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Price of Single-Family Homes in Florida Drop in September
November 3rd, 2009 by 
Joseph Smith
The September median price for single family homes in Miami, Florida dropped to $108 per square foot from $109 the previous month. The median sale price in September also reflected a 22.2 percent decline from the same month the previous year. The median price is the point where 50 percent of the houses sold for less and the remaining half for more.
The total home sales in the Miami region moved up in September, with sub-$100,000 deals accounting for about one-third of the total sales. However, the median price dropped to about $159,000 from $160,000 for three consecutive months.
In the Miami metropolitan area that covers the counties of Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward, there were about 7,225 completed sales for condominiums, new and resale homes. The numbers represented a 0.7 percent increase from August and 31.1 percent rise from September 2008’s 5,509.
Furthermore, the total number of escrow closings was the third lowest for the month of September, way below the figures in 2007 and 2008. Also, September was the seventh straight month in which sales have increased on a year-to-year basis in the Miami region.
In single family homes prices, September numbers posted 48.8 percent which were below the 211 peak price posted in the region in the summer of 2006.
According to industry analysts, the 0.7 sales gains posted in September was abnormal. They said that since 1997, home sales usually dropped about 10.6 percent between September and August. They observed that September home sales were also unusually strong in other housing markets, nationwide.
Analysts said that the most likely reasons are short sales which are starting to become popular as a way for distressed homeowners to avoid the trouble of the foreclosure proceedings, new appraisal rules which have resulted to longer escrows, historically low loan rates and the flood of first-time buyers looking for cheap foreclosure properties to buy before the federal tax credit of $8,000 will expire.
Properties that sold below $100,000 accounted for 31 percent of the total sales, an increase of 30 percent from August and 13.8 percent compared with the previous year.
Industry experts said that foreclosures are still a force to reckon with in the housing market, pulling down prices as what happened with single family homes with price declines for 36 straight months.
