The pace of distressed property sales across South Florida has remained slow for the past few years and their median sale price has remained in an uptrend. Today we will take a look at the median sale prices of houses and condos in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

South Florida houses – median sale price by transaction type

• In December the median sale price of traditional property sale in South Florida was $379,900, up 7% from December 2018.
• The median sale price of a bank-owned (REO) was $310,000, up 13% from $275,000 last year.
• The median sale price of a short-sale was $267,500, up 11% from $240,000 last year.

South Florida condos – median sale price by transaction type

• In December the median sale price of a traditional condo sale in South Florida was $210,000, up 8% from $193,500 in December 2018.
• The median sale price of a condo REO was $165,650 in December, up 25% from $143,250 last year.
• The median sale price of a condo short-sale was $190,000, up 18% from $160,000 last year.

South Florida new foreclosure filings and distressed property sales

This chart above shows how the number of REO and short-sale transactions has remained low for the past few years, the pace of new foreclosure filings may be set to climb again.   Housing affordability remains a serious problem across the country, not just here in South Florida.  This next chart shows a spike in new foreclosure filings in Miami during the month of December.

Have low mortgage rates fueled another housing bubble?

Take a look at this last chart today and you will see how mortgage rates have dropped again.  There can be some negative consequences to keeping rates so low for so long.  Real estate prices get inflated and most people have to stretch their budget and assume too much debt to make a real estate purchase.  What’s crazy is that these rates a crisis levels for a decade is hurting the people they were supposed to help.  Furthermore, rates this low are certainly not indicative of a strong economy.  Right now it looks more like a recession is around the corner.