News flash!  Higher prices are here to stay! 

Hi everybody,  It’s Joe Hillner with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, where we guarantee the sale of your home, or I’LL buy it! 
Ok, so every week, I share market data to keep you informed with the local real estate market.  Here is this week’s Boca Market Watch.

First, Single Family Homes:

This past week, a  decent week with 71 new homes on the market, ranging from $265,000 to  $10 1/4 Million! Only 29 homes back on the market, while 15 homes listed took a price decrease, and 14 sellers raised their asking price. We're seeing that more and more - if the home doesn't sell quickly, raise the price.  It's kind of counter intuitive thinking - since the market is so hot, my house must be worth more, even though it didn't sell...  45 different properties went under contract, and 55 went pending, a so so week. 
And 32 homes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired outright.   65 homes were sold in the past week, an average week, and those home sales ranged from $229K to $9.25M.  

Next up, Condos and Townhomes:

70 new listings, and ranging from $65 Grand to $9.75 Million.  
18 units came back on the market, 24 properties with a price decrease, and 9 sellers with an increase, in total, very few.  67 different properties went under contract, and 66 went pending - another good week for condos!  And 30 condos or townhomes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired - on the low side.  93 closed sales this week, another strong week, and ranging in price from $63 Grand to a couple of sales at $2.9 M!

Here's what's making news right now.

 I was talking with a real estate investor today and he was bemoaning how this market has all but killed his business. Most of last year, he was continuously buying properties, rehabbing them and then  turning around and selling for a profit. However, in today’s market, the numbers just don’t work anymore. 
Obviously, prices have shot way up, but that’s not really the issue. First, the lack of properties is a significant impediment. Like everyone else, he would need to get in a bidding war and pay way over asking just to get the home. But then his cost of goods for the remodel project have gone up dramatically.  In fact, lumber and sheet rock prices have basically doubled in the last few months. As the large national builders began to ramp up their production to try and meet demand, they sucked up most of the supply of raw materials, leaving the individual buyer to either pay grossly inflated prices, or get out of the business. 
And that’s what this investor has been forced to do - take an extended and unplanned vacation, in the hope that this supply chain situation will be a short term event and not a long term shift. Unfortunately for him, the macroeconomic factors are not in his favor.  As I’ve reported in past weeks, not only are we critically short on resale inventory, but also on new construction. And with the mass migration to the South and super low interest rates fueling demand, it doesn’t look like this situation is likely to change any time soon.  Will we continue to see double digit price appreciation on a monthly basis into the foreseeable future?  Of course not. At some point, more sellers will come into the market and things will cool off somewhat. But as long as interest rates stay low, we’ll continue to see lots of buyers competing for properties. And that will serve to maintain the upward pressure on prices.  As always, when, and if, things change, you’ll hear about it here first