TAMPA, Fla. — Home prices remain elevated and here in Florida, prices in August were even higher than the same time last year.
Moreover, Florida's August 2023 median home price outpaced the national median by almost $8,000, according to analysis from Bankrate.
According to Florida Realtors, the median cost year-over-year in August for a single-family home in the Sunshine State is now $415,000, up 2 percent compared to August 2022.
For those in the market for a condo, median prices went up even more — 6.2 percent — for a median of $324,000.
However, while prices are going up year-over-year, it's not the same for the number of sales. Florida Realtors says closed sales of existing single-family homes in August were down close to 8 percent while existing condo and townhouse sales were down a little more than 7 percent.
A "dominant factor" for this disparity between prices and number of sales is mortgage interest rates.
“Mortgage interest rates continue to be the most dominant factor in sales trends here in Florida as well as the rest of the U.S., so the continued year-over-year declines we’re seeing in closed sales are not surprising,” Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. Brad O’Connor said in the report. “This summer, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was in the neighborhood of 7%, compared to between 5 and 5.5% last summer.”
Another factor that may be driving up prices but not sales likely includes the rising cost of homeowner's insurance amid an ongoing crisis in the state.
Something else that is different between August 2023 and 2022 is how many days houses are staying on the market — an average of 27 days in 2023 compared to just 16 days at the same time in 2022. However, this doesn't mean the housing demand has gone down. Bankrate says that while there's a three-month supply of housing inventory across Florida, up a bit from last year, it's still too low to meet current demand.