In Fort Lauderdale, pending sales dropped 15.2% year over year during the four weeks ending Nov. 10—the biggest decline among the 50 most populous metro areas in the country that Redfin analyzed.
Florida is home to the five US metropolitan areas where pending home sales are falling the fastest, according to a new report by Redfin.
In Fort Lauderdale, pending sales dropped 15.2% year over year during the four weeks ending Nov. 10—the biggest decline among the 50 most populous metro areas in the country that Redfin analyzed. Next came Miami (-14%), West Palm Beach (-13.8%), Jacksonville (-9.5%), and Tampa (-7.2%). Nationwide, pending sales increased 4.7% over the same period.
“Florida’s housing market has been slowing for months as residents grapple with frequent natural disasters, along with a surge in home insurance costs and HOA fees fueled by intensifying climate risk. The latest shoe to drop was an especially devastating hurricane season. Hurricane Helene hit northwestern Florida on Sept. 26 and became the deadliest storm to hit mainland America in almost two decades. Then, roughly two weeks later, Hurricane Milton swept across central Florida,” the Redfin report stated.
Another factor is the state’s affordability crisis. Despite an increase in new construction, which tends to improve affordability, homes and property taxes in Florida are still significantly more expensive than before the pandemic.
The condo market has been one of the most impacted because of high HOA fees and homeowner’s insurance rates, in addition to special assessment costs due to new rules implemented after the Surfside condo collapse.
However, for some parts of Florida, the worst of the decline is over. In Tampa, pending home sales fell as much as 32.2% during the four weeks ending Oct. 20, a time period that encompasses the impact of both hurricanes. Now, Tampa is only down 7.2% year over year.
And in Orlando, pending sales fell as much as 14.1% during the four weeks ending Nov. 3, and are now down just 5.1%.
