The median price of houses sold in Palm Beach County, Fla., last month was $355,000, a figure that has barely budged in recent months.
The typical home price also was $355,000 in August and $355,013 in July. Stagnant prices mark a comedown from May, when the median price hit a post-crash high of $364,900.
However sales volumes jumped compared to a year ago. Realtors sold 1,356 homes last month, up 10.5% from September 2018, according to figures released by the Realtors of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale.
The rise in sales comes as mortgage rates have plunged. Rates flirted with 5% last November, but since then, they have plummeted below 4%. The average cost of a
The sharp decline in rates has been a boon for buyers, said Lisa Treu, founder of Treu Group, a real estate brokerage in Delray Beach.
"It's definitely great news for people who tried to buy a year ago and couldn't afford to," Treu said. "Our buyers are not having to settle. They're able to find homes they're excited about."
The housing market in Palm Beach County and nationally remains something of a conundrum. The job market is booming, and mortgage rates have returned to rock-bottom levels.
"Mortgage rates under 4% are amazingly attractive for homebuyers," Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy has been expanding for more than a decade, and the stock market remains near record highs. All those factors typically combine to create a booming real estate market.
Instead, the housing market hasn't rebounded strongly.
In one example of confusing signals, the median price of condos and townhouses sold by Realtors rose nearly 8% from a year earlier, to $188,500, while the number of sales fell nearly 6% from September 2018.
Most condo sales in Palm Beach County close without loans, so mortgage rates are less of a factor in that market.
The divergent trends for houses and condos illustrate the murky nature of a housing market that's neither in boom nor bust.
"Now more than ever, real estate is very local," Treu said. "We have neighborhoods and cities that are super-, super-hot. And we have other neighborhoods and cities that are stagnant."
Palm Beach County home prices remain well below their record highs. In November 2005, the median house price hit an all-time high of $421,500.
