South Florida real estate sales drop 25%
Surplus of for-sale inventory fails to cut prices

Friday, June 16, 2006

Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the seat of Broward County

South Florida’s Broward County residential real estate sales continued to fall by double digits in May, as for-sale inventory soared from a year ago, according to statistics provided by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale.

Single-family home sales totaled 808 in May, down 25 percent from a year ago when 1,071 homes were sold. May saw 944 condominium-townhouses sold, down 32 percent from 1,379 sales in May 2005.

The huge increase in inventory has been a major factor in the region’s sales slowdown, as 9,537 single-family homes were available in May, up 8 percent from April’s numbers (8,838), and an increase of almost 300 percent from last year’s figure of 2,412 available homes. The condominium-townhouse inventory reached 12,297 units in May, up 7 percent from April’s 11,490, and up 383 percent compared to May 2005 when the market had 2,547 units available.

Despite increased availability, prices continued to rise, the association reported. The median sales price for single-family homes rose to $365,000 last month, up 4 percent from last year’s figure of $350,000. The median sales price of condominiums-townhouses climbed to $209,250 last month, up 11 percent from the year-ago price of $188,000.

"We’ve seen the price of homes take a bit of a roller coaster ride since the start of the year but there hasn’t been a significant drop," said Dori Longhini, president of the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale, in a statement.

The Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale Inc. is one of the largest Realtor associations in Florida, representing more than 12,000 real estate agents in Broward County.