South Florida home sales see downturn in September after brief Summer uptick

Home sales could see a spike after mortgage rates drop.

South Florida homes sales slumped in signed contracts and closings for September after a brief uptick the previous month.

The “Elliman Report” shows Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties all saw downturns or flat figures in home sales last month in year-over-year comparisons.

Palm Beach County saw the biggest drop in closing contract signings for home sales in September. There were 262 closed signings for home sales in that county in September, down from the 307 closings in September 2023. That’s a 14.7% drop in home sales compared to the previous year.

The Palm Beach closing sales also represent a steep drop from August’s figures. There were 338 total closings in that month in Palm Beach County.

Miami-Dade County, which was the only South Florida county that had seen some home sale increases prior to August, also took a hit in September. There was a 10.2% year-to-year drop in signed closings in Miami-Dade in September. The county saw 736 homes sold in September 2023 compared to 661 last month.

Miami-Dade was hit harder in the month-to-month comparison, as there were 881 homes sold in August.

Broward County was the only county in South Florida that didn’t lose ground in home sales in September. But it didn’t gain any ground, either.

There were 388 signed home closings in September in Broward, the same figure for September 2023. However, that was a big monthly dip compared to August, when there were 464 newly signed contracts for home sales in Broward.

The sluggish home sales in South Florida for September are a stark contrast to August’s figures, when all three counties saw an encouraging uptick. That jump came after nearly every month in 2024 had reported sluggish results on the home sales market in the southern reaches of the state.

The condo market in South Florida is more grim. Every South Florida county saw condo sales plunge more than 20% in the year-to-year comparison. Broward County sustained a whopping 24.3% drop in condo sales in September compared to the same month in 2023, with Palm Beach enduring a 22.3% dip and Miami-Dade withstanding a 22.2% decline.