Real Estate Market Update - Summer 2019

May was a very productive period for the Lisa Barton team, with thirteen sales closing in this month alone. Typically, May is also a very active month in the Ponte Vedra Beach area and reflects a seasonal pattern of high sales in the second quarter—as families move and make plans for the coming school year. In this update, we’ll look at national, state, and regional real estate market trends.

We are now in the 10th year of a bull economy nationally, and many commentators and pundits are wondering how long this growth market can last. While the future is difficult to predict, we can say that fundamentals continue to look strong at the national and regional level with low interest rates, record low unemployment, and some wage growth.

Overall, the residential real estate market continues to be strong. Here are some key data points:

Home sales (through April 2019 as reported by the National Association of Realtors)

• US -0.4% vs. last month
  -4.4% vs. last year-to-date
• South -.0.4% vs. last month
  -1.7% vs. last year-to-date

Sales prices vs. last year

• US 3.6%
• South 4.4%

Florida results (thru the 1st Quarter) for residential real estate were 59,505 sales, down slightly at -1.2% year-over-year. Pending sales for the same period are up 0.3% to 81,361.

NE Florida home sales (as reported by NEFAR thru April) were, in general, slightly more positive than overall Florida results:

• Closed sales up 6.5%
• Pending sales up 5.8%
• Median sales price up 2.3%

Closer to home, in the 32082-zip code (Ponte Vedra area, through May), we had:

• 246 sold listings versus 258 last year, down -4.7%.
• 279 pending listings versus 288 last year, down -3.1%.
• Median sales price May year-to-date is $625,550, up 4.9% since last year. (Note: Median Sales Price (MSP) is our preferred summary statistic for price activity because, unlike Average Sales Price, the MSP is not sensitive to high sale prices for a small number of homes that may not be the characteristic of the market area.)
• ​In fact, the average sales price is up, 9.6%, reflecting higher sales year-to-date in the $1 million market - 52 homes sold versus 45 last year (up 15.6%) - and higher sales in the $750,000 to $1 million range (up 23.1%).
• Pending listings for all of 32082 are below last year (-3.1%) as are active listings (-8.1%), and new listings (-10.2%). Average Days on Market (Avg CDOM) is at 120 days. Inventory is straining to keep pace in the most competitive price ranges and growing modestly at the high end.