4.4% Surge In South Florida Pending Sales In Week

Pending sales for South Florida condominium units, townhouses, and single-family houses surged by more than 4 percent in the last week, reaching 14,183 existing contracts, according to a new report from Condo Vultures® LLC.

In a seven-day period ending April 20, nearly 600 residential properties on the market in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties changed in status from "available" to "pending sale" in the Florida Association of Realtors' Multiple Listing Service. This most recent contract volume works out to an average of 86 deals per day being executed.

As the number of pending deals is on the rise, the number of available residential properties is falling. On a week-over-week basis, the number of residential resale properties on the market in South Florida decreased by 1.6 percent, or 1,438 residences, to 90,382 condos, townhouses, and single-family houses, according to the Condo Vultures® report.

"South Florida inventory is down nearly 16 percent and pending sales are up more than 52 percent since Thanksgiving week," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures®. "As we enter into the last weeks of the winter tourism season, it appears as if inventory will continue to tighten despite the lack of financing available for residential product. Several buyers, rightly or wrongly, are deciding that the time to purchase is upon us."

Zalewski is scheduled to discuss inventory and pending sales trends in the Miami Condo Market at an upcoming seminar scheduled for Tuesday, April 28, at the Doubletree Grand Hotel just north of Downtown Miami.

Broward County, where Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood Beach, and Pompano Beach are located, is leading the surge in pending deals in the tri-county region with 295 properties going under contract in the past week. Broward's increase in pending deals represents a 5.8 percent week-over-week increase, according to the report.

Miami-Dade County, where Miami Beach, Coral Gables, and Aventura are located, experienced a 4.3 percent increase in pending sales on a week-over-week basis reaching 6,274 deals. Buyers entered into 260 pending deals in the week long period ending April 20 for an average of 37 contracts per day.

Palm Beach County, where Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Delray Beach are located, continues to experience an increase in pending sales, but at a much slower pace. Pending sales increased by 1.7 percent in Palm Beach County in the last week, reaching 2,521 deals. Palm Beach County represents 18 percent of the total number of South Florida pending sales, according to the report.

Palm Beach County may have the smallest number of pending sales, but it also has the fewest residential properties on the market. There are 26,808 residential properties are on the market, representing 30 percent of the regional total.

Miami-Dade County has the greatest number of properties for resale with 33,676, or 37 percent of the regional total.

In Broward, there are 29,898 residential properties for sale, which represents 33 percent of the total market, according to the report.

Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures® can be reached at 800-750-0517 or by email at peter@condovultures.com. Don't forget to sign up for our weekly Market Intelligence Report™ for detailed condo reports. Looking for a property at a deep discount? You are encouraged to take a peek at the Vultures Database™. Our new books, the Official Condo Buyers Guide to Miami™ and Miami's Great Condo Crash: A Chronicle of the Boom and Bust™ are now available. Want to see every foreclosure filed in South Florida since 2007? Check out our Foreclosure Database™.

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