Sales of Daytona Beach Condos Fall in May

We just completed our Daytona Beach Real Estate Sales Report for May 2008. We see that sales have improved over the last two months. April sales were up 27% over March, and May sales came in at 2.9% of April. However, we did see one alarming thing in the data for May - condos sales dropped from 58 in April to 37 in May.

Now this is a one month drop and doesn't indicate a trend, but it is against the recent historical trends. Daytona Beach condo sales have been averaging 19-20% of sales. Basically one condo sells for every four homes. It's been that way for over a year (19.2%). For this year condos sales are right at 20%. However, in May, under 13% of the total homes sold were condos.

Like I said, I don't that this is a trend, but, I believe we should take note and keep an eye on it.

What Happened to Daytona Beach Condominiums?

Our analysis shows that the strength of the market is still in the under $200,000 price range for all homes. 170 properties out of 285 were sold in that price range, but, of those only 15, or 8.8% were condos. The data tells us that people are buying houses over condos in that price range at a rate of over 11 to 1. So in the price range where the market is performing best, condos are not selling well.

There is no lack of condo listings under $200,000 (528). There are 1694 houses listed in that range. Condos make up 24% of the listings, but under 9% of the sales in the under $200,000 price range. Condos as a percentage of sales over $200,000 moves up to 19.1%.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that buyers at the strongest price point, at least right now, prefer homes over condos.

What's Next for Condos?

We need to monitor to see if May is a sign of new direction in the In the Daytona Beach Condos market, or if this was a one month fluke. I'll report back next month around this time. To get a long term view of the market, check out Daytona Beach Real Estate Market Analysis.