Brutal January for Florida home sales, but Miami-Dade scores big

Miami saw the biggest increase in home values since the beginning of this century.

The largest housing markets in Florida saw a drop in single-family home sale contracts in January with the exception of just one area. But analysts say the numbers are just a momentary lapse before what promises to be a big rebound this year.

Looking at property sales in Florida’s largest metropolitan areas, the “Elliman Report” showed very sluggish numbers last month. While sales hit a slump, new listings of homes for sale increased in the Sunshine State.

“Newly signed contracts for both single families (homes) and condos continued to fall year over year as new listings expanded,” the report concluded. “The (Federal Reserve) pivot in December set the stage for lower interest rates in 2024 which is expected to add more listings and increase demand.”

The Miami-Dade County market is the only one showing an uptick in single-family home sales contracts signed in January. That figure was a staggering 76.8% increase from January 2023 to January 2024. That’s an increase from 423 single-family new signed contracts a year ago to 748 last month.

That increase snapped Miami-Dade out of a modest slump in December when the area saw single-family home contracts drop by 4.9% year-to-year. The numbers went from 547 sales contracts in 2022 to 520 in December 2023.

New listings for homes for sale in Miami-Dade were also impressive with a 67.3% jump, going from 591 a year ago to 989 in January.

While January 2024 looked good for Miami-Dade, single-family home sale contract figures were downright dismal in many metro areas for the month.

North Florida’s Duval County got walloped with a 36% drop in single-family home sales contracts — the largest home sale decline in the state — that were signed in January. There were 399 single-family home sale agreements last month, down substantially from the 2023 number of 623. The Jacksonville market saw only a 12.2% decline in December.

New listings of homes for sale barely rose by 3.6% in Duval in January, going from 553 a year ago to 573 last month.

Duval’s dip far exceeded any other area in Florida and the next closest decline was seen in Collier County in Southwest Florida. Collier witnessed a 22.2% drop in single-family home sale contracts signed in January, going from 414 a year ago to 322.

There was better news along the lines of new listings. Collier saw that figure jump by 26.3%, increasing from 445 a year ago to 562 a month ago.

Palm Beach County came in third in that negative matrix for contracts on single-family home sales. Palm Beach took a 17.3% hit in the decline in sales, falling from 341 a year ago to 282 in January. Palm Beach saw a modest increase in listings of new homes for sale, which came in at 1,058, up only 2.5% from January 2023 with a figure of 1,032.

Broward, Hillsborough, Pinellas and St. Johns counties all saw declines in single family home sale contracts signed, though none of those areas exceeded a 17% drop.