Home prices in Florida rose more in 2022 than in any other U.S. state, according to data analyzed by the real estate website Zillow.
The average price of a home in Florida, according to the most recent publicly available data from December 2022, was just under $405,000—a rise of more than $56,000 from the $345,305 recorded in January 2022.
The 17.27% change in value exceeded that of every other state in the country.
Vermont ranked second, with home prices rising about 15.15% over the 12-month period. The average home price there was estimated at $386,000.
Hawaii had the highest average home prices, with an average value of $902,175 in December 2022—a 9.63% increase from $822,924 in January 2022.
At the opposite end of the spectrum was the state of Idaho, where home prices fell 0.18%, or $825, since January 2022. The median home price was $459,947 in December.
“The real estate market has certainly been turbulent in recent years, with home prices being affected by inflation, the pandemic, and many other factors,” said a spokesperson for Santa Monica Realtors. “This study provides a fascinating look at which parts of America saw the biggest and smallest increases.”
The housing crisis facing the United States is particularly acute in Florida. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University are studying housing prices across the country and in the Sunshine State. Data from FAU and Florida International University, known as the Beracha and Johnson Index, analyze home prices by comparing their expected prices with their list prices.
In December, the FAU reported that five Florida real estate markets were among the most expensive in the country.
“We’ve heard that the U.S. real estate market is sluggish,” said Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D., a real estate economist at the FAU College of Business, “but consumers are still buying and selling, and that activity is keeping prices high in many metropolitan areas.”
The Beracha and Johnson Index does not take historical market prices into account when showing value ratings versus listing prices, according to FAU. However, even the researchers behind the index say that prices in Florida will likely remain higher as other markets decline.
The FAU and the FIU said in December that Florida markets, such as North Port and Cape Coral, were beginning to see price declines for the first time since their markets peaked, but that prices in Florida remained high.
“It’s hard to say where prices will go from here in Florida,” said Eli Beracha, Ph.D., of FIU’s Hollo School of Real Estate. “But it seems more likely that Florida’s real estate markets will fare better than most other markets across the country due to the persistent shortage of homes for sale and the pace at which people are moving to the state.”
Although real estate trends continue to shift, AgentStory, a real estate technology company, has focused on tracking how many real estate agents are actively involved in the market.
Its proprietary year-end data for 2022 showed that fewer agents were active at the end of 2022 than at the end of 2021, a decline of approximately 6.5% in the Tampa area. In addition, AgentStory said that quarter-over-quarter data tells a different story than simply looking at year-over-year changes.
While companies like Zillow and Redfin measure the market based on list prices and mortgage rates, AgentStory bases its analysis on various data points from listing services. Its data also consists of averages rather than medians.
“According to the Tampa report, there were 2,188 active agents in the fourth quarter of 2022, and 2,339 in the fourth quarter of 2021. Therefore, the difference is -6.5%,” AgentStory told WFLA.com. “The year-over-year comparison hides the fact that the first half of 2022 was strong and then declined.”
Looking at listing data, AgentStory reported that homes in the Tampa area spent twice as long on the market in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2021—34 days on the market compared to 17 days the previous year.
Turning to the broader real estate market, the reported rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is currently 6.15%, according to Freddie Mac, a federally backed mortgage company. Freddie Mac reports rates every Thursday. The new rate reported on Thursday marks the second consecutive week of a decline.
“As inflation remains moderate, mortgage rates fell again this week,” said Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac. “Rates are at their lowest level since September of last year, boosting buyer demand and builder sentiment. Falling rates are providing a much-needed boost to the housing market, but the supply of homes remains a persistent concern.”
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