When it comes to the Northeast Florida housing market, February’s looked more like the spring buying season than winter. Closed sales were up, median sales price was up, and the list prices received were up – more typical of the spring shopping season than the tail end of winter. Coupled with the highest levels of inventory in many years, buyers have a lot more choices while sellers are still getting good offers.
Specifically, the region’s median sales price came in at $385,000 in February, 2.8% more than the previous month. Closed sales climbed 31% to 1,491, and new listings escalated to 3,359, a 23% increase. List price received inched up .2% to 97% and closed over list price was 10.8%, which is 2% more than the month before. Active inventory rose 22.2% to 6,204 homes, and houses did not linger, with the days on the market falling 31% to a median of 35 days.
“As anticipated the market strengthened considerably in February from the holiday lull, with a sharp increase in the median price for Duval County of almost 9% and almost 3% for the total metro area from January,” said 2024 NEFAR President Rory Dubin. “In fact, despite the median increase in price, Northeast Florida experienced a 30% increase in closings over last month. New listings were up over 20% from January as was inventory. All of this points to rebounding market, in part due to the cuts in the interest rates. Northeast Florida remains an attractive destination for families, retirees, investors, and corporate relocations as well as commercial properties due to our unmatched infrastructure that includes an international port and airport, railway system, and excellent roads.”
With the market revving up this spring, Northeast Florida still is less affordable for some buyers than it used to be. The Home Affordability Index registered 68, a nearly 3% drop from January, which was indicative of slightly higher home prices.
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.
NEFAR’s market reports are available at nefar.com.
