Polk County Housing Prices on the Way Down
Home prices in Polk County have gone negative.
For the first time since the housing boom began in 2005, Polk’s median home prices decreased 5 percent from March 2007 to March 2006: $178,300 to $168,300.
However, this is following the trend of other counties around the state, which have experienced significant declines in recent months.
Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Panama City and Punta Gorda all posted double-digit declines in median prices, which is happening to coastal communities where prices were heavily inflated by investors during the peak of the building boom.
“That statistic means very little in the big picture,” said Arthur Mattson, owner of Lakeland Realty. ”You are looking at only one month. Lakeland is one of the top five cities to buy real estate in the U.S. based on increasing values, which is a much more important statistic.”
Mattson’s comments were based on a recent ranking by CNN Money.
“Studies show Lakeland home values will increase 59 percent in the next five years,” he said. “And that’s just an average.”
Prices weren’t the only decline in March.The local existing home sales market isn’t looking any better, as Florida mortgage borrowers await even more drastic price drops. Home sales around the county dropped nearly 42 percent from 592 in March 2006 to 345 last month.
The Ledger’s home sales figures include existing duplexes, condos, co-ops, manufactured and mobile homes, modular, single-family and townhomes, as well as new home sales by Realtors.
Lakeland Realtors had 212 home sales in March, down 39 percent from 350 a year ago.
“Right now, it’s hard to sell and slow to close,” said Brooks Chandler, a Realtor with Brooks Chandler Realty LLC in Lakeland. “But it’s an exciting time to buy. There are some good buys out there.”
East Polk recorded 129 home sales in March, down 42 percent from 223. Bartow home sales decreased 79 percent last month with four sales compared with 19 a year ago.
“You have the hills and valleys and that’s how it is,” Chandler said.
Sales of existing single-family homes around the state totaled 13,469 in March, compared with 18,751 homes sold a year ago, for a 28 percent decrease. This may bump back up once Florida mortgage loan buyers see how far prices have fallen.
On the national scene, 6.12 million homes were sold in March, down 11.3 percent from 6.90 million in March 2006.
“For the last couple months we’ve been expecting a weather hit on home sales finalized in March, but looking at overall activity in the first quarter, we see that existing home sales averaged 6.41 million, a figure that is moderately higher than the sales pace during the second half of 2006,” David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in a written statement.
“We also may be seeing some losses as a result of the subprime fallout. However, this is masking improved fundamentals in the housing market, with lower mortgage interest rates and motivated sellers.”
