Brad O'Connor directly addresses camera:  Inventory levels in Florida's housing market continued to grow in August, according to the latest statistics from Florida Realtors. However, the rate at which inventory is growing has slowed considerably.
       At the end of August, there were nearly 64,000 single-family homes actively listed for sale in Florida's multiple listing services, which is over 70% more than were listed a year ago and 137% more than were listed as six months ago of the end of February. But the number of active listings now is still close to 26% lower than at this time three years ago, prior to the pandemic. What's more, the rate of growth in single-family inventory has slowed considerably in August, rising only 4% compared to the prior month. By contrast, on a month-over-month basis, inventory had risen by 33% in June and 17% in July.
       Part of the reason for the slowdown in inventory growth in August was a surprise improvement in home sales. Year-over-year, closed sales of single-family homes were still down by about 16% in August, but that's an improvement over July, when they were down by close to 23%. But a bigger reason we saw inventory growth pull back is that new listings are slowing. In August, new listings of single-family homes were down by 3% compared to a year ago, whereas they had been up by more than 3% in July. This trend is expected to continue for the time being as some homeowners are averse to listing in this uncertain economic environment.
       While sales, listings, and inventory have clearly seen an impact from the rapid rise of mortgage rates earlier this year, it's taken awhile to see an impact on home prices, but this is finally starting to show up in the sales figures. The statewide median sale price for single-family homes in August was $407,000, which is 15% higher than a year ago. 15% is still quite large by historical standards, but it is only about 6 or 7 percentage points higher than the current rate of consumer price inflation, and is smaller than the growth levels exceeding 20% that we experienced in the first five months of the year.
       The condo and townhouse market in Florida experienced many of the same kinds of shifts in August that the single-family market experienced. Closed sales of condos and townhouses were down more significantly year-over-year than single-family homes, falling by over 20%, but this is still an improvement over July, when they fell by nearly 31%. And remember, part of this is because condo and townhouse sales had a banner year last year because there was relatively more inventory available in this category than usual, compared to single-family homes.
       New listings of condos and townhouses fell in August by close to 11%, leading inventory to a level about 13% higher than a year ago. The median sale price in this category rose by nearly 21%, just slightly below July's rate, to $305,000. This is still a high rate of growth, but still smaller than the year-over-year growth rates of all other months in 2022 aside from July.
       Those are the statewide trends - does your local market seem to be following them? Find out by checking out SunStats, our world-class statistical service exclusively for the use of Florida Realtors members. You'll find everything you need in SunStats to make yourself a market expert! See you next month!