Existing Home Prices Take an Upward Turn

South Florida homes and condos sold increased in February, while prices continued to fall due to foreclosures and short sales, according to the latest statistics from Florida Realtors.

Fort Lauderdale home sales increased 6%, to 530 in February from 500 in 2009. The Fort Lauderdale home median sales price fell 13%, to $186,700 from $214,400.

Single-family home sales increased the most – by 9% – in Miami, with 445 homes sold, up from 409 last year. The median sales price fell 2%, year-over-year, to $191,100 from $195,500.

In West Palm Beach, 560 single-family homes were sold in February, up 5% from 532 a year ago. The median price was $219,100, which is a 4% decrease from a year ago, when it was $228,100.

Existing home sales statewide increased 21%, with 11,890 homes sold in February, up from 9,867 a year ago.

Month after month, statewide existing home sales increased 13.6%.

More condos than homes sold in February, with West Palm Beach taking the lead in South Florida condo sales. In February, 698 condos sold there, up 45% from 483 a year ago. The median price slid 5%, to $96,700 from $101,900.

Fort Lauderdale condo sales followed, with a 41% increase to 819 from 581. The median price decreased by 17%, from $85,800 to $71,500.

Miami condo sales rose 35 percent, to 545 from 403. The median price fell 14 percent, to $126,100 from $146,100.

Statewide, existing condo sales rose 59 percent, to 5,085 from 3,190. The median price fell 15 percent, to $92,200 from $109,100 a year earlier.

Seventeen of Florida’s metropolitan areas reported increased existing home sales in January, while all but the Melbourne-Titusville-Palm Bay MSA reporting an increase in condo sales. A majority of the state’s MSAs have reported an increase in sales for twenty months consecutively.

Statewide median sales price for existing homes last month was $131,300, down 7% from $141,800 a year ago.

Nationwide, existing home sales 0.6% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.02 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Nationally median sales price for existing single-family homes in February was $163,600, down 0.4% from a year earlier, according to NAR.

Cabot Homes is predicting a surge in home sales this spring. Activity should be picking up strongly in late spring as buyers take advantage of the tax credit, which is critical to absorb distressed properties reaching the market and to continually chip away at inventory levels.