Davidson Realty, Inc.

July Real Estate Trends – Local Market Shines Against National Market

August 21, 2014

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Posted by in News, Northeast Florida Market Trends

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” -Les Brown

There is still a lot of fear and uncertainty about the economy and the national real estate market. The real estate trends have been more positive locally. The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors July market stats continues to show pending sales increasing, inventory of homes for sale decreasing and median and average sales prices increasing. All very positive.

The pending sales for July of 2,335 are 17% higher than last July. We are up more than 10% year to date. If you saw the graph last month, we are inching closer to the almost 2,500 monthly pending sales experienced in the peak of the market which had only occurred for 2 months.

Closings of 2,104 are up 5% over last July and 5% year to date. Nationally, closings year to date are down from last year. The NAR economist, Lawrence Yun recently said he thought the closings nationally would catch up in the last half of the year and finish about the same as 2013. We are already ahead of last year locally so if sales and closings stay strong, we should have a much better year than 2014.

The median sales price in July of $166,964 is up 1% over last July and we are up 3% year to date. The average sales price in July of $217,870 is up 5% over last July and we are up 4% year to date. Although home prices continue to climb slowly, we are still not close to peak market pricing.

Inventory of 10,019 homes for sale is down 2.5% since last July even with increased builder activity. We are currently at 5.1 months supply of inventory which is down 12% from last July. The inventory of homes for sale in the under $150,000 price range is down over 20%. Every other price category inventory increased except for $1 million and above which was only down 0.6%.

Distressed inventory is down to 22% of the total inventory from 34% last July. The share of lender-mediated closings is now 31% compared to 35% last July. At the worst point of the market almost 60% of the closings were lender-mediated.

It is a great time to buy a home or an investment property. Many of the larger investors have moved onto other markets and there is a much smaller percentage of first time home buyers in the market because of lending constraints. I see continued improvement in our local housing market for the rest of the year.

I’m enjoying the beginning of football season with the Jaguars showing a lot of promise. Please let me know if we can help in any way with any of your real estate needs. Give me a call at (904) 940-5000!

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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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