There’s a situation brewing in the South Florida condo market.  If you plan to list your Fort Lauderdale area condo in the coming months, it sure looks like you will have plenty of company.  You might not have that many buyers, but plenty of company when it comes to other sellers.  During the month of April there were 8,712 condo properties listed for sale across Broward County.  That’s the highest level of existing inventory in the area since March of 2019 when there were  8.793 condos on the market.

The recent surge in South Florida condo inventory comes as maintenance and insurance costs continue to skyrocket.  This problem seems to be impacting older buildings the most, as they struggle to get in compliance with new state regulations on building safety and reserve requirements.  Aside from that, insurance companies simply don’t want to underwrite the risk of these older properties.

Prices have been holding-up (for now), with the average sale price of a condo at $370,189.  As supply continues to hit the market over the summer, selling prices will begin to soften.   By looking at the above chart, you will see that March 2022 appears to be the high for this cycle with an average sale price of $405,770.

There was a nice bump in transaction volume over the last few months after the low in January, but this probably won’t last. During the month of April, there were 1,196 single-family home sales and 1,342 condo sales for a total of 2,538 transactions.  The next chart shows the average monthly transaction volume in Broward County.  The outlier is 2021 when the average monthly sales reached a whopping 3,369 houses and condos.  Four months into 2024 we are at an average of 2,050 closed sales, representing a 39% drop from 2021.  If people bought a property during the pandemic housing boom, what are the chances they have a loan that is underwater?

This real estate market outlook covers real estate activity in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County, Florida.  Here are just a few of the cities in each of these three markets:

• Miami-Dade – Aventura, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, Hialeah, Sunny Isles Beach, North Miami, Homestead, Doral, Miami Lakes, Downtown Miami, Brickell and Key Biscayne.

• Broward – Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, Hallandale, Weston, Parkland, Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Plantation, Cooper City, Davie, Coral Springs, Sea Ranch Lakes, Lauderdale by the Sea and Lighthouse Point.

• Palm Beach – Delray Beach, Highland Beach, Jupiter, Palm Beach Island, Boynton Beach, Boca Raton, Highland Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach, Wellington and Lake Worth.