Keys Home Sales Up, Prices Down

Click picture to enlarge

Stats

Homes sales in the Florida Keys were up 34 percent in 2009 compared with 2008.  It's the first time sales have increased over the previous year since 2004, when sales rose 4 percent. About 1,560 Keys homes were sold in 2009 -- roughly 400 more than in 2008. Key West retained the largest share of the market with 533 sales, a 25 percent increase over 2008.

The largest increase in sales activity occurred in the Lower Keys, where 65 percent more homes were sold in all of 2009 over 2008, for a total of 361 sales. The Middle Keys saw a 44 percent increase, while the Upper Keys saw a 21 percent increase.

The Lower Keys have the lowest average sales price, at $391,000. 110 more homes sold in the second half of the year than in the first half, a reversal of the usual pattern in which winter and spring sales outpace those of summer and fall. Activity in the second half of 2009 was partially bolstered by the first-time homebuyer tax credit. The $8,000 tax credit was supposed to expire Nov. 30, but was extended until this April. The greatest amount of activity has been on homes priced under $250,000, which are becoming harder to come by.

Key West saw a 25 percent decline in the average sales price in 2009, decreasing from $612,000 this time last year, to $460,000 currently. The trend was reflected throughout the Keys, where the average price decreased about 23 percent, to $453,000. At the end of 2008, the average sales price was at $588,000, a decrease from $731,000 in 2007.

Despite the large increase in the number of homes sold, the Middle Keys was hardest hit by the decline in prices, experiencing a 35 percent decrease. The average Middle Keys sales price in 2009 was $429,000, compared with $661,000 in 2008.

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) reports don't capture sales at the Ocean Reef Club, nor do they include properties that were not listed with a Realtor.

Upper Keys

Housing prices and the amount of inventory remain higher in the Upper Keys than most other parts of the island chain, an ominous sign that recovery could still be a ways off. The average sales price in the Upper Keys for open-water homes dropped 17.5 percent in 2009. Closing prices on canal-front homes dropped 22.3 percent, dry-lot homes went down 16.4 percent and condos plummeted nearly 30 percent. Inventory dropped at a slower rate than elsewhere in Monroe County. At the end of 2009, there were 35 months of properties on the Upper Keys real estate market, down 12 percent from the end of 2008. Inventory throughout the Keys was 28 months, a 26 percent improvement from a year earlier. Both figures remain well above the three to 10 months of inventory that could be found on the market during the boom years of 2002 to 2005.