This home is for sale on Moss Creek Drive in Fleming Island. | Randy Roguski, WJCT News 89.9
Published on August 14, 2023 at 12:41 pm
It’s now harder than it’s ever been to afford a new home in Northeast Florida.
The region’s “affordability index” was the lowest on record in July, the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors reported.
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The affordability index measures whether a typical family earns enough to qualify for a mortage on a typical home, based on current interest rates, median income and median homes prices.
The index fell 3% in July to 65, meaning homes were less affordable than ever. A index of 100 would indicate that a family with the median income has the exact amount of income need to buy a median-priced home.
The number of home sales that closed in July fell nearly 20% from the month before — and 10.6% from a year ago, the Realtors association said.
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Interest rates and the cost of goods and services both are to blame, Diana Galavis, president of the Realtors association, said in a news release.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage climbed to 7.12% last week, the highest since October, according to Bankrate’s national survey of large lenders.
The typical summertime slowdown in the housing market may be even more pronounced this year, data suggests.
The median home price in Northeast Florida inched up by 1.3% in July — to $395,000 — but it was 1.1% lower than a year ago. And buyers were not snapping up homes as they once were.
The number of homes for sale was almost 7% higher than June and 27% higher than a year ago, and they were staying on the market longer — a median of 34 days, which was almost 48% longer than last year.
Homes also are less likely to sell for more than their list price, a shift from the torrid market of the past few years. Only 15.5% sold over the list price in July, 9.3% lower than the month before and 49.8% less than last year.
