4.2% Surge In South Florida's Pending Sales

As the nation's financial stocks were hitting record lows on Wall Street, buyers flocked to South Florida residential real estate, sending the number of pending sales surging 4.2 percent in the last seven days ending March 16, according to a new report from Condo Vultures® LLC.

Buyers entered into 497 contracts on resale condominium units, townhouses, and single-family houses in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties in the last week for an average of 71 deals per day.

The surge is the strongest volume of buying activity in recent memory, surpassing the previous high of 204 deals in a seven-day period ending March 9, according to the Condo Vultures® report compiled using Florida Association of Realtors data.

"South Florida's residential real estate market is benefitting from Wall Street's volatility," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based consultancy Condo Vultures®. "Buyers who are searching for a safe harbor are increasingly looking to pick off deeply discounted residential product in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. We should add the majority of the product that is transacting tends to be priced under $200,000 or greater than $1 million."

Single-family house contracts led the increased contract activity in South Florida with 281 properties going under contract in the tri-county region in the last week to push the total number of pending deals to 6,356, up 4.6 percent from the 6,075 on March 9.

Condo and townhouse contracts jumped 3.8 percent in the last week to 5,901 pending transactions on March 16 compared to 5,685 deals on March 9, according to the report.

As the number of pending transactions continues to grow, the number of available residential properties on the market in South Florida is being reduced.

South Florida now has 95,958 residential properties for resale, down -0.6 percent from the March 9 total of 96,582. On March 2, the region had 96,841 residences for resale, according to the report.

The number of single-family houses available for sale has slipped to 39,994 on March 16, down -1.3 percent from the 40,514 homes on the market on March 9 and the 40,839 for sale on March 2.

Condo units and townhouses slipped slightly to 55,964 on March 16 compared to 56,068 on March 9, according to the report.

Peter Zalewski is a principal with the consulting company Condo Vultures® LLC and a licensed real estate broker with Condo Vultures® Realty LLC. Peter can be reached at 305-865-5629 or by email at peter@condovultures.com. Be sure to check out Peter’s blog at CondoDump.com. Don't forget to sign up for our weekly Market Intelligence Report. Looking for a property at a deep discount? You are encouraged to take a peek at the Vultures Database™ .

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