and removed from the housing stock. These two figures result in a net addition of 3.9 million housing units to the country’s stock. Is that adequate in light of 17.3 million additional people living in the country over the same period? Clearly the answer is no.”

These comments are based on the national real estate market, but you will see similar trends here locally. The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market stats for March 2016 show increased pending sales and closings, increased average and median sales price and decreased inventory of homes available. All very positive for our local real estate market.

There were 2,725 pending sales in March which is 7% more than last March. Closings for March were up only .4% over last March. The traditional closings were up 16.5% over the previous March and the lender-mediated closings were down 35.5%. We continue to see the distressed properties being less and less of a factor in our market. Closings are up 6% year to date.

The median sales price of $180,000 is up 12.5% over last March and 10% year to date. The average sales price of $214,808 is up 7% over last March and 6% year to date. The current market price increases have been gradual with overall housing prices till substantially below those experienced in the peak of the market in 2005.

There are 9,183 properties available which is down 15% from last March and there are 3.9 months supply of inventory which is below the 5 to 6 months supply of a balanced market. There are several reasons for the low supply of inventory but one reason is the investors that bought homes to rent aren’t ready to sell. They are making money from both rising rents and home price appreciation.

If you have an interest in buying a property for any reason, please let me know how we can help by calling one of our Jacksonville Realtors at (904) 940-5000.

Jim and I will be celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary soon and celebrating my special mother on Mother’s Day. Wishing all the mother’s a wonderful day!

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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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