Fla.'s 2024 Housing Market: New Listings, Active Inventory Up, Prices Stabilizing
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As 2024 ended, Florida's housing market continued to show more new listings for single-family homes and for condo-townhouse properties, increased for-sale inventory in both property categories and stabilizing median prices for single-family existing homes as well as condo-townhouse units, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®.
Year End 2024
"Overall, the 2024 Florida housing market saw mostly modest declines in sales and little change in the way of home prices," said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. Brad O'Connor. "Even though there were some fluctuations in mortgage rates, they remained in the high range relative to recent years. The most significant changes occurring in 2024 were the widening performance gap between the single-family market and the condo and townhouse market and the overall rise in inventory levels."
Statewide closed sales of existing single-family homes at the end of the year totaled 252,688, down 1.9% compared to the 2023 year-end level, according to data from Florida Realtors' research department in partnership with local Realtor boards/associations. For existing condo-townhouses, a total of 94,380 units sold statewide in 2023, down 10.5% compared to 2023. Closed sales may occur from 30- to 90-plus days after sales contracts are written.
O'Connor noted that December's closed sales for single-family homes helped boost the end-of-year transactions.
"That strong performance put us at nearly 253,000 statewide single-family closed sales for the year overall, which is just less than 2% below 2023's total of nearly 258,000 sales, but also the fewest annual sales we've seen since 2014," he said. "There was little variation across the state in 2024, as most counties only saw small year-over-year declines."
Looking at condo-townhouse closed sales for 2024, O'Connor said, "Multiple factors were responsible for the underperformance of this category throughout the year, including concerns about insurance coverage and reserve requirement compliance giving some prospective buyers cold feet. The result was the lowest number of condo and townhouse sales we've seen for any year in Florida since 2010."
The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes at year's end was $420,000, up 2.4% from the previous year. The statewide median price for condo-townhouse properties at the end of the year was $320,000, down slightly (0.8%) from the previous year. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.
Florida Realtors' data showed that at the end of 2024, in December 2024 and also in 4Q 2024, inventory (active listings) for single-family homes stood at a 4.7-months' supply, while inventory for condo-townhouse properties was at an 8.2-months' supply.
O'Connor pointed out, "If we go by the general rule of thumb that five to six months of supply is a balanced market, single-family homes are just barely still in a seller's market, while condos and townhouses are now firmly in buyer's market territory."
December 2024
In December, closed sales of single-family homes statewide totaled 20,784, up 12.8% from December 2023, while existing condo-townhouse sales totaled 7,169, down only 0.5% year-over-year, according to Florida Realtors' data.
The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes was $415,000, up 1.2% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the statewide median price for condo-townhouse units was $315,000, down 4.5% over the year-ago figure.
4Q 2024
Statewide closed sales of existing single-family homes totaled 56,496 in 4Q 2024, up slightly (1.1%) compared to the previous-year figure, according to Florida Realtors' data. The statewide median sales price for existing single-family homes for the quarter was $415,000, up 1% from 4Q 2023.
Looking at Florida's year-to-year comparison for sales of condo-townhouses in 4Q 2024, a total of 19,670 units sold statewide, down 12.3% from the same quarter in 2023. The statewide median price for condo-townhouse properties for the quarter was $315,000, down 3.1% over the previous year.
According to O'Connor, the dollar volume of sales remained strong in 2024, even though elevated prices impacted closed transactions.
"In fact, the annual dollar volume of single-family home sales in Florida actually increased by 2.5% in 2024, rising to approximately $152 billion," he said. "If we adjust for inflation using the Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in December, dollar volume in this category fell in real terms, but only by 0.5%.
"By contrast, the nominal dollar volume of sales for condos and townhouses in 2024 fell by over 9% to roughly $45 billion. After adjusting for inflation, this decline was closer to 12%. Still, even with inflation factored in, dollar volume in this category was higher than in 2020 and every year before that in the current housing cycle."
To see the full statewide housing activity reports, go to the Florida Realtors Newsroom and look under Latest Releases or download the December, 4Q or Year End 2024 data report PDFs under Market Data on the site.
Florida Realtors® serves as the voice for real estate in Florida. It provides programs, services, continuing education, research and legislative representation to 238,000 members in 50 boards/associations. Florida Realtors® Newsroom website is available at http://floridarealtors.org/newsroom.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flas-2024-housing-market-new-listings-active-inventory-up-prices-stabilizing-302359766.html
SOURCE Florida Realtors