The Single Family Home Market in August

At some point, if you read this column regularly, you must think I'm a grumpy old fart, uncontent and miserable.

And here grumpy goes again: What is it with the press?

Specifically, the housing numbers the press celebrated last and this week.

Perhaps you think I live on another planet, or had too much beer at the Wiesn (aka Oktoberfest–and no, I didn't make it this year.) Perhaps the housing data and headlines released for August have a self-serving purpose. But they are definitely nothing to be jubilant about, though that's what some media are–again–screaming into our ears.

THE SINGLE FAMILY HOME MARKET

Despite a tiny bit of action in Palm Beach County, overall nothing really improved last month:

• Median asking prices have held steady in all three counties. – Great. And that's the good news? Really?
  
• Median selling prices per square foot under air  did not change in all three counties.
• Median selling prices increased a measly 3.0% in Palm Beach, but didn't budge in Broward and Miami-Dade. And year-over-year, median selling prices actually went down another 5.1%
  
• Inventory fell a bit–to a large part due to less foreclosures and short sales
  

The numbers for all Single Family Homes in the three counties:

• Houses for sale: 20,579 (-1.2%)
• Inventory: 6.2 months (-10.9%)
• Median list price: $299,667 (+0.6%)
• Median list price per sf: $142 (no change)
• Houses sold last month: 3,454 (+10.4%)
• Median selling price: $184,833 (+0.8%)
• Median selling price per sf: $100 (+0.3%)

Table: all regional single family homes for sale/sold; data per last month’s end. Changes are month-over-month. – Chart: SFH data August 2010 to August 2011. Red: median list price, green: median selling price, blue: inventory in months. – Data source: SEF-MLS


THE MODERN HOME MARKET

As explained last month, I do not publish modern market data here anymore. Emphasis on here.

I still compile market and sales statistics for modern architecture, including asking and selling prices, prices per square foot, time on market and price differentials.

The complete data will continue to be available to my brokerage and consulting clients–just not publicly on this site.

If you have an interest or need for modern market statistics, I welcome you to contact me anytime.

And as always: thanks for reading this column!

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