Miami’s real estate sales boom exhausts superlatives

Even in an industry where superlatives abound, the new report of the Miami Association of Realtors sets a superheated pace: most annual home sales, most condo sales, most single-family sales, nine of the top ten months of all time – and that’s just for starters.

Single-family luxury home transactions up 28.2% year over year, inventory of single-family homes shriveled 27.9% year over year in the buying frenzy, total active listings down 43.6% as sales soared, single-family median buying prices up 11.7% and condo median prices up 28.1%. All those trends led to a 14.9% November rise in single-family sale dollar volume and a whopping condo dollar volume that very nearly doubled year over year. Total November residential resales: $2.2 billion, which doesn’t include new condo and house sales.

“The demand for Miami real estate is so high that not even November, a time usually known for a slower pace of deals because of the holidays, can slow down this historic market,” said Jennifer Wollmann, Miami Association of Realtors board chairman, who works with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty.

“Domestic buyers from high-tax, high-density states have migrated here as the availability of remote work has expanded exponentially with the pandemic,” Ms. Wollmann said, noting that vaccinated global buyers were only allowed back into the US on Nov. 8.

Those global buyers contribute disproportionately to cash sales, which in November accounted for 46.9% of all Miami existing condo sales and 24.9% of single-family sales. About 24% of all US home sales are in cash.

In November alone, Miami existing condo sales rose 42%, from 1,305 to 1,853. Single-family transactions gained a bare 1.2%, to 1,168.
The push into Miami from out of state has left only a 3.6-month supply of $1 million-plus single-family homes on sale and an 8.4-month supply of $1 million-plus condos.