Pending Home Sales Rise in South Florida
Pending home sales rose in Miami-Dade and Broward counties during January compared with December, according to data released Tuesday by the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service.
South Florida housing starts also were up during the fourth quarter, according to another study.
In Miami-Dade, pending sales of single-family homes increased 0.81 percent to 3,741. Sales of condominiums rose 3.5 percent to 4,647.
In Broward, pending sales of condominiums rose 9.4 percent to 4,137. Pending sales of single-family homes rose 6.2 percent to 3,310.
A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not yet closed. Increased pending sales are an indication of increased future sales.
“Approximately six months after the South Florida real estate market touched bottom according to most economists, we continue to observe the recovery of the local market,” Terri Bersach, chairman of the RAMB board said in a news release.
Nationwide, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements rose 1 percent from November to December to a reading of 96.6. That was a little lower than the 97.1 level analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters.
The index has risen for nine out of the past 10 months as buyers scrambled to take advantage of an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit before its scheduled expiration Nov. 30. Congress extended the tax credit to April 30 and added a $6,500 credit for current homeowners.
In another housing study released Tuesday, Metrostudy reported that housing starts in South Florida edged up in the fourth quarter. Metrostudy, a national housing data and consulting firm, surveyed construction activity in new subdivisions in six countries from Miami-Dade north to Indian River County.
The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter in which South Florida housing starts rose, according to Metrostudy.
Starts on detached single-family homes nudged up from 364 to 370, and construction starts on attached single-family homes rose from 128 in the third quarter to 190 — the highest level in more than a year.
In Miami-Dade County, work began on 54 detached homes in the fourth quarter and on 28 in Broward County.
At the end of the fourth quarter there was a record-high 6.5-month supply of finished, vacant detached homes and a 14-month supply of vacant, finished attached homes in South Florida, said Bradley F. Hunter, director of Metrostudy market research in South Florida.
“The pace of move-ins into new subdivisions is still sluggish,” he said.
