Miami’s housing market continues to suffer in some areas, but overall the city is on the right track.

As a result of enduring strong demand, Miami’s housing market continued to benefit from rising home prices in the second quarter of 2014, according to a joint report from the Miami Association of Realtors and local MLS.

From May to July, home prices in the city benefited from strong demand, pushing the area’s median sales price for homes up nearly nine percent year-over-year to $245,000. The median sales price for condominiums similarly rose 5.6 percent year-over-year to $190,000.

Those increases represent 10 consecutive quarters of growth.

Modest Gains and Some Losses

The joint report goes on to further dissect the city’s housing market, finding that:

• Year-over-year, the average sales price for single-family homes rose 3.5 percent, and average condominium sales price increased 6.7 percent.
• In the second quarter of this year, homes and condos sold dropped a negligible 0.9 percent year-over-year to a combined 8,139.
• Sales of single-family homes increased 4.9 percent to 3,650, while condo sales decreased 5.2 percent to 8,214 year-over-year.

On the Right Track

The increases, albeit slight, come as a direct result of the improvements to Miami’s overall housing market. Lisa Mendez, MAR’s 2014 chairman of the board, points out that the local market’s strength and vitality is being fueled by persistent demand from both international and domestic buyers, but warns that the city’s not out of the woods yet.

“While supply is growing and creating more balance between buyers and sellers, inventory in certain price points and market segments remains tight, particularly for single-family homes,” he says. “Financing for condominiums is still difficult to obtain, a fact that is hurting sales for this property type.”

Still, the cityi is heading in the right direction.

“As the Miami real estate market continues to normalize and perform in a healthy manner, there are increased opportunities for all types of buyers,” Francisco Angulo, Mar’s 2014 residential president, says.

Angulo goes on to say that despite an inventory that still plagued with shortages, buyers generally have a wider array of affordable properties to choose from than last year.