The Broward County / Greater Fort Lauderdale real estate market saw a surge in new condo/townhouse listings at the beginning of the year and saw them taper-off in February.

In December, there were 6,031 condo/townhouse units listed for sale, jumping to 6,407 in January and dropped slightly to 6,329 units listed for sale on the market in February.  The average sale price dipped slightly in February to $138,891 down from $150,364 in January as seen in the the chart below.

It still looks like the REO/Foreclosure and short sales are each only comprising about 17% of all closed transactions in February, while the traditional sales are 65% of all closed sales in February.  As we progress through 2013, the distressed sales will begin to make up a larger percentage of transactions and will limit price increases going forward.  Remember that foreclosures were halted in October of 2010 due to the robo-signing litigation and that was finally settled in April 2012 with the national mortgage settlement.  Banks are encouraging short sales and leaving foreclosure as the final option if all else fails.  However, short sales still sell at a discount to the market and will continue to exert downward pressure on prices in the South Florida condo/townhouse market.