Coronavirus stalls positive 2020 start; future impacts possible
A promising start to the 2020 local real estate market took an abrupt negative turn when the Coronavirus shut down virtually the entire United States as the month of March wore on.
January and February numbers were mainly positive in the single family and townhouse/condo market, according to the monthly releases from the Realtors of Broward, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.
And March kicked off in similar fashion until mandatory stay-at-home orders became the norm throughout southeast Florida. With that, single family pending sales plummetted 51.3 percent in the month year-over-year report, and townhouse/condo totals dropped 43.6 percent.
In March 2019 there were 261 pending sales in Boca Raton’s single family market. In March 2020, there were just 127. For the townhouse/condo category, there were 282 pending sales in March 2019 and only 159 in March 2020.
According to the report, the Coronavirus could play a hand in the real estate market for the foreseeable future.
“While the effect of COVID-19 is varied through the country,” the report states, “we are likely to see impacts to housing activity now and into the coming months.”
For sellers, a lack of inventory and low mortgage rates still give reason for optimism as we move forward.
Despite stay-at-home sanctions for nearly half the month, March still showed surprisenly optimistic numbers – especially in single family.
Closed sales were up 10.9 percent – 224 in 2020 compared to 202 in 2019 – with tremendous gains in median/average sales prices, in addition to overall dollar volume.
Median single family sales prices were up 20.5 percent ($537,000 in 2020, $445,500 in 2019), avereage sales prices 37.9 percent ($941.077 in 2020, $682,193 in 2019) and the dollor volume exploded with a 52.3 percent gain – $209,920.079 in 2020, $137,803,019 in 2019.
Other year-over-year single family March stats from the Realtors report were:
- Percent of original list price received down 0.2 percent – 93 percent in 2020, 93.2 in 2019
- Median time to contract increased 24.2 percent – 77 days in 2020, 62 days in 2019
- New listings were down 25.4 percent – 285 in 2020, 382 in 2019
- Inventory of homes for sale was down 31.2 percent – 952 in 2020, 1,383 in 2019
- Months supply of inventory was down 31.9 percent – 4.7 months in 2020, 6.9 in 2019
The townhouse/condo numbers were not as hopeful, with closed sales (up 10 percent) and median sales price (up 3.4 percent) the only significant increases.
A total of 243 townhouse/condos were sold in March of 2020, with 221 in March of 2019. The median sales price was $225,000 in 2020 against $217,500 in 2019.
Other year-over-year townhouse/condo stats from the Realtors report were:
- The average sales price was down 10 percent – $302,130 in January 2020, $335,624 in January 2019
- Dollar volume was down 0.5 percent – $72,813,901 in 2020, $73,209,072 in 2019
- Percent of original list price received was up 0.1 percent – 91.6 percent in 2020, 91.5 in 2019
- Median time to contract was down 6.3 percent – 74 days in 2020, 79 days in 2019
- New listings were down 23 percent – 321 in 2020, 417 in 2019
- Inventory of homes for sale was down 18.9 percent – 1,106 in 2020, 1,364 in 2019
- Months supply of inventory was down 16.9 percent – 4.9 months in 2020, 5.9 in 2019
For more information on single family, townhouse/condo housing and commercial properties in Palm Beach and Broward counties, contact Petruzzelli Real Estate at their 2325 N. Ocean Blvd. (A1A) office in Boca Raton or call 561.362.8413.
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