Brevard homes sales, prices decline
Sept. totals worse than expected
BY WAYNE T. PRICE
FLORIDA TODAY Home resales continued to slide in Brevard County and across the nation.
On Wednesday, the Florida Association of Realtors released September's housing figures that showed:
Single-family homes sales dropped 41 percent to 304 from 514 a year earlier. In August, there were 430 sales.
The median sales price -- the point at which half the homes sell for less, half for more -- declined 8 percent, to $189,700 from $206,200 a year earlier. In August, the median selling price was $202,800.
Condominium sales fell
41 percent over the year, to 66 from 112, while the median sales price declined 21 percent in that time period, to $176,700 from $223,300. In August, there were 114 sales and the median selling price was $188,600.
Brevard's housing situation is not an isolated case.
Statewide, existing-home sales fell 38 percent in September over the year, the state Realtors group said, while the median price dropped 9 percent to $221,200 from $243,300.
The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes and apartments fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of
5.04 million units in September from 5.48 million in August. The drop was worse than expected.
Most economists had only expected sales to decline to around 5.25 million. Stripping out apartment sales, sales fell to their lowest level since January 1998.
Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors, said the decline is understandable.
"Mortgage problems were peaking back in August, when many of the September closings were being negotiated, and that slowed sales notably in higher-priced areas that rely more on jumbo loans," Yun said.