Real Estate in Northeast Florida and Around the World

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors has released the latest market data for our housing market showing activity through June 30, 2011.  The trend appears to be generally positive, although you have to look a little closer to the information to find all of the bright spots.  If you look at the monthly data only, it seems as though there is no improvement.  However, when you compare this year to the same time last year, you can see that we really have improved in most critical areas.

A few data points that I believe warrant attention are:

• Average Closed Sales price overall increased by 7% from $169,750 to $181,000, from June 2010 to June 2011
• The Housing Affordability Index is 208, meaning that the median household income is 208% of what is necessary to quality for a median priced home in the area
• Inventories decreased 28.8% from an 11.8 month supply of homes available to 8.4% months supply (a normal market is considered to be a 6 month supply)
• Pending sales increased 34% from last year.  In addition, pending sales have reflected an increase in 8 of the previous 13 months
• The prices of homes that showed the strongest increase in activity is in the price range of $500,000 - $999,999, a sign that the "move up" buyers are finally getting off the fence.

These are all good signs of a steadily improving market, not of a flash in the pan recovery. 

For more information further details about the Northeast Florida Housing Market and the June 2011 data, click on the "Market Data" tab to the left.