Homeowners in Florida are now struggling to sell their homes

Anthony Holmes thought he had hit the jackpot when he joined the wave of Americans fleeing to Florida during the pandemic.

Like thousands of others, he left Virginia in 2021 to start a new life in the Sunshine State and buy a five-bedroom home in a gated community in Tampa.

He invested $550,000 in the property and invested another $50,000 in solar panels and interior improvements, confident that Florida’s booming real estate market would continue to grow. According to the Wall Street Journal, he can’t even give the house away now.

“I can’t unload this thing,” Holmes told the outlet. “In eight months I had zero offers. Nobody showed up at the open days. No one.”

After putting the house up for sale in February, Holmes was confident he would have a buyer in no time. But despite cutting the price five times, from $620,000 to $583,900, he still hasn’t had a single offer.

Florida’s once-hot real estate market has turned cold, leaving Holmes and many other homeowners behind. Statewide, home sales have fallen to a minimum. According to real estate data firm Parcl Labs, inventory in major cities like Tampa, Orlando and along the Space Coast is up more than 50%, while demand is down at least 10%.

More than half of Tampa’s homes on the market experienced price reductions, making Tampa one of the hardest-hit metropolitan areas in the country.

A deadly mix of sky-high mortgage rates, rising insurance premiums and, increasingly, hurricanes are the ultimate culprits. After Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Florida’s west coast just two weeks ago, another monster storm – Hurricane Milton – is raging in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall this Wednesday.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already declared a state of emergency and warned that Milton could cause significant damage. DeSantis noted the extent of the impending flooding and urged residents to prepare for evacuations.

These storms have been the last straw for many Florida homeowners already suffering from skyrocketing insurance premiums.

Insurance costs in Florida have increased by up to 400% in recent years, due in part to the frequency of hurricanes. Homeowners pay more for insurance coverage than almost anywhere else in the country, and some, like Holmes, have been cut out entirely by their insurers.

Holmes, who paid $1,700 a year for his insurance, was laid off after Hurricane Idalia hit the area. Now he pays double.

A state once flooded with eager buyers is now full of desperate sellers. Analysts say Florida is facing a potential real estate correction as inventory outpaces demand and prices remain stagnant or even decline in some areas.

Brad O’Connor, chief economist at Florida Realtors, believes that with the oversupply of homes on the market, “we could see some price decline in some areas,” he told the Journal.

Even the condo market, once a cornerstone of Florida’s real estate boom, is taking a hit. After the tragic condo collapse in Surfside in 2021 that killed 98 people, Florida passed new laws requiring condo buildings to undergo expensive structural inspections and repairs.

For older buildings, these costs are passed on to owners in the form of large special assessments – sometimes amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit. For those with condos in need of major repairs, the market has already turned sour.

Some older units are selling for nearly 20% less than last year, and mortgage lenders are reluctant to finance sales of high-risk properties. At the Cricket Club condo in North Miami, for example, two-bedroom units that once sold for $450,000 or more are now available for as little as $200,000 after residents were reimbursed $134,000 US dollars was imposed to cover necessary repairs.

Institutional investors, who have been key players in Florida’s real estate market for years, are also beginning to pull back.

In Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, investors have begun listing homes they once bought in bulk, hoping to make money before the market plunges even further. In the last 60 days, almost one in 20 real estate listings in these markets came from institutional investors.

“When institutional investors exit a market, it can happen very quickly,” said Jason Lewris, co-founder of Parcl Labs. “If they start increasing dispositions, it could have a cascading effect on property prices.”

Currently, Miami is one of the few bright spots in the state. While inventory levels have risen, an influx of wealthy residents, cash buyers and job growth have helped keep the market stable. But for homeowners further north, like Holmes, the outlook isn’t so rosy.

With another hurricane on the way and no buyers in sight, Holmes is just hoping to break even.

“I have no doubt that a combination of high prices, high mortgage rates and high insurance has completely collapsed the market,” he said.