Palm Beach Home Sales Fall Farthest in State

There’s bad news all around in the Palm Beach housing market: foreclosure rates are up, home sales are down.

In fact, Palm Beach County’s existing-home sales took the biggest nosedive in the state in the third quarter, plunging 49 percent compared with the same period last year, the Florida Association of Realtors said Monday.

“Insurance and taxes have become major components of carrying costs,” said real estate consultant David Levin, principal of David Levin & Associates in Delray Beach. “When you combine those astronomical increases with the fact that the price of the house itself has stretched beyond even the bounds of creative financing, the market has to come to a stop.”

Indeed, all metropolitan areas in Florida posted fewer sales in the third quarter this year than they did last year, the association’s report shows. Overall Florida mortgage demand is simply decreasing.

Median prices also dropped in the area, though not as drastically: 5 percent in Palm Beach County and 6 percent in the Treasure Coast.

Not all segments of the market slowed down, agents said.

“If General Motors is having trouble, do you think that affects Ferrari?” said Rob Thomson, co-owner of Waterfront Properties in Jupiter. “It’s not affecting us. We’re the Ferrari of the real estate market.”

Thomson said his firm has four offers on properties at Admirals Cove in Jupiter, which he called “highly peculiar for Thanksgiving week.”

Palm Beach County buyers closed on 1,935 existing single-family homes in the third quarter, a far cry from the 3,802 last year. Treasure Coast buyers completed 1,123 single-family home sales, down from 2,016.

As a result of the third straight quarter of declining home sales, inventory has risen to record levels. A total of 21,428 homes were listed for sale in Palm Beach County in October, compared with 8,333 in October 2005, according to Illustrated Properties Real Estate.

“No one can afford to live here,” Levin said. “Whether sales are down 30 percent or 50 percent, this part of the world is so out of whack relative to median home prices and median incomes.”

It’s an affordable housing in Florida problem that must be looked into shortly and seriously.