By Carole Hawkins, Staff Writer
The numbers show it — by 2013 Jacksonville’s long real estate downturn ended. And, in some neighborhoods for the first time in years, buyer’s markets became seller’s markets.
“It was going to come back, real estate is always going to rebound,” said Dane Leslie, managing broker at Watson Realty Corp., Mandarin South office. “It probably took a little longer than we thought it would.”
According to MLS data from NEFAR, in 2013 regional housing inventory dipped below a six-month supply for the first time since the recession began. Then, it stayed there.
A balanced market is considered at four to six months of inventory.
Better yet, submarkets like Arlington, West Jacksonville, parts of St. Johns County and Southside are tipping into less than four months of inventory.
That’s a seller’s market.
“What we’re seeing in south Mandarin and Northern St. Johns County is, if the home is under $200,000 and in decent shape, it’s gone,” Leslie said.
It was early 2006 when a recessionary drop in home sales took hold in Jacksonville, Leslie said. By 2008, when news of a housing crisis was widespread, Jacksonville’s volume of home sales had stabilized, but its average home price continued to fall.
“We still haven’t recovered and we probably won’t recover for several more years,” Leslie said. “Unscientifically, I’d say we lost about 30 percent of the value of our real estate.”
It took until 2013 for demand to finally catch up with supply. Every housing statistic now shows improvement – median prices are up, days on the market are down.
“Sellers are entering the market because they see they can get equity out of their properties, but the inventory is still low,” said Melanie Green, NEFAR communications director. “What we’re hearing from our Realtors is there’s competition. They’re getting multiple offers, and that’s driving prices up.”
Get the latest MLS data for the Jacksonville region on the NEFAR website at nefar.com.