“But John, Delray Beach real estate prices are ready to start falling.”
I don’t buy it. As a matter of fact, each week in this essay, I’ve been taking the other side of that coin. I believe prices will continue to rise. Why? Supply and demand.
Supply and demand are the two most important metrics when it comes to understand where Delray Beach real estate is, and where it’s heading. Here’s a basic definition to get you going…
A buyers market is defined by having 6 months or more of inventory. A sellers market is defined by having 6 months or less.
Nationally, the new home market sits at 7.4 – a buyers market (but is falling fast). And the existing home number is 3.3 – a sellers market. Delray Beach real estate it’s 3.85. This is also a sellers market.
(This week I’ll publish my latest video that shows all this data and I explain it in more detail. If you want to see it, click on this link to watch “7 Reasons Delray Beach Real Estate Prices WILL NOT Crash“).
As for the median price of existing homes nationally, it bottomed in January at $361,000. It has risen almost every month since. And in July, that figure hit $406,700.
That’s a 12.5%, double-digit increase in just six months. And this renewed boom is likely to continue.
Above you can see how this correlates to the percent changes by three leading industry experts. Not by exact percentages, but the direction this trend is heading.
As for the Delray Beach real estate market, the median sales price is up 12.9% Year-to-Date 2023 over 2022. And the median sales price in August 2023 is up 15.1% over August 2022. Have a look at the last line below:
This doesn’t mean we’ll see double-digit appreciation gains in the months to come. But, as long at is remains a sellers market as shown above, and with high season less than 55 days away (November 1st)… we’d need to see a massive increase in inventory to slow or turn this trend around.
At just 3.85 months of supply available with Delray Beach real estate, we are 2.15 points, or 56%, away from a buyers market… and I don’t see that happening for a while.
However, if you look at the number of listings you can see a trend that’s important to watch. For Delray Beach real estate listings, they fell from 1,167 to 979 in the last six months. That’s a 17% drop. Look:
This means one thing – supply is falling while demand remains strong. One year ago it was the complete opposite. That was when listings rose, demand fell and so did prices.
So we’d need to see that set up take place for things to change. Until then, Delray Beach real estate remains a sellers market.
If you own Delray Beach real estate and are thinking of capitalizing on this market condition in advance of high season – call me today. This is now the best time to sell your home.
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*** In the downtown Delray Beach real estate market there have been 31 condos, 19 townhomes, and 13 homes sold in 2023. That’s 63 units. And in all Delray, 2,490 units sold this year
*** Support our local businesses and EAT at Delray’s September Restaurant Month
*** Thinking about selling your home? “Get my 38 Dirt Cheap Home Staging Ideas” here.
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*** Your Weekly Inventory Update ***
* 4 years ago there were over 54,000 properties available in S. Florida
* It bottomed in February 2022 at 14,485… a 73% drop
* Last week there were 28,405 available… a 96% rise in 20 months
* This morning’s Inventory is 28,577.
*** Inventory is UP 5 of the last 6 weeks ***
