According to figures released yesterday, in July pending home sales in Miami-Dade County stood at 10,113, up 40.5% from July of 2009. In Broward, pending sales stood at 7,830 in July, up 25.4% from a year earlier.
South Florida sizes up well when compared to the national picture, where the pending home sales index hit a record low 75.7 in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. It was the second monthly falloff after the April 30 deadline to enter the federal homebuyer tax credit program, with June's pending sales down nearly 19% from the same month a year earlier.
The local market hasn't been completely immune from the post-tax-credit slump. In the past three months, pending home sales are down 3.2% in Miami-Dade and down 5.1% in Broward.
Jack H. Levine, chairman of the board of the Miami Realtors, stated: ``We are encouraged by the statistics for pending home sales in the South Florida real estate market even after the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. While the number of pending sales has dropped slightly month-over-month, they are still significantly higher than they were a year ago.''
About 60% of South Florida sales have gone to foreign buyers, who are more likely to pay with cash and were never eligible for the tax credit.
Additionally, more than half of recent sales in Miami-Dade and Broward counties involve short sales or bank-owned home sales. In the last 12 months, the number of bank-owned condos and single-family homes sold has more than doubled.
According to analysis by Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realty, t here were 944 short sales in Miami-Dade and Broward in June, up from only 379 a year earlier.
That's a reason to be cautious while interpreting pending homes sales data in a market like South Florida's, said Doug DeWitt, Miami-based real estate broker.
Many short sale contracts are rejected by the bank after a seller agrees to sell for a price below what they owe, meaning those pending sales don't lead to closings. Additionally, because short sales take months to process, many remain in the ``pending'' stage longer than normal, boosting pending sales numbers for multiple months.
In Miami-Dade County, more than half of the pending single-family home sales on the Multiple Listing Service are short sales, said DeWitt. `I'd say at least half of those are not going to close. I would say stick to the actual closed sales to make the true comparison, because there's a lot of different ways that these pending sales can fall through.''
The increasing number of short sales and bank-owned properties coming to market has put downward pressure on prices in South Florida, said Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach. In June, median prices of existing homes stood at $203,300 in Miami-Dade, down about 4% from the same month a year earlier. Median existing condo prices, at $128,000, were down about 9% in Miami-Dade.
McCabe concludes: ``When you're in a neighborhood that has two foreclosures and a short sale that are priced $50,000 or $75,000 below what you thought you could get for your home, you do not set the barometer for the other [home] prices. They set the prices for you.''
According to a report by Trulia, one in five home sellers in the Miami area slashed prices last month, with an average reduction of 13%.
South Florida sizes up well when compared to the national picture, where the pending home sales index hit a record low 75.7 in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. It was the second monthly falloff after the April 30 deadline to enter the federal homebuyer tax credit program, with June's pending sales down nearly 19% from the same month a year earlier.
The local market hasn't been completely immune from the post-tax-credit slump. In the past three months, pending home sales are down 3.2% in Miami-Dade and down 5.1% in Broward.
Jack H. Levine, chairman of the board of the Miami Realtors, stated: ``We are encouraged by the statistics for pending home sales in the South Florida real estate market even after the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit. While the number of pending sales has dropped slightly month-over-month, they are still significantly higher than they were a year ago.''
About 60% of South Florida sales have gone to foreign buyers, who are more likely to pay with cash and were never eligible for the tax credit.
Additionally, more than half of recent sales in Miami-Dade and Broward counties involve short sales or bank-owned home sales. In the last 12 months, the number of bank-owned condos and single-family homes sold has more than doubled.
According to analysis by Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realty, t here were 944 short sales in Miami-Dade and Broward in June, up from only 379 a year earlier.
That's a reason to be cautious while interpreting pending homes sales data in a market like South Florida's, said Doug DeWitt, Miami-based real estate broker.
Many short sale contracts are rejected by the bank after a seller agrees to sell for a price below what they owe, meaning those pending sales don't lead to closings. Additionally, because short sales take months to process, many remain in the ``pending'' stage longer than normal, boosting pending sales numbers for multiple months.
In Miami-Dade County, more than half of the pending single-family home sales on the Multiple Listing Service are short sales, said DeWitt. `I'd say at least half of those are not going to close. I would say stick to the actual closed sales to make the true comparison, because there's a lot of different ways that these pending sales can fall through.''
The increasing number of short sales and bank-owned properties coming to market has put downward pressure on prices in South Florida, said Jack McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach. In June, median prices of existing homes stood at $203,300 in Miami-Dade, down about 4% from the same month a year earlier. Median existing condo prices, at $128,000, were down about 9% in Miami-Dade.
McCabe concludes: ``When you're in a neighborhood that has two foreclosures and a short sale that are priced $50,000 or $75,000 below what you thought you could get for your home, you do not set the barometer for the other [home] prices. They set the prices for you.''
According to a report by Trulia, one in five home sellers in the Miami area slashed prices last month, with an average reduction of 13%.
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