Miami's June home sales fell 4.8% from May — diverging from the normal boost in summer sales — though domestic and international demand still remained high enough to push sales up 2.5% year-over-year to the highest level for a June in five years, according to a report from DataQuick.
Miami's new-home sales were the lowest on record for June, at 75.7% below average.
In June, 10,105 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties.
If newly built homes are excluded from the sales mix, however, then the number of houses and condos that closed in June was only 6% below the historical average for the month, as resale condos were nearly 19% above average and resale houses were about 23% below average.
Sales fell 9.4% for homes priced under $100,000, and fell 2.9% for homes below $200,000. Homes in the higher end of the market faired better, with sales between $250,000 and $450,000 posting a 24.9% annual sales gain in June, and sales between $500,000 and $800,000 were up 37.55%. Sales above $800,000 rose 6.9% from the same month last year.
According to DataQuick, the increased affordability from ultra-low mortgage rates and lower prices have spurred more demand in the mid- to higher-end markets this year. In the lower price ranges, demand among first-time buyers, investors and vacation-home buyers has been robust and has depleted the supply of homes on the market to the point where it has limited sales volume.
The median sale price in Miami hit a two-year high, rising year-over-year for the sixth consecutive month due to a continuing decline in sales of lower-priced homes and a steep rise in mid- to high-end deals.
For the market overall, the median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the month was $150,000 — the highest median month for any month since June 2010, when the median was also $150,000. The June median rose 3.6% from May, and rose 11.1% from a year earlier.
The resale condo median rose 16.7% year-over-year in June, the ninth consecutive month in which that price measure posted an annual gain. The median price for a resale single-family detached houses rose 6.3% in June — the fifth month in a row with a year-over-year increase.
Absentee buyers, including investors and vacation-home buyers, were still a major part of the market. Absentee buyers purchased 40% of all homes sold in Miami in June, down from 41.8% from May and down 42.6% from a year earlier.
Cash buyers in the area purchased 63% of the homes sold in June, down 65.4% from the month before and 64.2% from a year ago.
Meanwhile, use of a form of low-down payment financing that's popular with first-time homebuyers – government-insured FHA loans – fell to 32.8% of all home purchase loans in June. It was the lowest FHA level since November 2008, when it was 32.7%. June's FHA level was down from 34.4% the month before and down from 39.5% a year earlier.
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