When I started taking a look at second quarter sales of single family homes in various neighborhoods in and near Wilton Manors, I thought the findings were of sufficient interest to take a break from resiliency and share some of the data with you.
In 2Q18, according to MLS data, there were 52 single family homes sold in the Island City. That compares with 68 homes sold in the second quarter last year – in other words, sales dropped by 24 percent year-over-year. That’s a pretty serious decline, I think you would agree.
The main driver of the decrease was a 44-percent drop in sales in Center Wilton. The other two neighborhoods also had declines.
(As always, I’m looking just at single family homes. Condos and townhouses excluded.)
Then consider the results from other nearby neighborhoods. Generally speaking, sales were flat to down compared with the same period last year. Declines in South Middle River, Middle River Terrace, and Lake Ridge were comparable to WilMa’s. Bucking the trend was Oakland Park Corals, with a 19-percent increase relative to 2Q17.
Given these facts, in my next column I will take a closer look at pricing, as that will be my last review of the numbers before issuing the 2018 Yearbook sometime in late October. Through the first quarter this year, prices had been on a significant upward trend.
It would certainly be interesting if prices bucked the trend on sales counts and were continuing to increase, especially if we haven’t seen a drop in inventory. Increased prices should be bringing more homes onto the market, and thus generating more sales volume relative to prior periods.
I’m not going to say it’s raining. But I see quite a few dark clouds around.
by 