Broward Condo Sales Drop 12% In Winter Buying Season To Great Recession Levels
A review of the Broward County condo statistics shows less than 4,950 units traded between November 2023 and April 2024.
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This was the worst Winter Buying Season for Broward County condo resales since the Great Recession, according to an analysis of statistics compiled by CondoVulturesRealty.com.
The Winter Buying Season traditionally extends from November through April when visitors flock to South Florida to take advantage of the weather, events and vibe.
Tourists may have come to South Florida and specially Broward County this Winter Buying Season but they were not purchasing condos at the same pace as previous seasons.
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Buyers purchased less than 4,950 condos in Broward County between November 2023 and April 2024. By comparison, buyers bought nearly 5,600 condos in the 2022-23 season. That is nearly a 12-percent drop in total transactions.
This is the second consecutive year that condo resales were down from the recent peak of the 2021-22 Winter Buying Season when nearly 8,585 units traded.
It is worth noting, the last time so few condos traded during a Broward County Winter Buying Season was the 2008-09 season when less than 4,050 units transacted.
Many industry watchers consider the September 2008 bankruptcy filing of the former Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers as the “climax of the subprime mortgage crisis” and the resulting Great Recession, according to Wikipedia.
For context, nearly 7,075 condos transacted during the 2009-10 South Florida Winter Buying Season. A year later in the 2010-11 season, nearly 7,525 condos traded as prices were slashed.
This is an about-face from the pandemic years when a plethora of work-from-home employees relocated to South Florida from places such as California, Illinois and New York.
The influx of transplants to South Florida bought up or leased out much of the available housing supply, which increased prices and triggered new development.
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Rising property values from strong demand, skyrocketing insurance prices following the Surfside condo collapse disaster and high interest rates from a series of hikes by the Federal Reserve brought the South Florida housing market to a standstill in the second half of 2023.
Added to this, Florida unit owners are beginning to experience the headwinds - spiking special assessments and falling prices from sellers trying to unload their properties - from the 2025 condo association financial cliff.
In response to the Surfside condo collapse in 2021, Florida is set to require associations that govern older condo projects to study the structural integrity of all buildings on their properties and begin to fund the necessary work in January 2025.
Industry watchers are at odds as to the direction of the South Florida housing market in 2024. Bullish investors are predicting housing demand will reignite once interest rates begin to fall. Bearish investors contend that home prices are too high and likely to collapse in the months ahead.