Luxury house transactions also climbed in March
Growing Miami home sales defied national housing trends in March, including an 18% spike in condo resales compared to last year, according to a report from the MIAMI Association of Realtors on Monday.
Existing home sales, including condos and single-family, in Miami-Dade County totaled 1,230 in March, a 7.6% rise compared to last year, according to closings recorded in the multiple listing service. Robust, early-spring activity in the South Florida county counters a broad slowdown in U.S. home sales, which declined more than 5% in March compared to a year ago, according to the report.
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Miami condo resales saw the greatest surge in March, rising 17.7% year over year. Condo deals have been growing specifically in the mid-market segment, said José María Serrano, chairman of the board of the MIAMI Association of Realtors.
“A rise in mid-market condo sales and mortgage rates hovering near one-year lows factored into the overall increase,” Mr. Serrano said. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.27% in March, down from an average 4.54% for all of 2018, according to the association, citing figures from Freddie Mac.
High-end single-family home sales also climbed in Miami-Dade County last month, with house sales of $1 million or more rising 9.3% compared to March 2018. Luxury deals have increased in eight out of the last 11 months, according to the association.
In total, existing home sales in the county rang in at $1.1 billion in March, a nearly 8% rise compared to last year.
An influx of domestic home buyers has also aided the South Florida real estate market on the back of U.S. tax reform, which cut down on the amount of state and local taxes people could write off. As a result, the typical buyer profile has shifted away from foreign buyers toward more U.S. buyers from the high-tax Northeast and California, Mansion Global has previously reported.
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All-cash deals accounted for about 35.6% of all closings in March, nearly double the national figure, as the city attracts a cohort of foreign buyers, primarily Latin Americans.
Robust condo sales have helped absorb a surplus of inventory that has limited price growth in Miami in recent years. The county has about 14.2 months-worth of condo supply, “a buyer’s market,” according to the report. The single-family market is much tighter, with inventory equal to about 6.6 months of sales.
