The dog days of August are gone
August is the month that Florida real estate goes to sleep and this August was no different. With the exception of school children much of Florida is dozing under a shady tree just trying to get through the month so don’t take the following August statistics too seriously.
According to the National Association of Realtors in August sales of previously owned homes fell 1.8 percent from July to an annual rate of 5.05 million with the median sale price at $219,000 up 4.8 percent from a year earlier. This was the lowest rate in four months of gains due in part to fewer purchases by investors. Although home prices continue to go up it is at a more moderate rate when you compare the earlier part of the housing recovery.
The chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, indicated that investors are getting nervous about the prospect of higher interest rates as the Federal Reserve decreases their bond buying program. If this turns out to be true it means that the real estate market will primarily be driven by traditional home buyers, especially first time buyers who have been in short supply for several years.
As of this writing the 30-year fixed rate mortgage average was 4.12 percent and the average 15-year fixed rate was 3.22 percent. However, the interest rates are expected to rise. Mr. Yun also stated that if lending standards were the same as they were in 2000, which he considers normal since it happened before the housing bubble, sales would be 15 percent higher.
Manatee County’s sales numbers are also a little off according to the Manatee Association of Realtors. Although closed sales of single family homes were slightly up - 493 in August this year compared to 488 in August of last year - sales prices were slightly down. The median sale price of single family homes in August this year was $223,000 compared to $225,000 last year and the average sale price was $264,926 this year compared to $275,850 last year. July’s closed sales were 506, June’s 515, May’s 547 and April’s 501.
Townhouses and condo sales were just the opposite with number of sales down and sale price up. In August of this year there were 181 sales compared to 195 last year, the median sale price was up 4.3 percent to $122,000 and the average sales price up 14.5 percent to $173,131. July’s closed sales were 166, June’s 188, May 205 and April 245.
Cash sales were down for both single family homes and condos. Single family cash sales were down 5.1 percent and condo cash sales were down 7.4 percent. Overall 38 percent of Manatee County’s single family sales in August were for cash which is the same as the statewide average.
As I said, don’t be too put off by the numbers especially when the high end market is hitting it out of the park. In August there were nine over $1 million sales in Manatee County. Five of them were on Anna Maria Island, one in Cortez and the other three in the eastern part of the county including Lakewood Ranch and University Park.
When the September statistics come out shortly chances are they’ll be similar to August, but you can never tell. The good news is it's October and everyone is waking up from the summer heat. Visitors and snowbirds will be flocking down pushing monthly statistics up going forward - time to get out from under the tree.