If you prefer to read a short overview of my Delray Beach real estate April market update, then clicking a link to watch my video… keep reading.
Published May 9th, this update has more oomph for homeowners / sellers than my prior monthly updates. Why? Because the “denial phase” is here.
To begin, I’ve been writing about Florida’s surging supply well before mainstream media got to it. Supply was my number one theme in ’23 that’s gained more momentum in ’24 (See below).
And while Florida (South Florida in particular) leads the country with the highest supply gains, it’s even higher locally. Below shows how Delray Beach real estate stacks up to other markets.
Housing Supply Growth March 2024 vs March 2023:
* USA = Up 24%
* Florida = Up 64%
* Delray Beach Up 83%
How Delray Beach Real Estate “Denial Phase” Begins
So, local homeowners (potential sellers) are facing massive competition – the most they’ve seen in years. Knowing that, home sellers are not staying current with our local market trends. They continue over-pricing their homes shunning the data.
More Delray Beach Real Estate Data From Our MLS:
* Days On Market last month was 73. April 2023 was 54. April 2023 was 25. In other words, it took 116% longer to sell a home in 2023 v 2022… and 35% longer this year than last year.
* Active Listings on a year-over-year basis is up 30% this year compared to the same period in 2023. At the same time, home sales are down 16%.
* The Sold-to-List ratio was holding steady most of 2023 around 92.5%. It began falling this January, and last month hit 89%. That may not sound like a lot, but if you were selling your $1 million home, last year you’d get about $925k. Last month you’d get about $890k, or $35k less.
That’s $110k, or 11%, less than this home seller expected.
It helps me to call the Delray Beach real estate market and the home sellers “Denial Phase.” This is when you don’t want to hear facts, and instead want to “try it and see.” That leads to the infamous Dutch Auction where sellers drop their price again and again and… bad strategy.
Regular readers may think this week’s letter is almost a repeat of last week. I’m guilty as charged. But, sometimes the data needs to be presented in a different way, style, or choice of words for it to sink in.
That’s my wish for you in todays essay, dear home seller. There’s nothing worse than to see poor decisions play out when we’re looking at the same data. So, once we exit the “denial phase”, we can enter the anger, then recovery phases, sooner than later.
So if you own some Delray Beach real estate that you want, or need, to sell… don’t miss the most important part of pricing your home that finds a buyer. That means, acting on current data without showing bias to the recent past.
Our Delray Beach real estate market has changed… and you must change with it.
(photo above: Delray Beach achieves the Blue Flag Award Two Years In a Row)
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*** The Blue Flag Designation is a BIG Deal for Delray Beach. It signifies our sustainability efforts to protect our beaches, keeping them clean. Also keeping our dunes healthy so they work the way they should. Having healthy clean beaches is key to tourism dollars and that is what keeps our downtown businesses thriving And for educating our community about the importance of sustainable ways to live in our environment. Last year Delray was the 1st City In America to get this prestigious award
*** We spend 90% of our time indoors. Knowing that, it may be worth a few minutes to learn how to keep the air quality in our homes as clean as possible
*** With the heat returning fast, rain season is fast approaching. This is a good time to check in on flood insurance and preparations
*** To read my Delray Beach real estate update last week as I mention above, click here
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*** South Florida’s Surging Supply Continues ***
* Last week there were 45,719 available…
* This morning’s Inventory is 46,119 *
… supply was UP 400 Units last week ***
