North Florida Real Estate Trends – Housing Inventory Approaching Normal Market Equilibrium?

“Before you can learn a new way of doing things, you have to unlearn the old way. So beginnings depend on endings.”– Rick Maurer

Everything has changed over the past few years and we have to learn to adapt. Some things haven’t changed though so when we see declining inventory and improved sales, you might well expect an improvement in the future housing market, especially if we can continue adding jobs in the northeast Florida area. I know the job growth has been slow but our area has started to see growth.

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market statistics for October, 2011 continue to show encouraging trends in the market. The pending sales are up 37.5% over October, 2010. The 12 month average for the most recent 12 months is 1,463 pending sales per month compared to 1,357 for the previous 12 months which is an increase of almost 8%.

The inventory of homes for sale in October, 2011 was 10,964 down 31.5% from 15,995 in October, 2010. The inventory has dropped consistently for the last 12 months. The largest drop in inventory is in the less than $150,000 price range at 36.5% however the $500,000 to $999,999 price range also dropped 28.5%. Of particular interest is that over the last year the price range hardest hit in our area ($500,000 – $999,999) has seen the strongest increase in sales with a 30.6% increase. Read more