The month of November showed yet another month of inventory declining in the Greater Fort Lauderdale condo market.

The condo/townhouse inventory listed for sale in has dropped to only 3,543 units available for sale in November, down from 8,985 units available for sale in January 2010.  That is over a 60% drop in available properties for sale.

One of the main reasons is that the flow of distressed properties came to a screeching halt back in 2010 with the robo-signing scandal.  You will notice from the chart below that in May 2010 distressed properties listed for sale were 48% of listed properties and now only 15% in November 2012.

After foreclosures were halted in October 2010, you will notice a spike of distressed property closed transactions in early 2011, then they continued to slide month over month.

The lack of available inventory has resulted in a slight uptick in the average selling price of condo/townhouse properties after making a short-term dip in August.  The average selling price in August slid to $130,192 and has rebounded to 150,481 in November.  This number will most likely fluctuate as distressed properties are listed for sale and drag prices down.

As far as a rebound, 2013 will not be the year.  New foreclosure filings in Broward County, Florida remain elevated, along with the level of condo/townhouse properties that are currently in foreclosure, but not yet listed for sale.

You will notice from the chart above that the trend of new foreclosure filings on condo/townhouse properties in Broward County, Florida does not appear to be slowing anytime soon.  In actuality, it looks like it is picking-up steam to make 2013 a big year for foreclosure filings in the Fort Lauderdale market.  Finally, for a look at exactly where all of the foreclosures are located, the chart below breaks down the 12.576 condo/townhouse properties that were in foreclosure as of 11/19/12 by city.

As you will notice, there are several cities in Broward County that have over 1,00o condo/townhouse properties currently in foreclosure.  Also keep in mind that the number of new foreclosure filings is growing faster than distressed properties are being sold by banks through short sale or REO transactions.  In summary, there will be plenty of distressed properties in the pipeline and these sales will continue to apply downward pressure on prices in the Broward County/ Fort Lauderdale area condo and townhouse market.