The Northeast Florida housing market is beginning to stabilize with several signs that should bring New Year’s cheer to those who are seeking to buy or sell homes in the region this year.
“The local indicators bode well for Northeast Florida’s housing market for both buyers and sellers in our region,” said 2024 NEFAR President Rory Dubin, who took over the reins from 2023 President Diana Galavis during the NEFAR Awards and Installations Gala January 4 at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront Hotel.
Buyers can be happy that Northeast Florida’s affordability index for single-family homes registered at 67, a 6.3% increase from November’s mark of 63, however, looking at the market’s year-over-year affordability, the index registered 8.2% more expensive than December 2022. But one good sign for buyers is the closed over list price of 11.5% is down about 5% both month over month and year over year.
The Home Affordability Index measures housing affordability for the region. In other words, it measures whether a typical family earns enough to qualify for a mortgage on a typical home, based on current interest rates, median income, and median home prices. A higher number means greater affordability. This index measures affordability factors for all homebuyers making a 20% downpayment. An index of 100 is defined as the point where a median-income family has the exact amount of income needed to purchase a median-priced existing home. An index value over 100 means that the family has more than enough income, while a value below 100 means that a family doesn’t have enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan.
Meanwhile, sellers should take heart that the median sales price for single-family homes registered at $384,750 for the region, a slight 1.3% drop from November but still 4% higher than December 2022.
Another plus for both buyers and sellers is that active inventory of single-family homes came in at 5,148 houses, a 15.8% increase over last year, although down 3.6% — approximately 200 homes – from November 2023.
“During the final month of the year, the strengthening market was indicated by a 5% increase in closed sales across Northeast Florida as compared with November,” said Dubin. “Median home prices were slightly down from last month, but up 4% from last December. There are now over 5,100 listings on the market, and more than 2,000 new listings were added, almost 20% more than the increase a year ago, indicating a more balanced market possible for 2024.”
NEFAR’s market reports are available at nefar.com.
