January Miami Home Sale Press Release

Miami Region January Home Sales

March 1, 2013

The Miami-area's housing market posted the highest January home sales in six years and the sharpest year-over-year increase in its median sale price since October 2005, a real estate information service reported.

In January, 9,414 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the metro area encompassing Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties. January sales fell 4.9 percent from the prior month and rose 24.9 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

A drop in sales between December and January is normal for the season, with the change between those two months averaging a decline of 15.9 percent since 1997, when DataQuick's complete Miami-area statistics begin. The region's home sales have risen year-over-year for nine consecutive months.

This January's total sales were in line with the average number of January sales (9,409) since 1997. However, the number of existing (not new) houses and condos that closed escrow in January was 17.0 percent above the historical average for the month of January, and condo resales, specifically, were 39.9 percent above the January average. New-home sales fell 67.1 percent short of the January average.

When viewed by price segment, the Miami area's January sales dropped 2.5 percent year-over-year for homes priced below $100,000, and rose 10.1 percent for homes below $200,000. The number of homes sold between $200,000 and $600,000 jumped 46.4 percent year-over-year in January, while the number of homes that sold above $800,000 rose 11.5 percent from the same month last year.

In the Miami region's multi-million-dollar luxury market, 75 homes sold for $2 million or more in January, down 51.0 percent from the month before and up 33.9 percent from one year earlier. Luxury sales can vacillate month-to-month, and a relatively sharp December-to-January sales drop is not unusual. In the six months ending this January, $2 million-plus sales rose 45.4 percent from the same six-month period a year earlier. The figures are based on public property records, where either a price or loan amount was available.

In the overall Miami market, the median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in January was $157,000. That was down 1.3 percent from December and up 20.8 percent from a year earlier. That median's year-over-year gain in January is the highest for any month since October 2005, when the $256,900 median at that time rose 21.0 percent from a year earlier.

This January's median was 30.8 percent higher than the current housing cycle's post-peak trough of $120,000 in January and February of 2011, but it was 45.9 percent lower than the Miami area's peak $290,000 median in June 2007.

The region's resale condo median rose 22.2 percent year-over-year in January, marking the 16th consecutive month in which that price measure has posted an annual gain. The median price paid for resale single-family detached houses rose 15.9 percent in January compared with a year earlier, marking the 12th consecutive month with a year-over-year gain.

The median price paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses rose to $109 in January, up 16.0 percent from a year earlier. The figure has risen year-over-year for 13 consecutive months. January's level was 43.3 percent below the May/June 2006 peak of $192 per square foot.

The region's median price paid per square foot for resale condos was $98 in January, up 18.1 percent from a year earlier. It was the 16th consecutive month with a year-over-year gain. January's median paid per square foot for resale condos was 53.6 percent below the April 2006 peak of $211.

Other Miami region January highlights:

•Absentee buyers purchased 43.2 percent of all homes sold in the Miami area in January, up from 42.0 percent the month before and up from 39.9 percent a year earlier. Absentee buyers paid a median $122,000 for all new and resale houses and condos that they purchased in January, up 23.2 percent from a year earlier. Absentee buyers are investors, second-home buyers and others who indicate at the time of sale that the property tax bill will be sent to a different address.
•Buyers who had a foreign mailing addresses in the public record accounted for 4.3 percent of all Miami-area homes bought in January, and 8.1 percent of the region's existing condo sales. About 55 percent of the identified foreign buyers bought in Broward County, while about 30 percent bought in Palm Beach County and 15 percent in Miami-Dade. (Note: Not all foreign buyers use a foreign mailing address, hence cannot be tracked with public records.)
•Cash buyers purchased 64.3 percent of the Miami-area homes sold in January. That was down a tad from 64.5 percent the month before and 64.4 percent a year earlier. The peak was 68.7 percent in February 2012. January's cash buyers paid a median $120,000, up 26.3 percent from a year earlier. Cash deals are where there was no indication in the public record of a purchase loan recorded at the time of sale.
•Use of a form of low-down-payment financing popular with first-time homebuyers - government-insured FHA loans = rose to 32.0 percent of all home purchase loans in January, up from 28.0 percent in December and down from 39.6 percent a year earlier. In recent months the FHA share of the purchase loan market has dropped to the lowest level since fall 2008. The decline reflects tighter FHA qualifying standards implemented in recent years as well as the difficulties first-time buyers are having competing with investors in the housing market.

To view the county home sale chart, visit DQNews.com.

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157

Source: DataQuick; DQNews.com

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