Trend in crescita

Miami-Dade home prices have risen for 4.5 years straight: report

Listing inventory, especially for condos, is starting to pile up

August 15, 2016 06:00PM

Downtown Miami skyline (Credit: Miamiism)

While the volume of Miami-Dade County home sales continued its sharp fall during this year’s second quarter, prices seem to be going nowhere but up.

According to a new report from the Miami Association of Realtors, the second quarter marked four-and-a-half years of uninterrupted price appreciation for homes and condos in the county.

The latest numbers show median prices for a condo rose 5.5 percent year-over-year to $215,000, and single-family homes jumped 8.6 percent to $295,000.

As analyst Anthony Graziano of Integra Realty Resources has told The Real Deal in the past, much of that appreciation can be considered “value recovery” from when prices bottomed out during the housing bust.

But those growing home values have also raised heated debate over the lack of affordable housing in Miami-Dade, with some market watchers saying the issue has reached crisis levels.

Meanwhile, the pace of sales in Miami-Dade is downshifting from years of overheated activity. The association’s figures show 3,626 homes were sold in Miami-Dade during the second quarter, falling 7 percent from the 3,900 sold during the same period of last year. Condo sales fell even further, with the second quarter seeing a 12 percent decline from 1,576 units to 1,487.

Inventory is also starting to pile up. There were 6,292 active single-family home listings in the second quarter, up 10.7 year-over-year. Condo supply exploded by 18.6 percent to 14,093 active listings.

The slowdown’s effects are starting to pronounce themselves. In downtown Miami, arguably the county’s most visible condo market, prices recently fell for the first time in five years. — Sean Stewart-Muniz