Realtor.com Index Finds ‘Frenzied Demand’ – but Less so in Fla.

Realtor.com’s August trend report found double-digit growth in the site’s advertised home prices and no signs of a slowdown – but less of an increase in Fla. metros, with 3 out of 4 at the bottom of realtor.com’s list. South Fla. was the only U.S. metro with a year-to-year decline.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Homebuyers were out in full force in August, scooping up homes at a rapid pace and sending the nation’s median asking price on realtor.com up 10% to a record $350,000, according to realtor.com’s August Monthly Housing Trends report.

In Florida, however, three out of four metro areas studied showed slower price growth than other U.S. metros. In the report, only one metro area out of 50 studied – Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach – had a lower asking price on realtor.com this year than it did one year earlier.

Realtor.com didn’t have enough data to include two U.S. cities, but of the 48 metro areas included in realtor.com’s price-growth study, three Florida metros’ asking prices rose less than all other U.S. metros. At No. 25, only the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater had a higher price rise at 7.1%.

Florida metro realtor.com prices, days on market year-to-year

24. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater: 7.16% price increase, 15 days-on-market decrease

46. Jacksonville: 2.3% price increase, 7 days-on-the-market decrease

47. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford: 0.8% price increase, 2 days-on-the-market decrease

48. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach: 0.2% price decrease, 5 days-on-the-market decrease

Nationally, buyers continue to outnumber sellers. The inventory of available homes declined 36% in August year-over-year – a faster pace than July when inventory was down 33%. New listings were down 12% year-over-year, a slight improvement over July’s decline of 13% but not nearly enough to make a dent in the overall inventory shortage.

At the end of August, the U.S. had almost 500,000 fewer listings on realtor.com than it had one year earlier. On average, a home in the U.S. sells in 56 days – five days faster than last year.

“It’s difficult to imagine that the housing market will be able to sustain the frenzied demand … but we have yet to see any signs of slowing,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com chief economist. “Although demand is much more intense than it normally is this late into a buying season, the typical home asking price has likely peaked for the year at $350,000. However, given the strong demand, sellers will remain in the driver’s seat for the foreseeable future.”

The number of homes listed for sale in the nation’s 50 largest metros declined 38.1% year-over-year in August, up from the 34.8% in July.

In 44 of the 50 metros studied, the number of listings decreased even though the number of new listings rose.

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