Breaking: Palm Beach County home prices hit record high with average topping $1 million, again
Sale prices on existing single-family homes in Palm Beach County soared to another record high last month despite economic challenges including dogged interest rates and steep insurance costs.
At $650,000, April’s median sale price was 11% higher than the same time last year and $10,000 more than the previous record set in March.
The numbers, released Wednesday by the Broward, Palm Beaches, and St. Lucie Realtors Group, come as inventory increases to a 4.4 months’ supply. While that’s below the 5.5 to six months’ that is considered a balanced market, it’s a 42% hike from April 2023.
Average sale prices on single-family homes hit $1.17 million in April. That’s a 15% increase over last year and at least the 14th time since early 2021 that monthly reports noted average prices topping $1 million.
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Realtors prefer to use the median price as a measuring stick because it isn't as easily skewed by jumbo sales as the average price. The median is the midpoint where half of the properties sell for less and half for more.
Florida Atlantic University housing economist Ken H. Johnson cautioned last month that continued increases could lead to a lengthy plateau in sale prices instead of a more traditional incremental gain.
According to an FAU housing market report released in April, homes in South Florida, which includes Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, are 34.7% overvalued compared to their long-term pricing trends. The data, gathered in late March, was an increase of 0.15% from the previous month.
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“It bothers me that home prices continue to increase despite slowing rents and rising mortgage rates,” Johnson said in a statement last month. “While I do not anticipate a major crash, the area could be in for a prolonged period of home price stagnation.”
The FAU report showed prices in other areas of Florida are cooling slightly, including in Cape Coral, which was down 0.63%, North Port (down 0.48%), and Deltona (down 0.32%).
“Price growth should be tepid,” Johnson said. “But South Florida prices continue to rise despite market forces.”
As of May 16, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage interest rate was 7.09%, according to Freddie Mac. While that is a small decrease from earlier in the month, it’s up from the 5.3% from the same time in 2022.
Bankrate, which surveys the country's largest lenders, said mortgage interest rates for a 30-year fixed loan hit 7.02% this week.
Florida homeowners also grapple with high insurance costs. Sunshine State homeowners pay an average property insurance premium of $6,000, which is more than triple the nationwide average, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
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The higher sale prices on single-family homes last month didn’t dampen the number of transactions with 1,402 deals closed. That was up 11% from April 2023.
Palm Beach County's townhome and condominium buyers gained a slight upper hand in April with 6.9 months of inventory available. That's a whopping 82% increase over the same time last year.
Still, the median sale price on a condominium and townhome was up 12% from the previous year to $340,000. The average sale price was up 9% to $597,275.
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: The average and median prices for Palm Beach County homes keep rising
