Home Sales will Rise in South Florida Housing Market, Report Finds

Pending sales of existing homes rose by 5 percent in June compared with the previous month, a surprisingly positive sign for the beleaguered Florida mortgage market.

The National Association of Realtors said it was the largest monthly gain in more than three years and that increases in pending sales were reported across the country. However, Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s senior economist, wasn’t overly optimistic, and the pending sales index remained 8.6 percent below year-ago levels.

“It is too early to say if home sales have already passed bottom,” Yun said in a statement.

In South Florida, sales of existing homes are down as the housing slump lingers. Broward County sales fell 22 percent in June, while Palm Beach County had a 19 percent drop, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

Broward’s median price in June was $382,000, up 1 percent from $377,400 a year ago. Palm Beach County’s median fell 7 percent to $377,900 from $405,500 a year ago.

Since there typically is a period of one to two months between when buyers and sellers sign a sales contract and when the property changes hands, pending home sales in June are likely to be completed between July and August.

The report is comes amid a flood of negative news about the housing market and the troubled Florida mortgage industry.

A housing index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s said U.S. home prices fell for a fifth consecutive month in May, the index’s steepest drop in about 16 years. The S&P/Case-Shiller index that covers 10 U.S. cities fell 3.4 percent in May from a year earlier in the steepest decline since the summer of 1991.

SOURCE: The Sun-Sentinel