Gimme Shelter is such a great song by  The Rolling Stones and is apropos to the current housing affordability crisis globally.  The recent parabolic moves in rents and housing costs have priced so many people out of the market.  Today we will look at a few charts from the Fort Lauderdale area. By looking at this first chart, you will notice that the prices for single-family homes in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area appear to have peaked in June.  The average sale price for a house reached a whopping $719,293 in June, but has declined 7% since then to $665,800 in September.  Yes, it sure looks like the top is finally in and real estate prices will moderate going forward.  Condo prices peaked in June as well, reaching and average sale price of $307,951.  Since then, they have declined 8% to $283,241.

Real estate transaction volume in the Fort Lauderdale area

What’s next?  This next chart shows how transaction volume has fallen off a cliff from the highs.  This chart

Gimme Shelter!  Residential inventory is very low.

Gimme shelter! One of the contributing factors to fewer real estate transactions is that inventory is still very low.  During the month of September there were only 2,323 houses and 3,712 condos on the market.  The supply of houses looks like it has been hovering around these levels for a few months and maybe has stabilized, albeit at a very low number.

Foreclosure filings in South Florida

Foreclosures are getting ready to resume.  Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale area don’t have much activity right now, but the Miami foreclosure filings have jumped since the foreclosure moratorium was lifted.  Don’t expect the distresses properties to hit the market anytime soon.  South Floridians have mastered the art of dragging foreclosure process out for years!  Between the various government moratoriums and other schemes by borrowers, some loans from the last housing crash spent over a decade in court.  If you are interested in the tri-county area prices, inventory and transaction volume, here is our latest update.