Meanwhile, July’s home sale prices had their highest increase since November.

South Florida remains one of the most prominent ultra-luxury markets in the country, according to the 2023 Mid-Year Ultra-Luxury report from Compass.

Of survey respondents who made a wedding registry in the past two years, 85% said they would have preferred to receive money they could have used towards a down payment, mortgage payment or other associated homebuying costs.

The industry group issued its housing-market forecast along with its monthly Pending Home Sales Index for June. 

Luxury home sales increased drastically in South Florida between the first and second quarters.

“Builders in Cape Coral have not stopped — they’re just building like nothing happened,” said Redfin Premier agent Isabel Arias-Squires.

Year over year, housing inventory turned negative for the first time in 13 months in June, the real estate data provider said. 

Analyzing property listings from January 2020 to June 2023, Los Feliz found that Florida accumulated 1.7 million new listings at a rate of 20,665 per every 100,000 homes.

The median existing-home price for all housing types in June rose to $410,200, 0.9% less than the all-time high of $413,800 reached in June 2022, the National Association of REALTORS® said. 

Back in 2018, Freddie Mac stated that the country still needed about 2.5 million extra homes in order to meet demand. Then the pandemic homebuying boom depleted already-low inventory levels and high mortgage rates in the second half of 2022 chained many homeowners to their existing low rates.

Low inventory and high demand are buoying builder sentiment in the face of several headwinds. 

The drop in the pace of new-home construction follows a significant surge the month before, according to government statistics. 

For the first time in nearly a year, the average home sold above list price, fueling bidding wars in some markets.

According to projections from Redfin, there were 900 fewer listings available in Cape Coral-Fort Myers after Hurricane Ian than there would have been if the storm had not hit.

As more owners continue to hang onto their houses, home values locally and across the nation have reached a new peak, but it comes at a cost.

Despite the declining rate of increase, home prices have risen for the last 136 months, CoreLogic said.