Our real estate market is like a flowing river. It is always moving. It has it’s faster moving sections, its stagnant areas, and some twists and turns. Some of the changes are subtle and can go unnoticed for some time. Some changes have an immediate effect. There are always some type changes happening. This is why I am always looking at the numbers in our real estate market. What is our active inventory? Is it growing, about the same or getting low? How many new properties came on the market? How many went under contract? How many closed this month? Where is our monthly supply at? What is the average days on market for these sales? What is happening with the REO/foreclosures? How are they being purchased? Cash? Conventional, VA or FHA financing? These are some of the questions I try to answer every month.
So what happened in April? The April numbers show that our real estate market is still very active. Over 1800 new properties came on the market, over 1300 properties went under contract, and we closed 1,275. Our active inventory has a slight increase over last month at 3,384 properties for sale. This puts our stats at a 2.65 month supply of property for sale with an absorption rate of over 37%. Standard/traditional sales (1,226 closings) make up a bulk of the transactions and 70% of our sales were financed in some fashion (Conventional, FHA or VA loans)
I believe the activity we are having in the Brevard County real estate market is good but there are 2 numbers I am a little concerned with. The first is our inventory. The inventory jumped from the 3100 level from 2017 to almost 3400 in the first few months of 2018. Our new homes on the market are also increasing. Our January through April numbers from 2017 to 2018 show we have had an increase of new property coming onto the market by over 7% without an increase in closed property. Yes, homes are still selling. So far year to date we have sold over 4400 properties compared to 4300 the same time period. This is a 3% increase. However, if the new inventory continues to grow, it could be one of the indicators our market could be changing. The sky isn’t falling, just keeping an eye on things here in our Cocoa Beach area real estate market.
So where are the sales happening? Here is a break down of our sales by city/area from January through April. No surprise to me that Palm Bay has the lion’s share of closings. They are the largest city in the county and twelfth largest city in the state. There have been over 900 closings the first 4 months of the year in Palm Bay. Our second largest city is Melbourne and they had the second most closings at over 550. The Suntree & Viera area had 485 sales. The south beaches (Satellite Beach south through Melbourne Beach) 473. Titusville to the north border of Brevard had 437 sales. The city of Cocoa (including PSJ and Canaveral Groves) had 353 closings. Cocoa Beach & Cape Canaveral had 318 closings. Merritt Island had an even 300. West Melbourne 217 and Rockledge had 133. All of the sales information is from our local MLS. A private sale and a lot of the new construction are not included in this information.
If you are planning on buying a house, don’t let any of this information be a deterrent. Be happy there should be a little more of a selection for you to choose from. If you are planning on selling your home, realize that a little more inventory for a buyer gives them a little more leverage than what they had this time last year. Since there are a few more homes coming on the market, you will need to make certain more than ever that your home is in great shape and priced accordingly so that your home will sell in the time frame that you want it to happen in.
What is for sale in Brevard County? CLICK HERE
What is your home worth? CLICK HERE
Curious about what is happening in the rental market in the Brevard County area? I break down the numbers in this blog post. This could be a good time to increase your rental portfolio.
https://cocoabeachinsider.com/2018/04/26/why-are-rent-prices-so-high/
About the author:
Eric Larkin is a Broker Associate with REMAX Solutions. He lives, works, and plays in the Cocoa Beach area. Eric has been helping buyers and sellers with their real estate needs since becoming a real estate agent in 2003. His focus is always on helping, answering your questions, and doing everything possible to make certain you have a smooth transaction from beginning to end.
What questions do you have about buying or selling a home? CLICK HERE to ask
Search for properties
Cocoa Beach Cape Canaveral Merritt Island Satellite Beach Indialantic
Melbourne Beach Melbourne Rockledge Palm Bay
Social Media
Connect with Eric Larkin on Social Media
Facebook Instagram Twitter
YouTube LinkedIn Snapchat
Cocoa Beach Insider 