Sales Fall Across South Florida Counties

As predicted, the South Florida housing market stumbled through the third financial quarter of 2006 as prices and sales continued to fall.

The median price for existing single-family homes in Palm Beach County was $380,900, down $19,000, or 5 percent from the third quarter of 2005. In Broward County, the median of $371,100 dipped 3 percent, or $12,800.

Quarter-over-quarter sales declined 49 percent in Palm Beach County, the biggest slide in the entire Sunshine State. Sales fell 27 percent in Broward.

Meanwhile, the median price of existing condominiums in Palm Beach County rose $31,300 or 16 percent to $224,000 in the third quarter.

As Florida mortgage costs remain unattainable for many potential buyers in the wake of five years of meteoric price appreciation, the Broward County median condo price increased $4,100, or 2 percent, to $206,400. Condo sales fell 31 percent in Palm Beach County and 40 percent in Broward.

Monday’s release from the Florida Association of Realtors is a compilation of previously reported monthly figures for July, August and September.

Some analysts say the housing market could remain soft for another year or more. But real estate agents in Palm Beach and Broward counties say they’re encouraged by a surge in sales contracts during the past three weeks.

Bob Goldstein, the chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, said huge increases in property taxes and insurance premiums still are hurting potential sales.

He’s counting on Governor-elect Charlie Crist and Florida state legislators to address those issues, even as they grapple with the issue of declining real estate tax revenues.

“I think we’ll start to see the market come back,” Goldstein said.

Agents say a quiet hurricane season this year will encourage many people to start looking for houses again. Prices are falling slowly but surely, which will inevitably lure buyers back to the market, economists predict.