The increase in Miami Beach comes down to only five residential sales, or an increase of 0.06 percent. Miami Beach recorded 810 sales during the first quarter of 2016 compared to the 815 sales for the first quarter of this year. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2016, Q1 fared much better: sales are up nearly 23 percent to 815 sales from 663 sales.
Properties in Miami Beach spent 143 days on the market during the first quarter of this year, up from 97 days the previous year. Listing discounts also continued to increase, which makes sense given that “pricing was too high to begin with,” Miller said. “The spread is widening. The seller is traveling farther to meet the buyer, and I don’t believe it’s the buyer coming up to meet the seller.”
The discount, which is defined as the difference between the closing price and the asking price at the time of contract, increased to 12.1 percent from 8.8 percent, according to the report. In the luxury end of the market, which is typically softer in a slow market, homes sold for bigger discounts compared to the previous year. The discount was up to 20.4 percent from 12.8 percent for luxury single-family homes starting at $6.25 million (the top 10 percent of the market). But high-end houses actually spent less time on the market during the first quarter, 261 days, up from 352 days during the first quarter of 2016.
The inventory of luxury condos increased to 1,188 units from 1,063, and the condos spent more time on the market than they did in the first quarter of last year, to 207 days from 119 days. The difference between the asking price and closing price grew on a year-over-year basis, but less than with luxury single-family homes. Luxury condos, where the threshold began at $1.6 million, sold for an average discount of 13.1 percent during Q1 compared to 10.1 percent during the same period last year.