The Future of Florida Home Prices: Predictions and Forecasts
Image source: Unsplash/Ameer Basheer
Planning the perfect time for a home sale can prove challenging no matter where you live in the U.S. If you want to sell a home in Florida, you may wonder whether you should move quickly, take your time, or hold off on the transaction until conditions improve. How can you tell what Florida home prices will do in 2024 and beyond? Let’s examine several key factors that should help you shape your strategy.
Population Growth and Migration Patterns
Florida’s healthy population growth should boost your confidence as a home seller. The Sunshine State has welcomed over one million new residents in the past few years, with the Florida Chamber Foundation predicting an influx of up to 275,000 more in 2024 alone. These new residents will need homes. Those moving in connection with a new career, job relocation, or other major life transition may shop for homes with particular urgency, potentially shortening your property’s time on the market and allowing you to command a higher asking price.
Like many other states, Florida sees a certain number of residents leaving the state from one year to the next. Outward migration has maintained a steady rate of 1.5 percent for many years. However, the annual incoming migration rate over the same period has averaged 3.7 percent, ensuring healthy net growth and an ever-enlarging pool of home buyers.
Housing Supply and General Projections
As in other parts of the U.S., Florida’s housing prices hinge partly on available inventory. Ideally, a real estate market should offer about six months of available homes. By contrast, Florida had just 3.7 months of inventory at the end of 2023. While this number represented an uptick from the beginning of the year, it still means that the state’s supply cannot meet demand. At the same time, high mortgage rates have encouraged many Floridians to remain in their homes instead of selling them and upgrading to something new, further stagnating the available inventory level.
As new arrivals continue to pour into the state and new construction lags behind their need for housing, this combination of factors should help to keep sellers’ prices up. From 2022 to 2023, the median price for single-family homes in Florida rose from $395,000 to $410,000, while the median price for condominiums and townhomes rose from $310,000 to $330,000. The rate of closed sales also went up in 2023. Experts believe these upward trends will continue in 2024, belying concerns about a housing crash like the one that hit the nation in 2008. Until new construction reverses the shortfall in available inventory, you can expect to sell your home for a healthy profit.
The Impact of Technological Advancements
New technologies have already impacted the Florida real estate landscape by streamlining home searches and sales for buyers and sellers alike. This trend should only grow more prevalent in 2024 as these technologies mature and more Floridians adopt them. One significant advancement involves cloud-based platforms for document sharing, which can smooth and speed the closing process. Another advancement involves the use of blockchain technology. Blockchain allows for a secure, transparent peer-to-peer transaction, potentially cutting out financial and marketing bottlenecks so sellers can close their sales faster.
Government Policies and Regulations
Federal interest rates have always influenced the real estate market’s ups and downs. In 2023, 30-year mortgage rates peaked at an average of 7.79 percent before dropping a whole point by the end of the year. If this trend continues throughout 2024, buyers hesitant to commit to a mortgage loan may feel more comfortable shopping for homes at a given asking price. Even if interest rates don’t drop significantly, buyers may grow accustomed to the “new normal” and decide to move ahead anyway, with an eye toward future refinancing if necessary.
Climate Change Considerations
If you own a home on the Florida coast, you may not want to put off the sale of that home indefinitely. According to the Tampa Bay Times, rising sea levels due to climate change will most likely create problems for homeowners in certain parts of South Florida, with flooding causing many homes to lose up to 15 percent of their value. Meanwhile, flood insurance premiums in these areas will only keep rising, adding to your everyday budget burdens. To ensure you get top dollar for your coastal Florida home, put it up for sale before it can lose too much of its value and its attractiveness to buyers.
Is a Fast, Equitable Cash Offer in Your Future?
As the above points demonstrate, home buyers and sellers must keep a sharp eye on future predictions to make wise, informed decisions in Florida’s ever-changing real estate landscape. To make the process as quick and easy as possible, turn to the home-buying experts at Homeinc.
We can perform an in-depth valuation of your property and then either list your home for sale or make you a direct offer as a cash home buyer, eliminating lengthy closing procedures and other common frustrations. Contact us today to learn more and request our services.
