Brad O'Connor Directly addresses camera:  We are now one year into the COVID-19 pandemic here in the U.S., and the housing market continues to be one of the brightest spots of our economic recovery. That's certainly the case here in Florida, where the latest data from Florida Realtors shows that February was yet another very strong month for home sales.
But as any Realtor can tell you-or anyone looking to buy a home right now, really-this is a seller's market if there ever was one. The statewide inventory of active single-family home listings, which Florida Realtors has been tracking since January 2008, is currently at an all-time low. As of the end of February, single-family inventory was down over 56 percent compared to a year ago. And as I said in last month's video, most of this decline has been a result of our ultra-high rate of sales, as opposed to a lack of homes coming onto the market. In fact, new listings in the second half of 2020 were slightly up on a year-over-year basis. 
But so far in 2021, new listings of single-family homes have not kept up with their pace of 12 months ago. In February, they were down a little less than 5 percent year-over-year, which is an improvement over the 10 percent decline we observed in January, but still represents a move in the wrong direction. There's a good likelihood that much of this decline has been due to some sellers, who in normal times might have listed in January or February, instead listing ahead of 2021 in response to the unusually strong market in the second half of 2020. But there's also the possibility that a small but increasing number of homeowners-who have been thinking of selling their current home and buying another one-are starting to get turned off by the lack of available inventory and the rising prices that have resulted from it.
Statewide, closed sales of single-family homes were up almost 16 percent year-over-year in February, which in any normal period would be seen as a ridiculously high rate of sales growth. But during these crazy times, it turns out that 16 percent is the lowest year-over-year growth rate that Florida Realtors has reported for statewide closed sales in any month since August of last year, when they were still on the rebound. We also saw a drop in the growth rate of single-family homes going under contract in February, with new pending sales rising by close to 11 percent. Again, these are still very high growth rates, and frankly it would have been incredibly optimistic to expect to keep seeing 20 percent year-over-year sales growth in 2021 like we saw in the last four months of 2020. With prices continuing to rise, and now mortgage rates moving upward as well, we probably won't be back to that rate of growth any time soon.
It's a different story over in the condo and townhouse category, however, where sales growth has not slowed down at all so far in 2021. In February, closed sales in this category were up almost 29 percent year-over-year, which is very much consistent with the growth rates we've been seeing each month going back to September. Some of this growth is likely being fueled by frustrated buyers who had their hearts set on a single-family home finally giving up and settling for an attached unit instead, but we're also seeing high demand from folks with the typical condo- and townhouse-buyer profile, as well. And while inventory in this category is still high relative to what we're seeing in the single-family home category, it's on the decline as well. As of the end of February, it was down over 34 percent compared to a year ago, putting us at roughly 3.4 months' supply. That's a sharp contrast to the 5.4 months of supply we had a year ago, but it's still more favorable for buyers than the 1.3 months of supply we have over on the single-family side of the market.
Scarcity of inventory and high demand for existing homes continues to drive home prices higher. The median sale price for closed sales in both property type categories was up close to 17 percent in February on a year-over-year basis, with the median price for single-family sales coming in at close to $315,000 and over $233,000 for condos and townhouses. At some point, rising mortgage rates are going to start slowing down this growth in prices. However, that effect may not be immediate, as many potential buyers might perceive the next few of months as a last chance to lock in at near-historically low rates. We will of course keep you posted as we move forward into this year's spring buying season.
As always, we encourage you to analyze the numbers for your area to help your buyers and sellers understand what's going on locally. And to find statistics for your local market, all you have to do is visit floridarealtors.org/research. And of course, don't forget to check out our new interactive market data tool, SunStats, which is exclusively for use by Florida Realtors members. You can access SunStats directly at sunstats.floridarealtors.org. Take care, everyone. We'll see you next month.