Florida’s housing market continues to steadily increase, making its ways back to normal trends as it reports rising median prices and increased inventory, the latest Florida Association of Realtors July report said.
Closed sales in single-family homes reached 22,099 in July, up 5% from a year ago.
Furthermore, median sales price for single-family existing homes increased 3.6% from the previous year to $185,000.
"Florida's housing market continued its steady pace in July," said 2014 Florida Realtors President Sherri Meadows. "Median sales prices rose year-over-year for both single-family homes and townhouse-condo properties in July – marking 32 months in row for higher median prices. Statewide, inventory (active listings) for single-family homes last month rose 17.5% year-over-year.”
Inventory averaged a 5.5-month supply in July for single-family homes and a 5.7-month supply for townhouse-condo properties.
"The July numbers look very much like June's when each is compared to the prior year. This tends to verify our preliminary view that the market is settling into a stable pattern,” Florida Realtors Chief Economist John Tuccillo said.
“I'm asked a great many times about the 'new normal,' meaning how the Great Recession changed the housing market. We are now beginning to see that the 'new normal' is really the 'old normal' with statistical patterns reminiscent of the market that prevailed prior to the frantic run-up of prices,” Tuccillo added.
But this is not the only thing Florida gets to celebrate. Nearly 17,000 Floridians will receive an access of $1 billion in relief from the Bank of America (BAC) record settlement with the Department of Justice, which is almost 14% of the total $7 billion that was allotted to consumer relief, according to the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
"Our office worked closely with Bank of America to ensure that Florida homeowners would be treated fairly in any settlement, and I’m pleased that Floridians will be receiving one-seventh of the overall consumer relief," Bondi said.
