Florida housing market favors buyers as prices drop in major cities

Florida’s red-hot housing market has cooled into one of the strongest buyer’s markets in the country, flipping the script on years of frenzied bidding wars.

In Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, home values are falling, inventory is lingering, and buyers are increasingly in control.

A new Zillow report shows every major Florida metro has tipped in buyers’ favor, joining 27 U.S. markets that are now neutral or leaning away from sellers.

Year-over-year values slid in July across Jacksonville (-3.4%), Miami (-4.6%), Orlando (-4.3%) and Tampa (-6.2%), while homes are sitting on the market longer than at any point in the past decade. Industry analysts say the shift reflects a mix of overpriced listings, slower sales and fewer new homes coming online — a stark contrast to markets in the Midwest and Northeast, where prices are still climbing.

Redfin reported It has also been the slowest summer in a decade for home sales, with homes across the country spending, on average, 43 days on the market. Florida cities have seen inventory spend the average time on market or longer until pending sales with 42 days for Orlando, 43 days for Tampa, 60 days for Jacksonville and 62 days for Miami.

"I refer to it as a market of testers and sellers," said Alex Stewart, founder of The Market Distillery, a real estate insight and analytics company. "If you list a home that’s in good shape and priced at the market, it will generally sell quickly, but a lot of sellers are pricing above the market, which is causing things to sit."

Florida cities have three of the strongest buyer's markets in the country, according to Zillow:

In the same year-over-year period, Florida has led the nation's buyer's markets. Pending home sales fell the most in Portland, Oregon, (-12.6%), Miami (-11.8%) and Tampa (-11.7%). Closed home sales fell the most in Miami (-20.2%). Median sale prices decreased the most in Oakland (-6.1%), Jacksonville (-3.9%) and West Palm Beach (-3.8%). The number of new listings decreased the most in San Francisco (-19%), Jacksonville (-15.6%) and Tampa (-13.5%). The Miami area saw the least amount of times a home sold over list price out of the entire country, and also experienced the biggest increase in days on market from last year, a net of 18 days.

Part of this may be attributed to fewer new homes being built. According to data from the National Association of Realtors, most Florida cities have seen a decrease in home construction year-over-year from June: Lakeland (-27.3%), Jacksonville (-20.7%), Sarasota (-18.6%), Tampa (-18%), Naples (-15.9%), Gainesville (-6.9%) and Miami (-4.9%).

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