Surge in Boca Raton single family home buying shrinks inventory

Boca Raton’s supply of single family homes is drying up.

A months-long buying spree across the city showed no signs of slowing down in January, according to monthly year-over-year statistics released by the Realtors of Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie (BeachesMLS).

Closed sales of Boca Raton single family homes last month were up 19.9 percent (187 this January, 156 in January 2020).

That increase in closed home sales comes after similar surges in sales for December (up 42.6 percent – 276 in 2020, 195 in 2019) and November (up 40.5 percent – 220 in 2020, 158 in 2019).

All that buying has taken a bite out of Boca Raton’s single family home listings. The inventory of homes for sale dropped 57.5 percent (448 available homes for sale on 2/1/2021, compared to 1,055 on 2/1/2020), while the monthly supply plummeted 62 percent (1.9 months on 2/1/2021 vs. 5.0 months on 2/1/2020).

The report states that a December uptick in new home starts won’t help the inventory issue, as rising building costs and limited available lots look to slow the momentum.

“January started off strong for the housing market, with healthy buyer demand and strong market fundamentals,” according to the BeachesMLS report.

“A robust increase in housing starts in December points to an active year for new construction, but higher material costs, especially lumber, and a limited supply of buildable lots will temper the number of new units.”

That leaves new listings as the best way to increase Boca Raton’s inventory, but that, too, was down in January, 31.3 percent – 250 last month against 364 homes put on the market in January 2019.

Other January single family home BeachesMLS stats were:

• Median sales price up 16.7 percent – $576,000 in January 2021, $493,500 in January 2020
• Average sales price up 41.3 percent – $1,091,488 in 2021, $772.211 in 2020
• Dollar volume up 69.4 percent – $204,108,271 in 2021, $120,454,869 in 2020
• Percent of original list price received up 3.7 percent – 95.4 percent in 2021, 92 percent in 2020
• Median time to contract down 33.7 – 63 days to sell a home in 2021, 95 days in 2020
• Pending sales down 2.1 percent – 235 in 2021, 240 in 2020

The townhouse/condo inventory is not under the same pressure as the single family home market, but those listing numbers are down, too.

The inventory of townhouse/condos for sale dropped 22.4 percent in January (947 in 2021, 1,221 in 2020) and the months supply of inventory was off 21.2 percent (4.1 months in 2021, 5.2 months in 2020).

And, new townhouse/condo listings were down 15.9 percent last month (332 in 2021, 395 in 2020).

Other January townhouse/condo BeachesMLS stats were:

• Closed sales up 4.9 percent – 192 in January 2021, 183 in January 2020
• Median sales price up 6.7 percent – $238,500 in 2021, $224,000 in 2020
• Average sales price up 18.8 percent – $372,065 in 2021, $313,109 in 2020
• Dollar volume up 24.7 percent – $71,436,497 in 2021, $57,298,945 in 2020
• Percent of original list price received up 1.7 percent – 93.5 percent in 2021, 91.9 percent in 2020
• Median time to contract down 15.6 percent – 76 days to sell in 2021, 90 days in 2020
• Pending sales up 9.2 percent – 249 in 2021, 228 in 2020

For more information on single family, townhouse/condo housing and commercial properties in Palm Beach and Broward counties, visit Petruzzelli Real Estate at their iconic 2325 N. Ocean Blvd. (A1A) office in Boca Raton or call them at 561.362.8413.