Hello Everyone and thank you for watching. This is Gia with Palm Beach Premier Real Estate here in Boca Raton Florida with your 2-minutelocal market report for SEPTEMBER 2018.

So here’s a quick take on the numbers that came out from the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches

The message from your team here at Palm Beach Premier Real Estate this month is:

Palm Beach County housing market is seeing a sales slowdown as interest rates rise

So let’s take a closer look at the internal real estate market numbers…. What we’re seeing is the following:

  1. The median sales price of a single family home in Palm Beach Countywas $345,000 …..down slightly from the higher prices of earlier this year.
  2. The number of housing units soldwas down significantly from August monthly sales, albeit higher than the same month last year. Seasonal factors are included.
  3. The inventory of homes for sale in Palm Beach County remains low, with a 4.6-month supply of houses on the market. There were 6,726 houses for sale in September, almost the same asone year ago.
  4. Homes are sitting on the market longer and sellers are having to make price improvements in order to get a contract
  5. Trends were a little different in the condo and townhouse market. The typical Palm Beach County condo that sold in September fetched $175,000, nearly the same as a year ago.
  6. Luxury homes are continuing to take significantly longer to sell.
  7. Rising interest rates (we have had 3 rate increase already this year) are beginning to bite into the first time homebuyer segment of the market as well as move-up buyers. Another increase to rate is anticipated in December with perhaps 3 more in 2019.

So …as we continue to look for clear trends and market changes….our summary takeaways remain the same

  • A continued shortage of single family home inventory continues to create headwinds for the housing markets
  • Still behind on new construction which is not keeping up with demand adding further pressure, coupled with significantly higher costs to build (specifically…..land, wages, materials and interest costs). …..Homebuilders are therefore constructing higher priced units in order to respond to both increased demand and building cost concerns.
  • Increasing Interest Rate environment with 30-year mortgage rates reaching 4.85% last week (up from 3.88% a year ago) with predictions taking us above 5% in 2019 – representing the highest levels in 10 years … another headwind for the market to absorb.

Going forward we will definitely be keeping a continued close watch on prices, interest rates, inventory levels and the number of closed sales.

If you’ve been considering taking advantage of the strength in the marketplace – now is agreat time to sellJ …

Please give us a call for a confidential consultation at 561.395.8418 or email us at Info@PBPrealestate.com - we’re here to help!

As always we look forward to speaking with you. Thank you for watching. We’ll see you next time…. J