Palm Beach County Condo Prices Inch Higher, Buck Statewide Trends

Although single-family resales and prices posted sharp declines across the board in the month of January, the condo market in Palm Beach County continued to show surprising resilience.

Palm Beach County existing condos have now posted year-over-year price appreciation - except for a month when prices stayed the same - for 13 straight months.

January was no exception, the Palm Beach Post reports, as the median price of an existing condo rose 2 percent to $213,100 in January from $209,100 in January 2006.

By comparison, the Florida Association of Realtors said Tuesday, the median price of an existing single-family home in Palm Beach County was $388,000, down 1 percent from $393,700 in January 2006.

“With condos generally lower in cost, this market is getting attention from first-time home buyers and second home buyers,” said Nigel Fullick, vice president and branch manager for HomeBanc Mortgage in Palm Beach Gardens.

First-time buyers typically are 32 years old and earn about $58,000 a year, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors. Such buyers spend an average of $165,000 on their first home, the association said - putting pricey Palm Beach County out of reach for many.

And there’s no relief in sight. Even with Florida mortgage rates remaining low, the average existing condo prices in PBC will rise to nearly $300,000 in 2009, economist Hank Fishkind of Port St. Lucie predicts.

It’s important to make the distinction that average prices generally are higher than median prices, which represent the midpoint of all sales.

“During the forecast horizon, through 2009, closing volumes will increase from a low of just under 8,000 units to more than 9,000 units,” Fishkind predicts.

Another housing economist believes the inventory of unsold condos for sale in Palm Beach County could shoot up in a couple of years when all units currently under construction are reaching completion.

The likely result will be more condo units in the Multiple Listing Service, Hunter said, since many of the thousands of new condos still being built were bought by flippers or real estate investors who don’t intend to live in them.

“I would expect to see a lot of price declines going forward,” said Bradley Hunter of the research firm Metrostudy.

Existing condo prices for January also jumped in the Treasure Coast - at three times the rate of Palm Beach County’s price increase, and to a higher median price, studies of recent Florida home mortgage activity would indicate.

The median price of an existing condo in Martin and St. Lucie counties rose by 6 percent in January, to $225,000 from $211,500 in January 2006. Condo sales in the Treasure Coast housing market, however, declined sharply in January compared with the same month a year ago - to 51 sales from 62, an 18 percent drop.

Statewide, the median price of existing condos fell 1 percent, to $209,000 from $212,000 in January 2006, FAR said. The number of year-over-year condo sales throughout Florida fell 30 percent.

Condo sales fared better nationwide, with a 6 percent decline in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 767,000, from 813,000 in January 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors, which also released its report Tuesday.