The Housing Market for Summer 2018

Thinking about buying or selling your home but you're not sure what the housing market is doing? Let's dive right into what's going on in the housing market for Summer 2018. More and more people are looking to buy homes as we see growth in the lower end of the market place. Couple things we are seeing; there aren't enough sellers to let those demands, mortgage rates are still on the rise, and higher end buyers have more inventory to choose from. All these things make it an interesting market for both the buyers and sellers. 

Inventory has grown 3.3% yet that doesn't include start homes, according to Trulia. "Starter homes have dropped to their lowest levels since 2012. What's available is expensive." (gordcollins.com)

However, with all this happening, millennials are still hopeful to buy homes. We're seeing quite a lot of construction happening, but not nearly enough to keep up with the demand. Unfortunately, this is part of what is driving the prices. It's the ole supply and demand game. 

For Florida in particular, things are looking up. Florida continues to be one of the strongest housing markets. The economy is strong, and the year-round sunshine still allures snowbirds to want to purchase a home in the Sunshine State. What makes Florida so great is there are lots of different types of homes to choose from, bringing a wide range of buyers to the state. On one end you have your large luxury living homes, and on the other end you have quaint condos, smaller single family homes, townhomes, and duplexes in between. Employment growth is expected to continue to rise which means buyers are willing and able to spend more! 

Even so, Florida has a different buying market than they did years ago. We're looking at millennials who are having families and wanting to buy their first homes, and baby boomers that are looking for a deal. Neither of which are the buyers wanting to or able to spend the $500,000 on homes that Florida once saw. That's why builders creating homes under the $300,000 range are doing so well. 

What does this mean? We're expecting to see an uptick in new construction homes, particularly on the starter-home side of the spectrum, and we don't expect to see a slow down in the flock of snowbirds wanting to own in Florida anytime soon.