Closed Sales
Closed sales for the 12-month period ending July 31, 2022 were down 23.2% from the preceding 12-months, from 42,071 to 32,295. The 1,911 sales posted for the month of July were down 38.7% when compared to July of 2021, a time when the market was still posting a record-breaking sales pace.
Listing Inventory / New Listings
As of July 31, 5,552 properties were available, up 112.9% from a year prior and up 4% from the prior month. New listings for the 12-month period ending July 31, 2022 were down 6.2% from the preceding 12-months, from 39,158 to 36,714. For the month of July, new listings were down 5.3% from July of 2021. 2.06 months of supply was posted as of July 31, 2022, keeping the market well into a sellers’ market territory. In Southwest Florida, 6 to 12 months of supply is generally considered a balanced market.
Average Selling Price
The average selling price for the 12-month period through July 31, 2022 was $730,978, up 21% from the preceding 12-month period when the average selling price was $604,220.
Summary
After two years of unprecedented sales activity, simply returning to a more normal pace can create an illusion that sales are struggling. Although sales have slowed down considerably from the all-time records that were created over the past two years, homes are still going under contract at a steady pace not far from pre-pandemic levels. The market has not suddenly stalled as headlines might lead one to think. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, buyer activity peaked in late 2020 into early 2021. After a generally gradual descent from that peak, newly pending sales have leveled out and they continue at a steady pace not far from pre-pandemic levels. This has allowed listing inventory to grow, providing buyers more options and reducing competition for properties. However, the rate at which listing inventory had been increasing has slowed, with only a 4% month-over-month increase in July. With this in mind, buyers waiting for an inventory surplus to emerge might consider whether waiting for the unknown is worth risking missing out on currently available homes that could be the right fit. With more listings for buyers to choose from, and with less competition between buyers, sellers will have to take this into consideration when pricing their homes and entertaining offers. This is not to say that it’s not a good time to sell; it is a good time to sell, but expectations for a seller are not the same as they were earlier in the year. Properly positioned homes can still sell for a good price in a reasonable amount of time, but a seller who has priced their home well above recent closed sales may have to reduce, and even when priced correctly it may take longer to sell than homes that closed even just a few months ago. Average days on market for closed sales in July was 21 days, up from a low of 15 days in April. The average for currently pending sales is 36 days; still low compared to the pre-pandemic average of 93 days.
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