Sale prices for condominiums in Miami, Florida spiked 28 per cent in the second quarter compared to the first quarter and are up 34 per cent from a year ago. In a city once glutted with foreclosed homes, listings are now down a third from what they were in 2011 and some are predicting a shortage. Yet, across the U.S. Sun Belt, you can still buy condos for a third of what they would cost in B.C. or Alberta.
“Limited supply of condominiums is resulting in robust price appreciation, reflecting the demand that persists for Miami real estate,” said Martha Pomares, chairman of the board of the Miami Association of Realtors.
In Nevada, Las Vegas home prices rose for the eighth consecutive month in September, thanks to a tight housing supply and a record number of “short sales”. (Short sales are when banks agree to sell a property for less than is owed on it. Nevada leads the U.S. in home foreclosures.)
The median price of single-family homes in Vegas is now US$140,000, up 13.5 percent from September 2011, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. The median price of condominiums is $70,250, up 2.6 per cent from August and up 24 per cent from a year ago.
(As a comparison, the median price of a Vancouver condominium apartment is $421,000 and it is just under $300,000 in Calgary.)
In San Francisco, low inventory is driving double-digit increases in home prices and bidding wars have broken out across the surrounding Santa Clark county. In San Jose, median house prices are up 17.5 per cent from 2011.
And, all across the U.S. Sunbelt, foreclosures are falling, prices are rising and sales are bouncing back as the American housing market begins a long-awaited recovery.
U.S. housing prices have now advanced for six straight months, according to a survey by BMO Capital Markets.
“All major price indexes are rising in response to firmer demand and a shrinking supply of properties,” said Sal Guatieri, BMO senior economist, noting that prospective buyers, who had watched prices fall more than 30 per cent since 2006, “could be tempted to come off the fence."
The BMO survey undertaken in July with the SP Case-Shiller Index, found that prices increased from 2011 in all 20 U.S. cities surveyed.
For a complete report on the sizzle in the Sun Belt, see the November issue of Western Investor.
