Real Estate Market Report; Florida Keys 2022
General Market Conditions
How the real estate market in the Florida Keys is viewed of course depends on who is viewing it. If you own property here, and want to sell it, you should be feeling pretty good about your prospects of getting a great price in a relative short amount of time, especially if you have an upscale property worth over a million dollars. If you have a property on the market and are not receiving offers near or above your asking price, you and your realtor may want to reconsider the asking price, perhaps having set your sights too high, even in this market.
If you are looking to buy a property in the Florida Keys, expect to pay historically high prices for it, and when you do find one that works for you, don’t take a lot of time making up your mind.
If you are in the business of helping people buy and sell real estate, you are probably feeling pretty good about your career choice, for even though the number of sales appear to be settling to pre-COVID levels, increasing residential real estate closing prices are creating skyrocketing dollar sales volume.
How long will this Seller’s Market last? On a national level the market appears to be softening. According to Zillow’s July 2022 report, home value growth will grow 7.8% over the next 12 months, a significant slowdown from the current pace of 19.8%. The number of homes sold by the end of 2022 is projected will decrease 10.8% from 2021. Realtor.com’s June report says inventories of homes for sale increased 18.7% over last year with the median asking price up 16.9% and predicts inventories will continue to increase amidst moderating demand.
But all real estate markets are local by nature, and I don’t think these nationals conditions and trend predictions necessarily apply to the Florida Keys.
If you are a chart person, you will find at the bottom of this page several PDF files displaying nearly three years of Florida Keys real estate trends including the “number of sales”, “the median sales price,” “the number of days from listing to contract,” and “the number of properties for sale (inventory)”. I have kept single family homes separate from condominiums and the monthly data points are 6-month rolling averages, used to smooth out seasonal fluctuations and spikes created by outlying sales that can skew things in a relatively small market like the Keys. Mobil homes and vacant lots have been excluded from the data, but if you have an interest in these, reach out to me on the contact page and I will gladly share that information with you.
The Florida Keys Real Estate Market – April 2022 Update
Number of Residential Sales Decrease and Stabilize
The number of 2nd quarter residential single family and condominium sales in the Florida Keys have decreased about 35% from last year and appear to be stabilizing close to mid-2020 levels. Cash buyers account for approximately 42.2% of single-family home purchases and 47.2% of condo purchases thus far in 2022, up 14.7% and 4.2% respectively over the same period in 2021.
Sale Price Increases Continue to Climb
The median sale price of residential Florida Keys properties does not appear to be slowing down. The median (six-month trailing rolling average) price for a single-family home as of June 2022, was $1,070,471 a 30% increase from June 2021. The median condominium price was $668,792 a 37.8% increase from June 2021. If you owned a residential property in the Florida Keys at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2019, based on sold property data, you have probably realized a 50% to 75% increase in your property’s value.
Another strength of market indicator is the ratio of sold price to list price. With single-family homes the average 2022 ratio is 98.0% compared to 93.6% in 2020, with condos at 99.5% compared to 93.6%. Many sellers are still receiving multiple offers, often with buyer concessions, often resulting in their home selling for above its listing price.
Inventories nearly 40% of 2019 Early COVID Levels
Single-family homes offered for sale in the Florida Keys Multiple Listing Services (MLS) at the end of June 2022 totaled 470, 42% of the 1,118 listed at the end of June 2019. As for condominiums, only 100 were for sale, 26.7% of the 375 listed at the end of June 2019.
The shortage of inventory, upon closer examination, is not due to a lack of Sellers. The number of new listings for both single family homes and condos in the Florida Keys has only varied slightly over the last 6 years. However, the median time to contract, or the amount of time between a listing being on the market as “active” and the time a seller accepts an offer, is a third of what it was in early 2019. The supply has been constant, while the demand has significantly increased, the average single-family home going to contract in just 25 days in 2022, compared to 114 days just two years earlier, the average condo in just 55 days, compared to 135.
(Information for this report comes from Florida Realtors® with data provided by Florida’s multiple listing services compiled monthly from MLS feeds.)