Housing Market Continues to Shift Dramatically in Broward County

Just one year ago, Stacy Pahde watched several of her neighbors in “the country” section of Cooper City, Fla., sell their homes in virtually a blink of an eye.

Nowadays?

“Last year, they sold in less than one week. Usually, the first person to look at it bought it,” Pahde told the Miami Herald.

Pahde is one of hundreds of Cooper City home sellers suddenly facing a far different real estate picture. After five years of a clear seller’s market, Cooper City homeowners are feeling the sharp pinch of a market turnaround, and a new market is now in full effect.

“There is a much bigger inventory on the market this year,” Leslie Kliger, co-owner of Assist 2 Sell Cooper City, whose office specializes in the Davie-Cooper City area, said.

According to Kliger, there are an estimated 350 single-family homes on the market in Cooper City, compared to just 150 this time last year. In 2005, she said homes rarely sat for more than two weeks. Now, hopeful sellers in this buyer’s market might have to wait for an offer a long time — anywhere from 90-160 days.

The glut of homes means sellers are having to offer more incentives to buyers. The days of selling “as-is” are behind us. Kliger and partner Denise Malone advise clients to get the home in the best shape possible, replacing old appliances, giving the place some new paint, landscaping, even hiring staging experts.

“Buyers have the opportunity to pick and choose now,” Malone said.

The Cooper City market mirrors the rest of Broward County, where home sales were down 30 percent in July of this year from the same period a year ago, according to recent data published by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Steven Wall (pictured) is trying to sell his four-bedroom, three-bath home in the Le Cristal section of Rock Creek for $549,900. No offer yet. He already dropped the price because potential buyers have been few and far between. But Cooper City suburbs and parks eventually will be enough of a draw to find a buyer.

He hopes.

While Broward County’s median price rose 30 percent annually during the real estate boom, the latest figures show the median price in Broward actually took a 1 percent dip during the past year. It certainly is a dramatically shifting market now.

With Florida home mortgage rates up sharply from their levels of a year ago, demand is waning and inventory rising. Both Kliger and Malone expect prices in Cooper City to drop slowly in the next 1-2 years because of the huge inventory, and they already have seen a 5-8 percent drop in prices.

Lynn Puccio has had her Flamingo Townhome property on the market for two months. At $334,000, buyers have not been knocking down her door.

In the current Florida housing market, she is prepared to wait it out because she would like to let her son finish the school year in South Florida before moving to North Carolina.

“However, if I already had a house waiting for me there, I would really be knee-deep,” she said.