Monday, March 23, 2015 / by Doug Leugers
Let's look at the latest numbers for the Southwest Florida Real Estate market..
Today we are excited to share our year-end market update for 2014. It was a great year, and these statistics indicate that 2015 will be another great year as well. We had significant home appreciation this last year across the board, and people are continuing to move to SW Florida in huge numbers.When more people move here, that creates demand, and demand raises home prices. Now let's get into the numbers.
Let's start with inventory. The measure of "months of inventory" simply answers the question, "How long would it take to sell all the homes on the market, if no new properties were listed?" After having around 8 months of inventory throughout 2013, we saw a decrease to around 6 months in 2014. This is a good number, as anywhere from 4-6 months of inventory is usually considered a "healthy market."
One thing that helps us predict future sales is the amount of foot traffic that homes are getting. The higher the foot traffic, the higher the number of sales. We saw greatly increased foot traffic in 2014, which points to a future increase in sales.
You may be wondering what the best month to sell your home is. From the looks of our data, there is a huge spike in listings in January, February and March.
The next thing we want to talk about is home appreciation. In just the last year, we are seeing homes in SW Florida appreciate by over 10%! Even further proof that now is a great time to own a home in SW Florida.
Finally, let's talk about mortgage rates. All the major mortgage experts (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, NAR, MBA) suggest that rates will steadily increase in the next year, and spike in the 4th quarter.
With that being said, now is a great time to buy or sell in SW Florida. If you have any questions for us, be sure to reach out. We would be glad to answer them for you.