Southwest Florida Market Perspective: Due to an unusually slow pace of newly pended sales in December, closings for January were down 18% compared to the same period in 2023, and 12-month rolling closed sales through January 31 were down 10.5% from the preceding 12 months. January's year-over-year pending sales trends fared better than those for December, however, which is encouraging, particularly for the $1M and up price segment which posted a 4% year-over-year gain for the month. New listings for January were up 32% year-over-year which may seem concerning; however, January's pace was not unusual when compared to longer-term trends. A similar pattern held true for new listings on a 12-month rolling basis, where new listings through January 31 were up 7.4%, but were down when compared to all but 3 of the past 10 years. Listing inventory has been on the mend since the pandemic driven buyer surge brought it to all-time lows in early 2022. As of January, 2024, 12,558 units were actively listed in MLS, still below the count of 13,076 as of the same date in January of 2020, just prior to the pandemic. Months of supply, after being in seller's market territory over the past four years, posted 6.23 months as of January 31. In Southwest Florida, between 6 and 12 months is generally considered a balanced market.
As market conditions have shifted over the past several months, it's become more important that seller's price generally in line with recent relevant closed sales and competitively with similar active listings. For buyers, although inventory has finally brought choices back to the market, properly priced homes are still selling within a reasonable period of time, making it important to know how to identify when the right home is reasonably priced before it's no longer available. Especially in today's market, conditions can vary considerably between neighborhoods, product types, and price segments. Navigating the landscape can be challenging and, whether one is a buyer or seller, choosing a skilled local real estate professional is a critical early step.
We are pleased to report that John R. Wood Christie’s International Real Estate is off to a strong start for 2024, posting a definitive lead in both the number of closed transactions and total dollar volume for January, particularly in the $1M+ category where our agents closed double the number of transactions than our nearest competitor!
Click on either of the links below to view the January 2024 Market Report.
January Southwest Florida Market Report – flipbook
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