Condo sales Indian River county-wide were level with last month and up 12% over October 2010. Year-to-date condo sales are 12% ahead of last year. On the mainland the prices seem to be firming up a little as there were only 8 sales under $50,000 compared to 11 last month. There was only 1 sale in Vista Royale/VistaGardens, a 1 bedroom unit for $25,000. Other low-end sales were $8,500 for a manufactured home and $19,900 for one in Sutton Place. At the high end there were 2 nice riverfront 3 bedroom 2 bath condos inHarborVillage at Grand Harbor that sold for $442,000 and $500,000.

Ginny Mitchell, Coldwell Banker Realtor, ABR, CRS, GRI announces compelling market indicators in the Vero BeachFloridareal estate market.   After years of excessive numbers of properties on the market, the Inventory of houses and condos in the Vero Beach area have now dropped 18% from September of 2010 and real estate sales increased 9.5% over September 2010. Since the peak inventory in January 2008, inventory has increased each winter when the tourist season starts and then moved downward through the first half of each year to bottom out in mid summer.  In the last 3 years, inventory has turned upward after the winter season sales, but this year inventory has continued to fall.

The median price of houses in the Vero Beach Indian River County area decreased to $120,000 in September, a 4.2% reduction from September 2010. This is the lowest median price in the last 5 years, the same as January 2011. Remember that the median price change does not necessarily mean that the value of an individual house has increased or decreased. The median is influenced by the number of high or low priced homes sold in a certain period. The size of houses selling are smaller than they were 4 or 5 years ago.   We believe that the decline of prices is at or near bottom inVero Beach, and that this low median price indicates a trend that many buyers are moving to lower priced homes and smaller homes. There are large numbers of foreclosures waiting to hit the market, but we feel that many buyers also waiting.

Condo sales on the island  were down 50% from the previous month but were up 28% from September 2010.  Year-to-date condo sales on the island are up 13% over last year.  The highest sale this month was just $470,000 in the River Mews at the Moorings–again a slow month for high priced condo sales.  At the lower end, two sold in Del Mar for $70,632 and $80,000. Island sales in general are normally slow at this time of the year, and this year as not many tourists are visiting.

Single family home sales in Vero Beach – Indian River County-wide  were up 2.3% compared to the previous month and up 17% compared to September last year.  Year-to-date sales were up 16.2%. On the mainland, there were 29 houses that sold for under $50,000. There was one sale over $500,000, a house in St AndrewsIsland at Grand Harbor that sold for $1,000,000. The next highest sale was a 5 bedroom house on 10 acres in Fellsmere that sold for $470,000.

There is a 9.6 month supply of houses for sale on the mainland. This is lower that the overall county absorption rate which again is an indicator that lower priced and smaller properties are more in demand than usual in the Vero Beach – Indian River County area.

Vero Beach Florida Condo sales Indian River county-wide  were down 40% from last month but up 20% over September 2010. Year-to-date condo sales are12% ahead of last year. On the mainland there were 11 sales under $50,000, a small drop from last month. Eight of these were in Vista Royale,  including a 1 bedroom unit for $15,900, a real bargain. There were 3 condos that sold for over $100,000. The highest sale was a 3 bedroom 3 bath atGrand Harbor inHarmonyIsland for $175.000.