Redfin Reports Florida Has More Homes for Sale Than Ever Before

The number of homes on the market in the Sunshine State rose 23% year over year to a record high in January amid a decrease in homebuying, an influx of newly built homes for sale, intensifying natural disasters, and surging insurance costs and HOA fees.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: RDFN) — Florida ended January with 172,209 homes for sale—the highest inventory of any month on record, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. That’s up 22.7% from a year earlier.

Inventory is a measure of the number of homes for sale on the last day of the month. Redfin’s records date back to 2012.

Florida has seen housing inventory surge because it has been building more homes than most states. It’s also grappling with intensifying natural disasters, which has caused home insurance costs to skyrocket and prompted some homeowners to leave the state. With so many options for buyers to choose from, a lot of homes for sale are sitting on the market for months at a time, causing stale inventory to pile up. Listings are also piling up because homebuyer demand has been cooling; pending home sales in Florida fell 9.3% year over year in January.

Florida’s slowing condo market is a major factor pushing up inventory in the Sunshine State, too. Condo inventory in Florida was at an all-time high in January. Meanwhile, inventory of single-family homes was just shy of its record high. Many condo owners are looking to sell because new regulations aimed at ensuring condo buildings are structurally sound have caused HOA fees to soar.

Active Listings Are at a Record High in 8 Florida Metros, Most of Which Are on the Coast

Active listings—another gauge of housing supply—are also near a record high in Florida. They rose 19.4% year over year in January to 212,437, which is slightly below the all-time high hit in 2019. Active listings are a measure of the total number of homes for sale during the month.

Active listings are at a record high in eight of Florida’s 31 metropolitan areas: Cape Coral, Deltona-Daytona Beach, Homosassa Springs, Lakeland, North Port-Sarasota, Ocala, Port St. Lucie and the Villages. Five out of eight of those metros are on the coast, where homeowners often face higher natural disaster risk, insurance costs and HOA fees.

Redfin agents in Florida say it’s a buyer’s market, meaning sellers may need to offer concessions to woo bidders, and should also make sure their homes are in tip-top shape. In some Florida markets, home prices are falling.

“Bidding wars are very rare these days,” said Bryan Carnaggio, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Jacksonville. “With this many houses for sale, a home basically needs to look like it’s out of a magazine—and be priced fairly—to get multiple offers.”

Active listings are higher than a year ago in every Florida metro Redfin analyzed. But they’re not soaring everywhere. For example, they’re up less than 5% in Sebring, Panama City, Tallahassee and Okeechobee.

To view the full report, including a chart and Florida metro-level summary, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/florida-homes-for-sale-record-high

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, and title insurance services. We run the country's #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1.6 billion in commissions. We serve approximately 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.

Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email [e-mail]. To view Redfin's press center, click here.