Boca Raton Area Real Estate Home Sales
August 4th, 2006
Realtors say Boca, area home sales ‘on verge of upswing’
“It appears that the balance between supply and demand is going back to normal,” said Jack McCabe, president and chief executive officer of Deerfield Beach-based McCabe Research & Consulting LLC. “As a result, changes for the better are bound to occur.”Recent statistics compiled by the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR) indicate that June existing single-family home sales for the Boca Raton-West Palm Beach area totaled only 947-a 39 percent drop from the same month in 2005.
In addition, condominium sales of 512 were 41 percent less than June of last year, when 872 were recorded.
Single-family home costs within the same area, however, decreased slightly in June to a median $405,500. Housing prices last year averaged $406,800.
An identically small drop took place among condos, resulting in a median $208,100. In June of 2005, condo prices were around $208,800.
One of the key elements that has led to costs going down is a lack of home value appreciation among houses in Palm Beach County. McCabe pointed out that home value had previously increased by 4 percent almost every year.”This year, though, appreciation levels for Palm Beach were completely flat for the first time in five years,” McCabe said. “Broward and Miami-Dade appreciated slightly, but nothing of that sort happened in Palm Beach.”
He predicts that lowering prices will become a trend lasting until at least 2008.
“If you look at the FAR numbers, you’ll see this is happening everywhere and not just in South Florida,” McCabe said. “Also, with the amount of available homes, it definitely meets the demands of thousands of people who move to Florida each week.”
Many people wanting to move from one house to another have cited rising property insurance costs and higher taxes as reasons for not doing so.
Boca Realtor Chrissy Piazza said that a new examination by Florida lawmakers into tax portability-designed to help homeowners relocate while keeping the same tax base-will have positive results.
“It would be nice to finally have something on the books,” Piazza said. “When both taxes and property insurance are addressed, homeowners’ fears will be greatly alleviated.”
Meanwhile, she is also experiencing a noticeable buying spree in terms of her home listings.
“Sellers are adjusting their prices to a more reasonable level. That’s bringing the buyers out,” Piazza said. “It looks like a lot of people are jumping on this same bandwagon.”
Main Source: Boca Raton News by Corey Siggins
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