- April 26, 2024
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Florida home sales declined in 2023 from 2022, but the state-wide averages were very different from the local markets in Palm Coast and Ormond Beach.
Overall in 2023, Florida’s inventory of existing for-sale homes grew from 2022, but actual sales of single-family homes decreased 10.3% in 2023 compared to data from 2022, a press release from Florida Realtors said. Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. Brad O'Connor said 2023 was a rough year for residential real estate because of the increase to interest rates.
In Florida, the state’s economy created many new jobs, causing families move to the state “in droves,” the press release said.
“Both of those factors helped mitigate some of the dampening effect that high mortgage rates had on homebuyer demand in 2023, but they weren't enough to keep home sales from declining," O'Connor said.
In Ormond Beach, Realty Pros Assured broker and co-owner Bill Navarra said interest rates increased to almost 9% at one point in 2023, but the sales in the area were still “extremely strong.”
“Now the interest rates have actually started to recede,” he said. “So we're very optimistic 2024 is going to be a very good market for Volusia and Flagler County.”
The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes at year's end was $410,000, up 1.9% from the previous year, the press release said. The average single-family home sold in Ormond Beach cost $399,000 for a three-bed, two-bath with a three-car garage, Navarra said.
Navarra said compared to 2022, Ormond Beach homes sales were down 12%, but the sales are still higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comparatively, Toby Tobin — a Palm Coast real estate agent who runs GoToby.com, a Flagler and Palm Coast real estate news website — said that Palm Coast’s market in 2023 did not change much at all from 2022.
In 2022, 3,012 single-family homes were sold, Tobin said, and in 2023, 2,867 were sold. The median home price actually went down from $369,900 to 365,000 in 2023, he said — but those are only slight differences.
“When the prices remain pretty much the same in a fairly narrow range over several months, that means that the number of sellers and the number of buyers are in equilibrium,” Tobin said. “Neither is dominating the other.”
In Ormond Beach, Navarra said, the market sold $579 million in 2023, up from the $500 million sold in 2020, but down from the previous two years.
Like the state numbers, both Tobin and Navarra said Palm Coast and Ormond Beach are still lacking in inventory. Palm Coast has a lot of in-progress lots, Tobin said, but not as many that are ready for sale.
“Supply is low, although it's quite a bit bigger than it was a year ago,” Tobin said. “But we don't have enough inventory, I believe.”
As for the interest rates, Tobin said he thinks the interest rates are dropping, but won’t likely drop below 5% any time soon. Navarra said in Ormond Beach, the issue with inventory is that people do not want to sell their homes with interest rates that are more than double what they are paying now.
Regardless, Navarra said the market is doing well.
“In overall history, to have an economy where the rates went from 2% to 3% to, at one point, almost 9%, and still have our market doing as well as it has, tells you how desirable Volusia and Flagler County have become on the east coast,” Navarra said.
