Many people talk about the lack of inventory on the housing market these days, but that’s simply a sign Fort Lauderdale Real Estate is back on track.
People are spoiled. Over the past few years we have seen an abundance of single family houses and
condos for sale thanks to the housing market crash. At present, however I’d venture to say we have a
fairly average number of properties listed. If anything the current inventory may still be a little larger than what you might find in a “normal” market. I put that in quotes because Fort Lauderdale Real Estate is such a specialized microcosm onto itself that it takes a true connoisseur to define a normal market down here.
Hard to believe it’s 10 years plus or minus from the housing bubble days of 2003 to 2005. Apparently
many forget how crazy things were through that period. I recall one client back then searching for a condo is Island Club. You had to jump on things. I’d watch that complex for new listings every day. When a condo unit appeared you had at most a day or two to schedule a showing and submit an offer. One deal I remember was listed by a particularly unpleasant woman who insisted I hand deliver our contract to her office up in Lighthouse Point, and I was in my car and heading north. We still did not get the deal, for multiple offers had been received and my Client’s full price offer was outbid by another Buyer willing to pay more than the Listed Price.
Every so often I think about looking that unit up, see if the party who outbid us was able to keep the unit, or it later sold as a Short Sale for half the price.
Obviously we have a different market today, though many a good Foreclosure property receives multiple offers and frequently sell for 10-15% more than their Listed Price. But prices have snapped back sharply from their lows in 2008-09. Before that prices were in free fall. People were bailing before the situation got worse. Once the market stabilized in 2010 I told Clients to start buying, because Buyers from up north or overseas who don’t really know the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate have no idea how quickly our housing market can roar to life. Investors who believed all that crap about the fabled Shadow Inventory lost out on MILLIONS in profits.
Still the inventory of homes for sale in South Florida is pretty healthy. Buyers with defined search
parameters – who are looking for a certain type property in a specific neighborhood in a stated price range – let’s say a 3/2 pool home in Imperial Point in the mid $300s – their Real Estate Agent is not going to plug those parameters into the MLS and get a plethora of choices. Once upon a time you might’ve found 8-10 homes currently listed. Now there might only be 2 or 3, and the cheaper ones will often have pimples.
These days you may have to bide your time, watch that neighborhood for a couple months, but you can still find good deals. Even so, be prepared to move. The latest stats for Sept. 2013 show the average Listing in Broward County goes Pending in 27 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment