Miami’s real estate market may have slowed, but don’t call it a recession, say experts | Real Estate

Blame it on the wake-up-early, back to school days. Or blame it on the Dolphins’ preseason loss to the Raiders last weekend.

Through the first four days of this week, not one real estate transaction took place on Key Biscayne, as reported by Realtor.com, Trulia or Zillow. Last week, there were three sales in the first four days, including an $8.4 million deal, and six for the week.

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But, don’t be concerned. There’s certainly not a recession when it comes to the housing market, experts say.

“There has been a slowdown, but that’s when interest rates went up,” said Crystal Cooper, of Satellite Beach, a recent honoree of a prestigious Homesnap award by being ranked among the Top 15% of Realtors nationwide for the first six months of this year.

Key Biscayne resident Nicholas Lopez-Jenkins said he’s noticed the real estate signs staying in yards a little longer these days.

“The market was on fire for so long, it had to slow down at some point,” said the insurance consultant for personal and commercial properties.

Even in Brickell, usually a hot high-rise market, sales also lost some momentum this week, in part due to higher interest rates and higher selling points, or whatever the blame is placed on. For the first four days of this week, six Brickell transactions were recorded, ranging from $565,000 to $3.2 million.

A week ago, 11 sales were posted in the first four days and five more were added that Friday.

Cooper, a licensed residential and commercial real estate agent for the entire state, specializes in waterfront properties along the Space Coast, not far from her Re/Max Aerospace office in Cocoa Beach.

The buzz this week is the anticipation of Monday’s launch of the most powerful rocket, Artemis I, just a few miles up the coast.

“With all the media coverage, and the cruise ships getting back to normal, and all the tourists coming, I think it would all help increase our chances (of sales or home views), and that would balance out the (slowdown) for interest rates,” she said.

A report in the South Florida Sun Sentinel this past week indicated that active listings, or the number of homes on the market, rose in July, and in some areas as high as 20%, according to the latest figures from the Broward and Palm Beaches areas.

A report this summer by The Real Deal, which focuses on South Florida real estate news, showed that dollar volume of home sales in all of South Florida fell to $6.6 billion in June, down from more than $8 billion recorded in June of 2021.

That same news source reported that in May alone, total home sales fell nearly 10% in Miami-Dade County, to 3,198 closings, when compared to May of 2021, when interest rates were nearly twice as low. Also, condo sales decreased nearly 9% to 2,005 closings in a May comparison, while single-family home sales declined 12.3% to 1,193 sales, compared with May of 2021.

But, Cooper, a surfer who is passionate enough about her real estate job to let a few nice waves go to her friends instead, isn’t too concerned.

“For sure, like anything, you have those down times occasionally, but I don’t see it as a trend,” she said. “We’re stable pretty much the entire year.”