Miami on track for property sales record

Miami is on track for a record number of property sales this year, as seller confidence continues to climb.

There were 17,837 active listings on the market in the third quarter of 2015, according to Miami Realtors, an indicator of just how positive the sentiment among sellers has become. Indeed, the recovering US economy and strong demand from buyers helped prices to rise 9.3 per cent year-on-year in the three months to September 2015 to an average of $273,200. The median price for existing condominiums increased 4.8 per cent year-over-year from $189,900 to $199,000. Miami-Dade County has now seen 15 consecutive quarters of price growth for both property types.

Buyers are not being deterred, though: the median days on the market for single-family home listings during the third quarter was just 39 compared to 45 a year ago, a decrease of 13.3 per cent, as sales continue to accelerate.

Confidence among sellers is particularly evident in the rising number of listings for sale: there were 17,837 active listings in the third quarter, a 2 per cent increase from the 17,480 listings at the same time last year.

The inventory for single-family homes decreased 5.4 per cent compared to the same period from last year, driven down by record sales. A total of 10,799 single-family homes were sold in Miami from January 2015 and September 2015, which puts the market on pace for 14,396 transactions by the end of the year - above the record 13,521 set in 2014.

"Miami real estate remains a bargain compared to other world-class global cities," notes Christopher Zoller, a 27-year Miami-based Realtor and the 2015 Residential President of MIAMI. "Miami single-family home prices are at 2004 levels, considerably lower than world cities such as New York, London and Hong Kong. Today’s prices coupled with historic-low mortgage rates and South Florida’s diversified job market are encouraging more consumers to purchase property in Miami."

Overseas buyers continue be active as well as domestic house-hunters, with almost half (48.8 per cent) of sales in the third quarter of 2015 carried out using cash - a preference for foreign buyers. In comparison, just 24 percent of US home properties are made in cash, according to the latest NAR statistics.