Fla. Top State for 2022 Home Value Increases

TAMPA, Fla. – Florida home values rose more in 2022 than in any other state, according to data analyzed from real estate company, Zillow.

The average value of a Florida home, per the most recent publicly available data measured in December 2022, was just under $405,000 – That’s up more than $56,000 from $345,305 in January 2022.

The 17.27% change in value outpaced every other state in the nation.

Vermont was the runner-up, with home values rising an estimated 15.15% in the 12-month timeframe. The average value of a home there was estimated to be $386,000.

The state with the highest value homes was recorded in Hawaii, where the average value was $902,175 in December 2022 – up 9.63% from $822,924 in January 2022.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was Idaho, where home values actually fell 0.18%, or by $825, since January 2022. The average home value was $459,947 in December.

“The housing market has indeed been turbulent over the past few years, with house prices being affected by inflation, the pandemic and many more factors,” a spokesperson from Santa Monica Realtors said. “This study provides a fascinating insight into which parts of America have seen the highest increases as well as the lowest.”

The housing crisis facing America is particularly acute in Florida. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University study the price of housing across the country and in the Sunshine State. The data from FAU and Florida International University, called the Beracha and Johnson Index, analyzes home prices by comparing their expected prices and list prices.

As recently as December, FAU reported that five Florida real estate markets were among the most overpriced in the country.

“We hear how slow the U.S. housing market is,” Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D., a real estate economist in FAU’s College of Business, said, “but consumers are still buying and selling, and that activity is keeping prices elevated in a lot of metro areas.”

The Beracha and Johnson Index does not consider historical market prices when showing rankings of value versus list price, according to FAU. However, even the researchers behind the Index say the prices in Florida will likely stay higher, as other markets decline.

FAU and FIU said in December that Florida markets like North Port and Cape Coral were starting to go down in price for the first time since their markets peaked, but that Florida prices remained elevated.

“It is hard to say where prices will go from here in Florida,” said Eli Beracha, Ph.D., of FIU’s Hollo School of Real Estate. “But it seems most likely that Florida housing markets will fare better than most other markets across the country due to the persistent shortage of homes for sale and the pace at which people are relocating to the state.”

While the real estate trends remain in flux, AgentStory, a tech real estate company, has focused on measuring how many real estate agents are actively engaged in the market.

Their proprietary end-of-year data for 2022 showed fewer agents were active at the end of 2022 than at the end of 2021, down roughly 6.5% in the Tampa area. Additionally, AgentStory said quarter-to-quarter, the data tells a different story than just looking at changes year-over-year.

While companies like Zillow or Redfin measure the market by list price and mortgage rates, AgentStory bases their analysis on multiple listing service data instead. Their data is also made up of averages rather than medians.

“According to the Tampa report, in Q4 2022, there were 2188 active agents and in Q4 2021 there were 2339. So the difference is -6.5%,” AgentStory told WFLA.com. “The annual comparison hides the fact that the first half of 2022 was strong and then dropped.”

Looking at listing data, AgentStory reported that Tampa area homes spent twice as long on the market in Q4 2022, compared to Q4 2021, for 34 days on the market compared to 17 days the year before.

Turning to the housing market more broadly, the reported rate for a 30-year-fixed rate mortgage is currently 6.15%, according to Freddie Mac, a federally-backed mortgage company. Freddie Mac reports the rates every Thursday. The new rate reported Thursday is the second week in a row with a decrease in level.

“As inflation continues to moderate, mortgage rates declined again this week,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said. “Rates are at their lowest level since September of last year, boosting both homebuyer demand and homebuilder sentiment. Declining rates are providing a much-needed boost to the housing market, but the supply of homes remains a persistent concern.”

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