Miami Metro Area March Home Sales

April 30, 2010

The Miami metro area posted an above-average increase in home sales last month as condos resold at their fastest pace in four years, giving that home-type category an abnormally large share of overall sales. The median price paid for all homes sold rose insignificantly from February and fell 11.3 percent below the year-ago level, marking the smallest annual decline in 22 months, a real estate information service reported.

In March, 8,658 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the metro area encompassing Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties. That was up 43.3 percent from February and up 43.1 percent from March 2009, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego, Calif. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Total escrow closings were the highest for a March since 2007, but they fell 27.1 percent short of the average for that month since 1997, when DataQuick's complete Miami-area stats begin.

An increase in sales from February is normal for the season, but this March's 43.3 percent gain was well above the average February-to-March increase of 30.8 percent since 1997. March sales appear to have gotten an extra boost from buyers scrambling to take advantage of the soon-to expire federal tax credit, on top of relatively low prices and mortgage rates.

March marked the 13th consecutive month in which the region's overall sales rose on a year-over-year basis. Resales of single-family detached houses and condos combined have risen year-over-year for 16 consecutive months. New-home sales in March were higher than a year ago for the first time since last November, but were still the second-lowest for a March since at least 1997.

New-home sales have suffered as builders struggle to compete with distressed sales. New homes made up 7.1 percent of total March sales, the same as in February but far below the decade average of 20 percent of monthly sales.

The 4,312 condos that resold in March marked a 45.2 percent increase from February and a 62.1 percent gain from March 2009. It was the highest number of condo resales for that month since March 2006, when 4,406 condos resold. Condo resales made up 49.8 percent of total Miami-area home sales in March, compared with 44.0 percent a year earlier and a monthly average of 32.5 percent over the past decade.

In the market's high end, the number of homes sold for $1 million or more rose to 211 in March, up 32.7 percent from 159 in February and up 19.9 percent from 176 in March 2009. The figures are based on an analysis of public property records, where there was a purchase price or purchase loan amount of $1 million or more. The peak month for $1 million-plus home sales was in June 2005, when 583 sold in the Miami area.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in March was $142,000, up 0.5 percent from $141,250 in February and down 11.3 percent from $160,000 in March 2009. The last time the median was higher than last month was in December, when it was $155,000. So far, the post-boom low for the overall median was $140,000 in January this year.

The March median's 11.3 percent drop from a year earlier marked the smallest year-over-year decline for the overall median sale price since May 2008, when the median fell 6.8 percent, to $260,000.

March's median was 51.0 percent below the peak $290,000 median in June 2007. The Miami area's median price has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 30 consecutive months.

The median price paid for resale condos in March held at $95,000 - the same as in February and down 10.8 percent from $106,500 in March 2009. It was the smallest year-over-year decline for the resale condo median since January 2008. Last month's median was the highest since it was $105,000 last December. So far the post-boom low is $93,000 in January this year. Last month the resale condo median stood 56.6 percent below its peak of $219,000 in July 2006.

The median paid for resale single-family detached houses rose in March to $182,600, up 4.3 percent from February but down 8.7 percent from a year ago and down 46.3 percent from a June 2007 peak of $340,000. It was the lowest year-over-year decline since November 2007.

Another price gauge analysts watch, the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses, rose to $106 in March, up from a post-boom low of $104 in January and February and down 4.5 percent from March 2009. It was the smallest annual decline since March 2007. Last month's figures was the highest since the median paid per square foot was $109 last December, and it was 49.7 percent below the region's $211 peak in summer 2006. The measure has fallen year-over-year for 42 straight months.

A popular form of financing used by first-time home buyers - government-insured FHA loans - accounted for 45.9 percent of all home purchase loans in March, down from 46.4 percent in February but up from 41.0 percent a year ago. Two years ago it was 9.5 percent.

Absentee buyers purchased 33.9 percent of all homes sold in the Miami area in March, essentially flat compared with February and up from 31.7 percent a year ago, according to public property records. In March absentee buyers paid a median of $100,000, up from $95,000 in February but down from $130,000 a year earlier. Absentee buyers are often investors, but could include second-home buyers and others who indicated at the time of sale that their property tax bill would be sent to a different address.

About 2.9 percent of the homes sold in March had been "flipped" within a three-week to six-month period, meaning they had been bought on the open market and then re-sold within that window. That was up slightly from a flipping rate of 2.8 percent of all sales in February and up from 2.2 percent a year earlier. Flipping rates were higher before the housing market correction: In March 2005, for example, the Miami-area flipping rate was 5.0 percent.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach MSA

Number of sales	Mar-09	Mar-10	%Chng
Resale houses	2,899	3,733	28.8%
Resale condos	2,660	4,312	62.1%
New homes	491	613	24.8%
All homes	6,050	8,658	43.1%

Median price	Mar-09	Mar-10	%Chng
Resale houses	$199,900	$182,600	-8.7%
Resale condos	$106,500	$95,000	-10.8%
New homes	$274,634	$300,000	9.2%
All homes	$160,000	$142,000	-11.3%