This weekly eLetter appears to be months ahead of mainstream media real estate news.
Case in point is my conversation about how supply surged for most of 2024. And 2023. Just now you’re hearing about it on cable TV or your nightly news, or national newspaper.
Last months supply rose again at a blistering pace. January South Florida housing supply ended at 58,942. That’s up 4,726 units or 8.7% from 2024’s year ending 54,216 figure.
This is a flood in housing inventory in just 30 days. And its changing the real estate stories fast. But this is just one of the real estate stories to pay attention to.
Real Estate Stories of Importance NOW
Now my conversation is about how demand – even though it’s strong this high season – is dwarfed by surging supply. For example: one customer was concerned that he made the wrong offer (too high) and kept asking why a property hadn’t had other offers. The answer was easy – there’s more inventory to choose from today.
Today’s market is a one-eighty flip from the brutal seller’s market of 2021-22. Back then sellers put any price on their property and buyers had one choice to buy it – bid up. Way up. With no inspections.
Right now, buyers are in control. Last week one of my listings received a reasonable offer. I asked the buyers agent if there was room to negotiate. “Nope. My buyer has three other properties to pursue if you don’t take our offer.”
But my recent real estate stories don’t end there. Two of my buying customers put in offers with instructions to me, “we’re not negotiating – they will accept our offer or we’ll move on.” One got their price and the other moved on.
A third buyer I represent was able to get a contract signed at 9% off the latest listed price. In total, it was down 17% from the original price (I’ll be writing more about this in the weeks to come).
Speaking of real estate stories and how strong negotiations are today – here’s the most current List-to-Sold chart for Delray Beach:
I haven’t seen this kind of news in mainstream, yet. These real estate stories are too fresh and new to have filtered to a wider audience.
Why These Real Estate Stories Are Important To Read
This is the boots-on-the-ground, local information that mainstream media won’t be telling until high season is over in Florida. That’s in May, over 90 days from now.
And who knows, things could change a lot in 90 days. So my point is this: be current on local data where you are selling or buying. Reading national real estate news is a time-wasting event.
Don’t be delusional. Even though prices are soft, you won’t succeed by going against the data. And if you’re selling, get current. Playing the price-drop game chasing buyers down is a losing strategy in todays market. Your listing has about 30 days before it becomes stale. After that, buyers think something’s wrong and will offer much lower than you imagined.
Every real estate market has real estate stories that help sellers and buyers navigate hyper local markets with precision information. Pay attention only to that and nothing else.
(Main Photo: The Delray Beach Tennis Stadium – epicenter for this week’s ATP Tourney)
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*** The Delray Beach ATP Tennis Tournament begins this Friday. Get your tickets here
*** Downtown Delray will be a great place to invest for years to come. About 3.2 million people visit Delray Beach each year. Money is flowing here. To invest in and own downtown Delray real estate is a smart decision. Here’s a property positioned to capitalize on Delray’s demand. Let me show it to you
*** Eco-friendly… Green… Sustainable… Resilient… Whole Home… these kinds of homes offer a lot of efficiencies and return on investment. So I wrote about it
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*** South Florida Real Estate Inventory is Now ABOVE 2019***
Last week’s supply was 58,873
Today’s supply is 58,834
Supply was Flat last week
*** That’s a rise of 4,624 or 8.6% in 2025 ***
