Now may be the best time to sell your home in our Florida Keys market, and there are five reasons why:
1. Buyer demand is back with a vengeance, both nationally and locally. During the shelter-in-place period, a lot of potential buyers took the opportunity to research homes online. Once the stay-at-home orders were lifted, home sales in May shot up 44.3% month over month. When the Keys reopened for visitors on June 1, we saw even higher buyer demand.
2. Inventory remains low. On a national scale, inventory in June was down 27% year over year. Here in the Keys, inventory dropped 12.2% year over year. When supply goes down, demand goes up.
“The shelter-in-place period redefined what buyers want in a house.”
3. Prices are rising. In June, prices rose 5.9% year over year from $619,00 to $650,000. Nationally, they rose 7.7%.
4. Mortgage rates are extremely low. As of August 10, interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage from Freddie Mac were just 2.88%. These historically low rates are encouraging those who’ve been thinking about buying to make their move now because they’ll have fewer payments going toward their interest and more toward their principal. This also increases their spending power.
5. Homebuyers’ needs have changed. Some are looking to upgrade, while others are looking for their first or second home. In any case, the shelter-in-place period redefined what buyers want in a house. A lot of people are still working from home, and their kids are going to school virtually for the first few months of the school year, which means they want more space for home offices and schoolwork areas. They also want bigger backyards. On top of that, destinations have changed; demand is high in our marketplace, for instance, because we’re a tropical retreat area that you can drive to instead of flying.
If you’d like to start the home buying process or have any real estate questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m here to help.
