The median price of houses in the Vero Beach Indian River County  area decreased 11% from $120,000 in September to $108,000 in October. There was also a substantial reduction from October 2010.  This figure is the lowest median price in the last 5 years! Remember that the median price change does not necessarily mean that the value of an individual house has increased or decreased. The median can be influenced by the number of high or low priced homes sold in a certain period. We have also noticed that the size of more houses selling are smaller than they were 4 or 5 years ago.  

House sales on the Vero Beach Florida island were 37% lower than last month and 43% lower than last October, about average for October over the last 8 years. Year-to-date single family home sales on the island have increased 30% over last year.  At the low end there was a 2 bedroom house onHoneysuckle Lane that sold for  $240,000 and the real deal was a 2400 sq ft 3 bedroom home in Island Club that sold for $240,199. At the high end, sales moved back on track with 5 sales close to or over $1,000,000.  The high sales were a 6000+ sq ft oceanfront home in Seaview that sold for $3,075,000 and a 5000+ sq ft house inWindsor that sold for $2,675,000. Another deal was a 3500+ sq ft riverfront house in Cache Cay that went for $995,000. We expect a good selling season and believe prices will hold for Island Houses, especially at the mid and high end.

Condo sales on the island in Vero Beach Florida were up 33% from the previous month and were up 50% from October 2010.  Year-to-date condo sales on the island are up 15% over last year.  The highest sale this month was $635,000 for an ocean view condo in the Chelsea Condo subdivision–again a slow month for high priced condo sales. At the lower end, two sold for under $100,000, one in Del Mar for $96,000 and $50,000 for one in Royal Riviera.  We expect a good selling season forIsland condos this winter, especially at the mid and high end as inquires are increasing, and the weather has already shown previews of a stormy winter in the North East.

Single family home sales county-wide were down 21% compared to the previous month but up 14% compared to October last year. Also, this was the best October sales figures in 8 years. Year-to-date sales were up 16.6%. On the mainland, there were 69 houses that sold for under $100,000, much higher than previous months. Most of the sales were in the south end and the northwest side of the county. The high sales were for $450,000 in the golf community of Indian River Club and for $425,000 in Coventry Island in Grand Harbor. County wide inventory of single family houses increased 5 units to 1952 from the previous month. There is a 10.4 month supply of houses for sale on the mainland. This is lower that the overall county absorption rate, which is an indicator that lower priced and smaller properties are more in demand.

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.