Article courtesy of Florida Today: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012306220016
Brevard’s dwindling inventory of previously occupied single-family homes is starting to help elevate how much those homes are sold for, according to May home sales data released Thursday.
Though the number of homes sold last month, 637, was down about 4 percent from the same month a year ago, the homes sold for a median price of $119,500. That’s the highest median price since August 2009.
This comes as inventory of homes for sale is down 55 percent from a year go, to fewer than 2,400.
“When supply is down, demand is going to be accentuated,” said Lane Ramsfield, an agent at Century 21 Camelot Realty in Cocoa Beach.
There are other improving signs, as well:
• Pending sales, in which a contract has been signed but the final paperwork hasn’t yet been processed, are up 41 percent compared with last year, to 883.
• Average days on market is down 36 percent, to 42.
Still, Ramsfield and others note that while the numbers are trending upward, there is still a lot of anxiety out there about future economic conditions and the availability of financing.
And there also are questions about foreclosed properties adding to inventories. However, Michael Pruitt, president of Melbourne-headquartered Pruitt Real Estate, doesn’t see that as so much an issue.
“You can expect a steady flow of foreclosures, but that will be insufficient to provide a well-rounded inventory of homes for resale,” Pruitt said.
At Pruitt, closed sales are up 9 percent for the year, he said.
Condo and townhouse sales in Brevard were up slightly in May to 189. The median price, of $101,000, was up more than 6 percent.
