THE MODERNIST ANGLE

It’s that time of the year... No, not Christmas! Not yet at least. Haven’t you been outside lately?

It’s Hurricane Season, starting 1st of June, luckily coinciding with a Florida Tax Holiday, starting this Friday 28 May, and running until Sunday a week later, 6 June.

(Non-Floridians: during a Tax Holiday, which normally happens shortly before the new school year starts, there is no sales tax levied on exempt items; typically 6.0 or 7.0 percent.)

The cherry: quite a few items for your Hurricane Box – you do have one, yes? – are included in the sales-tax-exemption. Just refer to this spiffy handy guide:

And while you’re busy surfing the net, also download the supply kit checklist from www.floridaDisaster.org/kit.

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) is predicting an "above-normal" 2021 Atlantic hurricane season which runs through 30 November, so do stock up now.

Now, if you’d rather quickly sell your house before the season starts: Who is the fairest Realtor of all? 
:-D  That's correct!

Today I want to share with you a look at the fastest- and slowest-selling price brackets in South East Florida. In my office's team meetings as well as in discussions with colleagues and consumers, this market statistic always pops up, mostly as an impression or unfounded opinion ("my neighbor heard of someone who's friend's house sold for $29m in 2 days.")

Funny how stories take on a life of their own, isn't it?

If you have hard data, you may find out the asking price over the last three years was $26m, and only when it was cut in about half to $14.5m by the bank, it sold in less then two months. Such is our world where everyone is a real estate expert. Perhaps I should advise my dentist with the profound knowledge I learned on the web about dentistry?

Now let's have a look:

Table and chart are pretty much self-explanatory. I created this analysis mid-April, based on sold single family homes in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Florida. I chose the most common selling price brackets for our market, while DoM refers to Days on Market or the time period from hitting the market to going into contract. Blue is the number of closings in the previous 30 days, while red shows the median DoM.

The curve visualises nicely how fast things move: rapidly from $200k to $1m; from $1m to $2m takes a bit longer, and over $2m it takes between six weeks and five months – in median days. Averages are considerably higher, and even those are under-reported because often enough a property gets taken off the market for a week or two, then relisted with a fresh MLS number so it doesn't appear "stale". Silly tactic, but not uncommon for expensive and/or overpriced homes.

What are your observation or thoughts?