Douglas Elliman in conjunction with Miller Samuel, a leading independent appraisal firm, has just released its May 2020 New Signed Contracts Report, which reveals that the number of newly signed contracts across property types in Florida was at a high last month, despite there being lower levels of new listing inventory coming online. The Florida report includes the five counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Hillsborough, focusing on the new contracts signed and new listings that entered the Florida Market during the entire month. The regions are broken up by two property types: single family and condo, as well as county, borough, or area. New contracts and new listings for each property type have been broken out by eight price tranches depending on regional pricing, on a year to year basis. Douglas Elliman will be producing a monthly recurring report similar to this one during the first week of each month to cover the prior month’s number of new contracts signed and new listings to provide a data-driven picture of the rapidly changing market.

Palm Beach County

Overview:

• Despite lower levels of new listing inventory coming online, the number of new signed contracts across property types pressed higher

Key Trend Metrics (Year to Year)

Single Family:

• Number of new signed contracts for homes jumped 27.7% to 3,444 contracts 

• Listing inventory dropped 37.9% to 1,381 units

• There was a 49.3% decline in the number of new listings for homes priced below $200K

Condo: 

• Number of new signed contracts for condos increased by 16.6% to 2,033 contracts

• Listing inventory declined 28.7% to 906 units

• 111 condos priced above $1M went into contract, a 40.5% increase from the number of condos that went into contract in May 2019

Broward County

Overview: 

• There was a larger rise in overall single family new signed contracts than for overall condo new signed contracts

Key Trend Metrics (Year to Year)

Single Family:

• Number of new signed contracts rose 33.4% to 3,499 contracts

• Listing inventory slipped 42.3% to 1,389 units

• Listing inventory dropped by 66.4% for homes priced below $200K to 48 units

Condo:

• Number of new signed contracts increased by 19.2% to 2,491 contracts

• Listing inventory dropped 35.1% to 1,108 units 

• 89 condos priced at or above $1M went into contract, a 50.8% increase from last year  

Miami-Dade County

Overview:

• Despite the significant drop in single family and condo new listings during the spring, a noticeable uptick began in May

Key Trend Metrics (Year to Year)

Single Family:

• Number of new signed contracts rose 36.2% to 3,284 contracts

• Listing inventory declined 40.7% to 1,232 units

• Listing inventory for homes priced below $200K saw a 60.6% decline

Condo:

• Number of new signed contracts edged up 4.1% to 3,058 contracts

• Listing inventory dropped 42.6% to 1,386 units

• There were 91 new listings for condos priced between $600K to $799K, a 52.4% drop from last year’s 191 new listings for similarly priced condos  

Pinellas County

Overview:

• Along with the atypical drop in new listings introduced to the market this spring, new contract signings surged for both single families and condos

Key Trend Metrics (Year to Year)

Single Family:

• Number of new signed contracts surged 45.3% to 2,519 contracts

• Listing inventory decreased by 33.4% to 974 units

• Homes priced at or above $1M saw a 100.0% surge in the number of new signed contracts for a total of 132

Condo:

• Number of new signed contracts rose 32.3% to 1,143 contracts

• Listing inventory fell 34.9% to 443 units

• 25 condos priced between $800K to $999K went into contract, a 108.3% increase from last year

Hillsborough County

Overview:

• There was a significant surge in new signed contracts for both single family and condo properties as listing inventory remained slow to enter the spring market

Key Metrics (Year to Year)

Single Family:

• Number of new signed contracts increased by 66.6% to 4,266 contracts

• Listing inventory slipped 37.5% to 1,594 units 

• 200 homes priced between $600K to $799K went into contract, a jump of 124.7% from last year 

Condo: 

• Number of new signed contracts rose 53.2% to 521 contracts

• Listing inventory fell 25.0% to 216 units

• There was a 425.0% rise in homes priced at or above $1M that went into contract

By Isabella Zimmermann