Median home sale prices jumped higher in Miami year-over-year than in most places in the country, a new report found. It’s a consequence of the community’s wealth boom since the pandemic. The Miami metro area had a median home sale price of $605,303 in November 2022, up 23% from $490,633 in November 2021, according to the CoreLogic January 2023 U.S. Home Price Insights report published Tuesday. It has the third-highest annual growth in the country. CoreLogic ranked the annual median sales price changes for the 20 largest U.S. metro areas. The report combines single-family home and condo sale prices based on data from the Multiple Listing Service.

The Miami metro area trailed behind the Punta Gorda and Naples metros. Punta Gorda topped the list with a 27% median home price growth, to $379,675 in November 2022 from $298,000 in November 2021. Naples experienced a 26% median home price growth in that same time period, to $765,914 from $605,667. Blame the housing crunch on the wealth migration and corporate expansions into South Florida during the pandemic, said Selma Hepp, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. Recent newcomers and firm executives — mostly from the Northeast — traded their cities for lax COVID-19 restrictions, lower taxes and a warmer climate. “We saw a lot of financial services divisions opening an office in Miami. A lot of the folks that were moving were of higher income. The stock market was doing well. We had the crypto surge in 2021,” Hepp said.

The Miami metro area previously had among the country’s highest median home sale price growth prior to the Great Recession. “We’ve seen this to some extent,” Hepp said. “The difference this time around is that the boom last time was brought by adjustable rate mortgages, subprime loans, and international investment.”

Looking ahead, annual home price growth is expected to remain flat between 2023 and 2022, said Mariya Letdin, a business professor at Florida State University. She said interest rates — which rose year-over-year in 2022 — and a potentially slowing wealth migration from New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., may steady home price growth.

Real estate experts predict the year’s housing conditions will swing in favor of renters and buyers.

Source: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article270718882.html