Treasure Coast Real Estate Market Report

Real Estate in the Port St. Lucie MSA!

Stats are up to end of November 24'. There is always a lag in capturing the data.

As seen on the inventory chart, active inventory on the market has continued to climb steadily over the past 18 months and has been constant in its climb.  The Port St. Lucie MSA market, which includes Martin and St. Lucie Counties, is experiencing increasing inventory, for a number of reasons.  My interpretation is that sellers have tightly held to the sales data that were seen two years ago and have been not knowing or unwilling to reduce the listing prices of their homes.  In turn, those homes have been languishing on the market, which also speaks to the steady increase in “Median Time to Contract” days, found in the second infographic.  Furthermore, the supply is steadily increasing as a result of more people choosing to make large financial moves and sell their homes, which has not been the case for the past three years.  Remember the supply of homes for sale going back 18 months ago, much lower.  My guess is that the election will likely cause the December numbers to demonstrate an even greater supply of homes for sale.  We shall see!  Lastly, the interest rate environment, as it relates to mortgages, has not fallen as many folks have speculated.  The Federal Reserve has continued to cut the Fed Fund Rate, but interestingly the 30-year mortgage rate has continued to rise since September of 24’ and has continued to hover around 7% since October of 24.

Historically, from 1971 to 2025 the 30 year fixed mortgage rate in the US has been 7.72%.  What we are seeing, in my opinion, is the new normal.  Until income catches up with inflation, and people have more disposable income to serve their mortgage debt, the housing market will not experience the volume of sales we saw in 21’ and 22’.  There have been a lot of buyers that struggled to qualify for mortgages when the rates were in the 4s, never mind the 7s.

What does all of this mean?  Well, selling a home will continue to be more challenging. It has, and will increasingly, become more of a buyers’ market.  Developers in Tradition continue to build and sell homes as quickly as they can to get the inventory off of their books, thus, there are many substitute products in the market (new homes vs. resales).  A new home boasts many more attractions than a resale home…..that’s just the facts.  As the developers continue to slash prices, they will outcompete the resale market of homes.