Our Person of the Week spotlight is focused on the Sunshine State as we discuss Florida’s housing market with David Druey, the Florida regional president at Centennial Bank.
How would you describe today’s housing market in Florida?
For the state as a whole, we still have a housing supply issue with new houses coming on the market that are not quite meeting demands. It would be still considered a seller’s market, because there’s not a lot of new houses coming on the market.
But we’re definitely seeing some changes in values, where you’re having some discounts given for the purchases of houses, and we’re not seeing the annual escalations that we’ve seen in years past. In the markets where the houses touch water – on the canals and the coast – those houses are holding their value better than interior houses.
What about affordable homeownership opportunities?
Our bank has first-time homebuyer programs, and we have what we call a professional program for doctors and attorneys that give a little bit better leverage and pricing options. There are always those programs out there for people who don’t have to put as much money down as they would. Most banks have those programs.
Is there a lot of new housing construction going up around the state?
I think northern Florida has more one- to four-family housing starts, I think when you come down to the more urban areas where you have more infill, those have a tendency to not be as readily available. That’s where you see some of the apartment complexes just going up.
Are you seeing a lot of people coming into the housing market for careers as mortgage lenders or realtors?
No, but I don’t think there’s been a mass exodus of realtors going out of the out of the business. I think there have been a lot of mortgage originators on the bank side. But as rates go up and activities are not as brisk as they were, I think they’re choosing to maybe pursue a different career path or retire on the mortgage side. You have a lot of realtors that are part-time realtors, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change. But I’m not seeing a lot of real estate agents closing up shop – I think they’re just being more selective on how they’re marketing houses.
If we were to pick up this conversation a year from now, where do you see Florida’s housing market at that point?
I still think housing market is going to be pretty strong. I think there are a lot of people that are waiting for rates to possibly drop maybe at the end of Q2 or Q3, I don’t think rates are going to drop more than from where they are today. But because there’s still a shortage of houses coming on the market, I still think those houses are going to hold value.
I think we’re already seeing some softening on the on the apartment side. I would like to say that if rates come down, housing could come back up because you had people that were renting but now believe they can afford a house. But you still have tightrope between how far out of a metro area you want to live for a single-family home with the yard? Or do you want to stay in the metro area or do an apartment or a townhome?
I think that a year from now, prices will be equal to where they are today, if not slightly above.
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