Hurricanes had little effect on October real estate activity in Florida

The Florida Realtors agents’ association’s October 2024 market report shows that, statewide, the median single-family home sale price in Florida rose to $415,000, a 1.2% year over year increase. Townhouses and condo median sales price decreased to $315,000, a 2.2% decrease from October 2023.

The Ocala/Marion County’s October median sale price reported for single-family homes was $290,000, which did not change from last year. Ocala/Marion County reported 667 closings of single-family homes in October, a decrease of 5.9% from October 2023.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton seemed to have no measurable effect on total sales, said Brad O’Connor, senior economist for the Florida Realtors, a statewide agents’ reporting and professional trade association.

“As the month began, parts of the state were still reeling from the impacts of Category Four Hurricane Helene,” O’Connor said. “Helene came ashore at the end of September in the sparsely populated Big Bend area of the Panhandle. But along the way it produced significant storm surge damage well down the Gulf Coast of the peninsula and into Tampa Bay.”

O’Connor said of the rise in mortgage interest rates, “Mortgage interest rates, which had reached their lows for the year in September, began climbing again. In the first week of October, Freddie Mac reported the national average interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage climbed 2/10 of one percentage point from where they were the week prior, up to 6.3% by the end of the month.”

O’Connor went on to say, “All of these significant challenges, however, failed to substantially deepen the Florida housing market’s current sales slump.”

Overall, October activity was down, he stated.

“Home prices were largely unaffected by the hurricanes, which is actually typical. Major hurricane landfalls in Florida tend to affect listing and sales activity in the short run, particularly in the areas most impacted, but they rarely impact home prices. The statewide median sale price for single family homes in October was $420,000, a 1.2% rise compared to a year ago,” he offered.

Single-family market sector
Statewide, single family home sales in October were down 5.6.3% compared to a year ago, with 18,617 total sales reported. The active listing inventory for single-family homes is at 97,832 an increase of 31% over last October.
The association reported the supply of single-family existing homes statewide increased to a 4.7-months’ supply, a 34.3% increase from last October.

“Months’ supply inventory is a useful indicator of market conditions,” the report stated. “The benchmark for a balanced market (favoring neither buyer nor seller) is 5.5 months of inventory. Anything higher is traditionally a buyers’ market, and anything lower is a sellers’ market.”

Statewide, the number of cash sales for single-family homes decreased by 20.2% with a total of 4,880 throughout Florida. These accounted for 26.2% of all sales, just over one-quarter of the overall market.

“Cash sales can be a useful indicator,” the report stated, “of the extent to which investors are participating in the market. Investors are far more likely to have the funds to purchase a home available up front, whereas the typical homebuyer requires a mortgage or some other form of financing.”

Townhomes/condos market sector
Locally, the market area of Ocala/Marion County townhouses and condos median sales prices came in at $220,000, an increase of 24.8% from October 2023. A total of 51 closed sales were reported.

Statewide, townhouses and condos median price was $315,000, a decrease of 2.2% from last October. The active inventory is 61,427, a 52.2% increase from October 2023. Overall, this segment of the real estate market is moving toward less activity.

“Townhouse and condo sales were down more significantly,” O’Connor said, “by nearly 20%, but that was in line with the trend of the prior two months as well. New listings of townhouses and condos, meanwhile, were down about 9.5% compared to a year ago, but are still up 12% for the year. Granted, the rate of new listings coming onto the market was already slowing ahead of the storms, but the year over year declines in October were a sizable jump and very likely related to the unique pattern of events that unfolded throughout the month.”

Existing townhouse and condo properties statewide were at a 7.7-months’ supply, an increase of 37.4% over October of 2023.
For townhomes and condos, the number of cash sales statewide was 3,072 a decrease of 29.1% from October 2023. Those sales represented just over 47% of the total market.