More Palm Beach County homes sold in January than the previous year and at higher prices, but some Realtors said the increases reflect a post-election “Trump bump” and a more challenging market may lie ahead.
Contracts closing in January on existing single-family homes had a median sale price of $650,000. That’s 5.7% higher than the same time in 2024 but down from June’s record price tag of $659,999, according to data released by the Broward, Palm Beaches, and St. Lucie Realtors Group.
The number of homes sold tallied 850, a 5% increase from January 2024. Notably, just 55 homes sold countywide for less than $300,000. Nearly 500 sold for $600,000 or more, including 257 that sold for $1 million or higher.
“There’s really nothing in the area where we focus in the lower price ranges,” said Compass Realtor Keisha Moore, whose listings are mostly south of downtown West Palm Beach east of Dixie Highway. “Millionaires and billionaires are still buying and when I see people putting their money here, I feel like you cannot go wrong.”
Also notable, the inventory of homes available to purchase reached a balanced market for the first time since before the pandemic. There was a 5.5 months supply of homes for sale in January, an increase of 31% compared to the previous year.
Realtors consider a balanced market, where neither the buyer nor seller has the upper hand, to be a supply of 5.5 to 6 months.
But a balanced market doesn’t mean there’s no competition. Moore held an open house on a Tuesday afternoon for a property with a $1.49 million price tag. It wasn’t an ideal time but it was the only time available because the home is used as a short-term rental.
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Still, 10 potential buyers came.
“That’s kind of crazy for a Tuesday,” Moore said. “I was very pleasantly surprised.”
Homes that sold in January typically would have gone under contract in November and December following the contentious presidential election that had some buyers holding off until the dust settled.
The pent-up demand led to more homes going under contract in the weeks following the election, but interest may be waning, said Echo Fine Properties owner Jeff Lichtenstein.
“Every deal is a grind,” Lichtenstein said. “You are just working to try and keep deals together.”
Lichtenstein said he’s had agents whose buyers disappeared after making an offer or bowed out after seeing the homeowner association fees. Homes he calls “problem childs” will have to lower their prices to sell, but even those that have been remodeled need to make adjustments, such as trimming hedges to get a water view.
“There are a lot of tough conversations happening with sellers right now,” he said.
The average sale price last year on a single-family home was $1.4 million in January. That’s a 21% increase from the previous year and at least the 21st time since early 2021 that monthly reports noted average prices topping $1 million. Realtors prefer using the median price because it is less swayed by high-end deals.
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About half of the single-family home buyers in January paid in cash. Moore called the interest rates on mortgages a “prickly” situation.
As of Feb. 27, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.76%, according to Freddie Mac. That’s down from 7.04% in mid-January, but significantly higher than the 3.89% rate from January 2022.
“Economic jitters have pushed down mortgage rates, but it’s unclear for how long,” said Zillow Home Loans senior economist Kara Ng. “If a buyer finds a home that works for their needs and is affordable at today’s interest rates, now may be a good time to act.”
Palm Beach County’s condominium and townhome market clearly gives buyers an upper hand with nearly 10 months supply of inventory available in January, which is a 67% increase from the same time in 2024.
Still, median prices were up 1.5% in January from the previous year to $330,000. The average price was up 20% to $635,713.
Condos and townhomes sat on the market for a median of 62 days before going under contract. That’s a 77% increase from 2024’s 35 days.
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The Realtors group combines condominiums and townhomes into a single category, but some agents said the condo market is also separated by new construction and older units that fall under enhanced safety rules enacted after the 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside.
Lichtenstein is optimistic that the condominium market will climb over the next few years although there may be a pause while buildings sort out repair costs.
“Once they work through it all, I think they will end up becoming really good buys, but that’s probably a couple of years away,” he said. “After that, it could just ricochet up.”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County home sales in January get Trump bump but it may not last
