S. Florida, kiss the seller's market goodbye.

S. Florida, kiss the seller's market goodbye.
January saw double-digit percentage drops in home sales for Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and price increases stalled -- further evidence that the red-hot housing market has cooled.

January existing-home sales plunged in South Florida as the real estate market continued to shift from go-go to so-so.
Real estate agents sold 36 percent fewer Broward County houses than they did a year ago, and year-over-year sales dropped 28 percent in Miami-Dade, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.
The housing market also continued its month-to-month slide, with Broward sales down 17 percent from December and Miami-Dade sales off 13 percent.
''Nothing lasts forever,'' said Bob Tenace, whose Century 21 brokerage in Coral Springs is raffling off a Lexus to attract more clients. ``Overall, the activity is still there. It's just a market coming back into reality.''
Prices continued to show steep gains over 2005, with the median January sales price increasing nearly 30 percent in 12 months. But house prices remained flat from December: down from $377,700 to $376,300 in Miami-Dade; and up from $369,000 to $370,500 in Broward.
BACK TO REALITY
The January figures offered the latest evidence of a fundamental shift in South Florida's real estate market, which has experienced a price run-up so steep that analysts warn a fall may be coming.
Others see the January numbers as a sign that the five-year real estate boom is leveling off into a more reasonable pace.
''Basically, the markets are stabilizing,'' said David Dabby, a real estate consultant in Coral Gables. ``If you're buying a home, buy it because you need it. Not because you're banking on rapid appreciation.''
Low mortgage rates fueled much of the buying frenzy in recent years throughout South Florida and the rest of the country. The average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage reached 6.26 percent last week, up from 5.69 percent a year ago, according to Freddie Mac, the corporation that backs home loans.
CONDO SALES DOWN
With so many high-rise projects under way, condominiums are seen as the most volatile sector of the real estate market. For the first time, the Realtors group released condo sales along with its house report.
The January numbers show condo sales also dropped from a year ago, though the decline wasn't as steep.
Realtors sold 21 percent fewer condos in Broward than in January 2005; in Miami-Dade, condo sales dropped 13 percent. The median condo sales price soared 31 percent in Broward to $211,500, but increased only 11 percent to $259,900 in Miami-Dade from a year ago.
The January numbers follow a string of weak months for sales that some real estate executives blamed on last fall's hurricanes and their lingering impact on buyers. But with South Florida's housing market mirroring national trends -- existing home sales dipped 2.8 percent across the country in January -- real estate agents say they're adjusting.
''It's no longer [that] you throw a piece of property on the market today and it's sold before you get it in the listings,'' said Andy Weiser, a Coldwell Banker agent in Fort Lauderdale.
''Am I saying anyone is going to lose money? Of course not,'' he said. ``There are still more people who want to be down here than we have homes for.''
Condos outsold single-family homes in both markets in January, according to the Realtors group, but demand isn't keeping up with owners looking to sell.
January saw 11,646 condominiums for sale in Broward County, with only 984 sold, according to an analysis by Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Realtors. That's up dramatically from the 3,710 condos on the market a year ago, when 1,399 sold.
PROPERTY GLUT
Miami-Dade shows a similar glut: 11,800 condos on the market in January, with only 790 sold, according to EWM. A year ago, 5,670 condos were on the market and 1,004 sold. (EWM and the Florida Realtor group analyze slightly different sales data.)
Jeff Kaiser hoped to have sold his Coconut Grove condo by now. The 34-year-old general contractor put the four-bedroom town house on the market four weeks ago at $489,000.
Though Kaiser had some interest through ads in newspapers and on forsalebyowner.com, no one has come through with an offer for the 1,275-square-foot residence.
Now Kaiser plans to take two steps he hoped a hot housing market would let him avoid: dropping the price and hiring a real estate agent.
''I'm not going to sit on it too much longer,'' he said. ``The market is definitely changing. Six months ago, I think it would have been gone.''