March 2024 was an interesting month for the Vero Beach, Florida real estate market!

Here are a few key observations that may portend future market conditions:

1. The percentage of homes taking price reductions to get an offer increased dramatically, with 34% on average over the past 90 days taking price cuts in an effort to sell – but a whopping 41% in the past 7 days.

   Is this a reflection of softening in pricing? Or Sellers fearing that at the end of April snowbird Buyers will fly the coop leaving them to hold onto properties over the summer until their return? Time will tell. This is always a leading indicator that is a key metric to watch.

2. List prices remain flat, showing existing demand in our market, albeit greatly diminishes as sales volume remains around 30% lower than in the pandemic.

3. Inventory of homes for sale on the barrier island is up to 212 units from 202 units last month. 212 units is on par with inventory in August 2020 – but still 32% LOWER than our historic and stable inventory levels pre-COVID.

   Some parts of the nation are seeing inventory levels at or above pre-pandemic, like the west coast of Florida and Austin, TX. Areas like New England remain in historically low inventory positions.

4. Days on market is roughly equal for all price sectors. This is a material change – as historically the higher the price point, the higher the days it took to tell. Now looking at our market in 4 quadrants – all from bottom to top have roughly the same amount of days on market to take a contract.

   What does this mean? It certainly shows that a lower price point does not automatically equal faster time to sell, and could well show the impact of rising pricing and insurance on the Buyers who are by and large making elective decisions – not driven by job or circumstance, who can indeed ‘wait it out’ to see what future elections, rate environments, and global conflicts look like in the future.

The instant Buyer activity of writing offers ticks up even nominally, the absorption rate of our inventory will reduce and become a more balanced market.

Now the power is on the Buyer’s racquet. Will Buyers rush to contract a property before they leave the area? We will see in 30 days – as there is a lot of horse trading that occurs in our market in April and May.

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