Inventory Soars in Indian River County

While there are nearly 1,000 unoccupied new homes in Indian River County, and Florida home mortgage loan activity has slowed markedly, move-ins are happening at a record-breaking pace.

West Palm Beach-based Metrostudy, which tracks new-home starts, reported that there were 484 move-ins in the first quarter, an all-time high for Indian River County.

“Fortunately, the number of homes remaining in the under-construction pipeline is shrinking rapidly,” Hunter said.

“There are only 664 homes under construction in the county, a decline of 44.7 percent from the third quarter of 2006.”

Housing starts have also dropped substantially, with 284 single-family home starts in the first quarter, compared with 571 a year earlier.

The decline in new homes going up and increase in people moving in reduced the projected time it would take to decrease the vacant home inventory from a 16.3 month supply in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 13.9 months.

While the overall number of move-ins is up, Hunter said that much of that could be fueled by renters. With investors unable to dump properties, many are “surviving by renting it out.”

Those homes, in which struggling overs become landlords, may end up as “deferred supply” and will return to the market in a few years.

Hunter added that the county is similar to St. Lucie County, in that both are overbuilt, leaving builders to create incentives to attract buyers.

There is currently a 16.6 month supply of new homes in St. Lucie County, but home starts dropped to 387, a return to the numbers seen in late 2002 and early 2003.

In Martin County, there is a six-month supply of vacant finished homes, while starts have dwindled to 95 in the first quarter.

Home starts dropped to 387, a return to the numbers seen in late 2002 and early 2003, when Florida mortgage activity was soaring.

SOURCE: TCPalm.com