May may be the month
There are good months of the year, and there are bad months of the year. The good weather months in Florida are from November through April. At least that’s what the tourists and seasonal residents think. But Florida realtors think the month of May is the best Florida month because that’s the month when the buyers who spent the season house hunting finally closed on the properties they fell in love with.
May of this year in Manatee County continued the upward trend in both number of sales and sale price compared to last year. The average sale price for single family homes this May was $328,724 compared to $286,545 last year, an increase of 14.7 percent. The number of closed sales was also up 10.6 percent from last May. But the number that will keep this trend moving along is the number of active listings on the market, which is down 10.4 percent from last May creating a shortage of inventory and a seller’s market.
Condos and townhomes also had a substantial increase in the average sale price from $201,660 to $218,969 this May compared to last year, an 8.6 percent increase, and the number of closed sales increased 8.3 percent. The only indicator that was different from the single family numbers was the number of active listings which increased 4.6 percent. This shows that the available condos for sale are still in the positive area for the moment.
While Florida buyers were taking advantage of our great winter weather to buy properties, it appears that buyers in the rest of the country were doing the same thing. Sales of existing homes in May were up 9.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Associations of Realtors. The activity is also having a positive effect on prices with a 5.4 percent increase from a year ago.
Although Manatee County’s appreciate rates have hit double digits, the national rates have not, which is a good thing. It shows that the market is not overheated overall creating an unsustainable pace of appreciation, a healthy balance going forward.
Another thing that happened in the merry month of May was a return of the first time home buyer. Nationally, first time home buyers made up 32 percent of all sales in May compared to last year’s rate of only 27 percent. According to the National Association of Realtors, historically, first time buyers have made up 40 percent of the market.
And as we all know, first time buyers are the basis on which the entire real estate market is built on. Without first time buyers there are no buyers for existing homeowners to sell to and move up or on to other regions. They also provide existing home buyers to move on to new construction, which is also up 20 percent in May.
Stephen Stanley a real estate and securities analysis points out, “If you take first time buyers out of the equation then all you’re doing is shuffling deck chairs around.”
So far the housing recovery is on sound footing, which eventually will lead to an uptick in other economic areas where home buyers draw from. May may be the turnaround month, but then we also said that about April. Who cares as long as it’s turning around.
