Bell Tolls For Treasure Coast Home Investors
The Treasure Coast suffered the biggest drop in home sales in the state last month, with sales posting their steepest decline in 18 years.
It’s the clearest evidence yet that the boom has gone bust in the wake of soaring foreclosures, tightened Florida mortgage lending standards and an exploding inventory of unsold homes.
Martin County and St. Lucie County, which combined for one of the hottest real estate markets during the boom, posted a whopping 41 percent decline in existing single-family home sales in March compared with March 2006, data from the Florida Association of Realtors shows.
Palm Beach County posted a smaller decline in single-family home sales, falling a mere 22 percent, in large part because Florida mortgage activity didn’t overheat quite as much as in the Treasure Coast region.
The Realtors’ sobering report comes a day after St. Lucie County housing market data showed a 444 percent increase in foreclosures last month.
“There was a tremendous amount of speculative investment in the home-buying market in 2004 through 2006,” said Stan Gerberer of Fishkind & Associates, in Port. St. Lucie in the heart of the Treasure Coast.
“Some reports, and some anecdotal evidence, show as much as 50 percent were speculative sales,” Gerberer said. “Everybody who plays the investment game hopes the buck stops with the next guy rather than him.”
Unfortunately for investors, the report shows that the buck stopped last month in the Treasure Coast, with a growing backlog of unsold homes to prove there are few “end users” in sight.
The numbers tell the story:
- Buyers closed on just 338 existing single-family homes in the Treasure Coast in March, down from 573 a year ago.
- The number of existing condo sales remained unchanged from the previous March: There were 87 closings in both years.
“We seem to be selling less and less, and listing more and more,” said Sheri Wetzel, president of the Realtors Association of St. Lucie County, and a broker with ReMax Midway in Fort Pierce.
Bob Lowe, a Treasure Coast broker and a FAR officer, agreed.
“The market has totally done a 180-degree turn and has become a buyers’ market,” said Lowe, who wears many hats, including broker/owner of Lowe’s International Realty Plus on Hutchinson Island and treasurer of the Realtors Association of St. Lucie County.
Though Palm Beach County’s numbers were little to brag about - the report said 725 single-family homes sold in March, compared with 929 in the same month a year ago - Realtors took it as a sign the market could be in for a soft landing.
“The thing that I see good about Palm Beach County’s March numbers is, compared to the rest of the state, they are not that bad,” said William Cozart, chief executive officer of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. “Also, median prices are starting to go down, which will bring added vitality to the buying market.”
Indeed, home prices continued their precipitous drop in both Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast last month, even as Florida home mortgage rates remain near historic lows.
While the median price of a single-family home in the Treasure Coast fell 7 percent, to $239,700, the median price of a single-family home in Palm Beach County fell 5 percent, to $375,100.
Statewide, single-family home sales dropped 28 percent the association said. The median price statewide fell 4 percent, to $236,000 - still an affordable Florida home loan sum for many.
The news was slightly better in the region’s condo market, once among the most robust in the nation. Although sales stayed flat, the Treasure Coast posted a healthy 9 percent increase in the median price, to $202,300 from $186,300 in March 2006.
The condo news was not as good in Palm Beach County, which continues to suffer under the weight of an overbuilt condo market.
Continue reading in the Palm Beach Post …
