Miami Real Estate Records 2nd Best Total Sales Year Ever

Miami Condo Annual Sales Finish No. 2 All-Time.

The Real Estate proved its resiliency, robust fundamentals and unending demand in 2022, recording near record sales despite a Fed-infused meteoric rise in mortgage rates. Now that mortgage rates are down 1 percentage point from their October 2022 high, we are seeing more buyers and sellers come off the sidelines. Showings are up and national mortgage purchase applications jumped 25% this week. It could take two months for those deals to reflect in the sales data.

MIAMI Chairman of the Board Ines Hegedus-Garcia

Miami-Dade County real estate registered very good results, according to 2022 year-end and December 2022 statistics released today by the MIAMI Association of Realtors (MIAMI) and the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) systems.

The Miami-Dade County real estate market sold 31,627 total homes (or 86 transactions per day) in 2022. That’s second all-time in Miami-Dade County history, behind only the 39,394 homes sold in 2021.

The Miami condo market played a significant role in the annual total sales figure as Miami had its second-biggest condo sales year ever in 2022. Miami sold 19,377 condos in 2022, second only to the historic 2021 campaign (23,689 condo transactions). Miami registered 12,250 single-family home sales in 2022.

December 2021 sales surged so high because of historic-low mortgage rates and pandemic-fueled homebuying. Mortgage rates averaged nearly 3% in December 2021.

The Fed, which has made multiple hikes to the fed funds rate, is intent on slowing 40-year high inflation. While the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, it affects them through its conduct of monetary policy.

According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage is 6.15% as of January 19. That’s down from 6.33% last week, but up from 3.56% one year ago.

Miami Real Estate’s Strong In-Migration & Other Market Fundamentals

• Homebuyers from high-tax, high-density states continue moving to South Florida. Miami-Dade County out-of-state driver license exchanges remain up double digits for relocating New Yorkers, Californians, New Jerseyans, and more, according to Q3 2022 data from THE Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV).
• Florida is the fastest-growing state for the first time since 1957 (1,142 net new residents per day in 2022 per U.S. Census)
• Global companies continue relocating to Miami, such as Citadel, a multinational hedge fund that manages $57 billion in assets and is developing a $1 billion Miami office tower with plans to have 1,500 employees in 10 years.
• South Florida has one of the strongest job markets in the country, with 2% unemployment– lower than the national figure.
• Miami prices keep rising (11+ consecutive years of price appreciation) unlike many other major markets and homes keep selling fast (35 days on average).
• Global buyers are returning in mass to America’s top international market. Foreign homebuyers purchased $6.8 billion of South Florida residential properties in 2022, up 34% from $5.1 billion in 2021, according to our 2022 MIAMI REALTORS® Global Study
• Miami’s percentage of cash buyers (42.4%) is significantly higher than the national average (28%). Nearly 60% of Miami-Dade luxury buyers pay all cash.
• Distressed sales are statistically insignificant, reflecting a healthy market.
• Demographic shifts (Millennials reaching prime home-buying age and surging senior/retiree population growth)
• Expansion of remote work benefits Miami because if you can work wherever why wouldn’t you want to live in sunny Miami?

Cash buyers are not deterred by rising rates. The high percentage of cash buyers reflects Miami’s top position as the preeminent American real estate market for foreign buyers, who tend to purchase with all cash as well as some moving from more expensive U.S. markets who can buy more with their profits from real estate sales.

Cash sales accounted for 54.6% of all Miami’s existing condo sales and 25.5% of single-family transactions.

Source: Yahoo.com