I have been positive on the Palm Beach County real estate market since the beginning of the year. Its not a great market, its not even a good market, its a market that is slowly making gains though not evenly.
What I mean but "not evenly" is this, depending on the price range of homes the real estate statistics can be all over the place. With one price range on fire because of investors bidding up low end homes priced 30,000- 100,000 buying then for cash and renting them out. Homes priced 100,000 -250,000 are selling but not in the same numbers as the lower end and thats because buyers run into the problem of needing to secure financing (not so easy) and or getting the property to appraise (big hurdle). As a result you have a bigger fall through rate, where these homes end up back on the market at lower prices. Homes priced above $250,000 are selling but the percentage is small in comparison to the lowest end. To many variables come into play at higher prices like, financing, appraisal, negative equity, etc. Another problem with the higher end market is to high an asking price, many sellers are not embracing the reality that the high flying real estate market of just a few short years ago is gone and its not coming back. So they want to sell, but are not able because there asking prices are much to high and they refuse to come down, preferring rather to wait for the market to come back to them.
So when you look at the real estate stats no wonder you get confused. Instead of looking at national averages lets tale a look at the Palm Beach County area market.
According to Trulia.com the West Palm Beach real estate market stats as of March are as follows:
West Palm Beach Palm Beach
Average Listing price -3.5% W-O-W -.8% W-O-W
Median Sales Price -6% Y-O-Y -72.4% Y-O-Y
Average Price per sq. ft -86.8% Y-O-Y -85.9% Y-O-Y
Number of sales -28.3% Y-O-Y -54.7% Y-O-Y
What these numbers say is that if you want to sell you have to be priced to reflect current market conditions. Its clear the Palm Beach market is not adjusting to the new normal to well.
From the Palm Beach Board of Realtors (PPBOR) as of 4/13/2012 (Palm Beach only) Y-O-Y
Number of sold listings Median sales Price New Listings Median List price
January +25% -43.9% +21.5% +4.8%
February -20% -48.2% +3.5% +9.4%
March -10.3% -10.6% +7.8% +18.8%
From looking at these numbers it appears that while actual sale prices are falling dramatically the average listing price is rising, which doesn't make any sense. It could explain why it takes more then 2 times as long to sell a condo in Palm Beach than the national average. Which would also explain why the original list price to sell price of a PB condo can experience a decline in price of up to 20% or more which is huge and about 250% higher then the national average of 8%. It would help if these properties were priced closer to market, because those that are the ones selling the fastest because they have been priced to current market value. Expecting a home that is not priced correctly (to high) to sell in a timely manner if at all is folly, no matter what anybody thinks we are still in a buyers market with to much supply and not enough demand.
Then we have Realtors Association of Palm Beach (RAPB) stats, which show that six of the ten top improved real estate markets based on sales price year over year in the country are in Florida with West Palm Beach coming in at number nine. They have Cape Coral #1 with 14.8% gain, Miami #2 with 14.1%, Orlando # 6 at 6.3%, Sarasota area # 7 with 6.2%, Melbourne area # 8 with 6.1% and West Palm Beach at #9 with 5.8% year over year price appreciation.
Do any of these stats help you at all better understand our local real estate market. Trulia.com seems to paint an overall grim picture, the PPBOR shows that final sales prices are falling while listing prices are rising, which seems quite odd. Then you have the RAPB which indicates prices in West Palm Beach have climbed almost 6% Y-O-Y. Which would be good news if not for all the other conflicting confusing stats.
IMO-So what is the take away. When your selling know and embrace your local market, if you price your home properly your home will sell and probably quickly. Not because your priced it to low but because others have priced theres to high. Time is money, don't be fooled into believing you can get a higher price then the market dictates, and that if you wait long enough the market will come back to you. Every day you don't sell is another day your losing money, do the numbers and put the odds in your favor by being realistic.
