Volusia-Flagler County Housing Market Shifts
Home prices finally are dropping as sellers face the fact that it’s a buyer’s market in Flagler and Volusia County.
Sales of existing homes plunged in March, with the median price for a home in the Volusia-Flagler County market dipping below $200,000, data from the Florida Association of Realtors showed Tuesday.
“Home buyers are now able to negotiate with sellers since there are so many homes on the market,” said Jalene Stockhausen, current president of the West Volusia Association of Realtors.
“I think the mentality is that homes need to sell quickly, so sellers are more willing to bargain.”
Nationwide, sales of existing homes plummeted in March by the largest amount in nearly two decades, reflecting bad weather and increasing problems in the subprime Florida mortgage market.
Sales of existing homes fell by 8.4 percent in March, compared to February. It was the biggest one-month decline since a 12.6 percent drop in January 1989, another period of recession conditions in housing.
The number of existing single-family homes sold in Volusia and Flagler counties was down 24 percent in March to 681 from 897 in March 2006, according to the state association. The median sales price was $199,600 in March, down 12 percent from $225,700 a year ago.
Local Realtors say sellers are becoming more realistic about the market.
“A lot of sellers are lowering prices to get their homes to sell,” said Maggi Hall, a DeLand Realtor. “It’s good to see a lot of people adjusting their prices to reflect the market, and being much more realistic.”
Mark Dougherty, executive director of the Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors, said he was not surprised home sales were down in March.
He said insurance boosts and property tax increases are more to blame for housing market woes in this area than problems in the subprime market or widespread Florida mortgage loan foreclosures.
“Our market has leveled off,” said Gloria Weimer, president of the New Smyrna Beach Board of Realtors. “Houses are staying on the market longer, but we have contracts moving and buyers looking.”
Statewide, sales were down 28 percent in March from last year and the median sales price dropped 4 percent from $244,600 to $236,000, even with Florida mortgage rates remaining low.
Nationally, the steep sales decline was accompanied by an eighth straight fall in median home prices, the longest such period of falling home prices on record. The median price fell to $217,000, a drop of 0.3 percent from a year ago.
The fall in sales in March was bigger than had been expected, and it dashed hopes that housing was beginning to mount a recovery after last year’s big slump. That slowdown occurred after five years in which sales of both existing and new homes had set records.
SOURCE: Daytona-Beach News-Journal
