Palm Beach Gardens Median Home Price Hits 10 Month High

May is flying by so quickly and the buzz in local real estate offices grows louder every day. Everyone is slammed and there just never seems to be enough hours in the day to handle the load. Remarkable is the best way to describe where the market seems to be going and almost every sign shows that overall prices have bottomed and finally after 6 years are back on the rise.

Each month in this column we bring you a recap of the previous months sales levels and much like the national trend the upswing continues to grasp the market. Nationally, home prices have dropped 34% from the highs experienced in 2006 and interest rates keep dropping to new record lows. A tremendous combination that has made homes more affordable than we have seen in decades. Even with inventory levels that continue to shrink sales have been tremendous across the board. Certain market segments are not seeing as robust of a recovery and still there are going to be bumps in the road ahead but right now things are rosy indeed. Especially in the investment and single family home markets it would be hard to imagine times being better. Buyers must be working with a Realtor who can quickly get them in front of new opportunities and present offers that have the best chance of getting accepted or risk missing out on the best deals.

Let’ take a look at April sales;

    #1 North Palm Beach - 

    #2 Juno Beach -
    #3 Palm Beach Gardens - up 36%
    #4 Jupiter - up 19%
    #5 Hobe Sound - up 9%
    #6 Tequesta - down 25%

OK we did start off a bit weak in Tequesta but median increase over March sales in the region was 27% and the average an even stronger 38%. This is the second straight month we have seen these types of numbers and there is no doubt the spring buying season of 2012 has been very robust in northern Palm Beach County.

With a big 36% increase April’s 3rd place finisher were single family home sales in Palm Beach Gardens. Last months sales level was the highest we have seen in years and another sign that home prices may be heading higher at last. During April a total of 94 Palm Beach Gardens single family homes changed hands compared with 69 during the previous month. With this performance we jump far ahead of the 12 month average which stands at 69 and also well above the 2011 pace when 84 homes sold in April.



While sales increased they were evenly spread across the board with sales in every price category. The uber-luxury market is showing signs of recovery with 14% of all Palm Beach Gardens sales above $1,000,000. Homes that sold for up to $500,000 remain the strongest with 68% of the market and this is where we are seeing the shortage of quality inventory. The chart below shows the percentage of sales by price category for the month of April.



With a balance of sales across all pricing categories we would expect a solid performance in the median sales price last month, In fact, in April the median sales price for single family Palm Beach Gardens homes moved higher to $390,000 well ahead of the $343,000 we saw in March. With this showing we set a new 10 month high, well above the 12-month average of $338,208 and also ahead of  the median price from April 2011 which stood at $374,000. Inventory, or lack thereof, remains the biggest driver in Palm Beach Gardens and sellers continue to hold out for higher prices so it is a very interesting market to watch. The chart below shows median prices on a monthly basis over the previous 12 month period.

Keep tuned next month to see where things go from here.......