Brad O'Connor directly addresses camera:  The latest home resale market statistics from Florida Realtors have just been published, so let's take a look at how the market performed in August 2023, shall we?
Closed sales of existing single-family homes were up on a month-over-month basis in August, but that's likely in part due to August having a few more business days than July. As always, when we're looking at very seasonal data like closed sales, it's more informative to look at year-over-year changes, and in that regard, closed sales of single-family homes were down almost 8% compared to last August. 
It was a similar story over in the townhouse and condo category, with closed sales falling by a little over 7% year-over-year. Mortgage interest rates continue to be the most dominant factor in sales trends here in Florida as well as the rest of the U.S., so the continued year-over-year declines we're seeing in closed sales are not terribly surprising. This summer, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was in the neighborhood of 7%, compared to between 5 and 5.5% last summer.
Florida's median price for closed existing single-family home sales in August was $415,000, which is 2% higher than last August's median of $407,000. For townhouses and condos, meanwhile, the median sale price in August was up over 6% year-over-year to $324,000.
These elevated levels of home prices continue to offset the impact of lower levels of sales when it comes to dollar volume, which is calculated as the total combined sale value of all home transactions closing each month. August's dollar volume of closed existing single-family home sales in Florida was about $13.2 billion. That's down 4.4% compared to last August, but notice how much closer dollar volume has been to 2021 and 2022 levels so far this year, as compared to before the pandemic in 2019. Year to date through August, single-family dollar volume in Florida has been about $104 billion, compared to about $69 billion during the same 8-month period in 2019.
And in case you're curious, over in the townhouse and condo category, dollar volume was actually up year-over-year in August, rising by nearly 3%, to $4.1 billion.
Those are some of the statewide trends - does your local market seem to be following them? Find out by checking out SunStats, our world-class statistical service exclusively for the use of Florida Realtors members. You'll find everything you need in SunStats to make yourself a market expert! See you next month!