The national real estate press is full of headlines proclaiming the precarious condition of the Florida real estate market, but Vero Beach continues to defy those statewide trends.
“Housing Market Grinds to a Halt in Late-Summer Doldrums,” was the headline of an article published by realtor.com earlier this month.
But more purchase contracts were written in Vero Beach in August than in any month in the past two years and the number of closings was up 11 percent from August 2024, according to BrokerMetric data provided by island agent Tripp Hernandez.
Hernandez uncovered the hidden strength of the Vero market when a broker from another market called to tell him that she had a potential buyer for one of his Vero listings but that the offer would be low, “because your market is soft.”
“This particular agent came to us and said she had someone coming from Maryland, and she brought up market conditions ahead of making an offer,” said Hernandez, who is with Dale Sorensen Real Estate.
In response, Hernandez dug into recent market statistics using the BrokerMetric system, which is updated daily and used by many island brokers to track real estate trends and market details.
Even though he knew the local market was in decent shape, what he found and shared with the outside agent came as a pleasant shock.
Selecting the eight MLS areas that make up the Vero Beach Island and mainland market – excluding Sebastian and Fellsmere – he discovered that the 300-plus purchase contracts for houses and condos written in August were the most in any month in the past two years.
“It was surprising,” he told Vero Beach 32963.
Contracts were up 62 percent compared to August 2023 and up 92 percent compared to August 2024, according to the BrokerMetric chart Hernandez provided.
Other island agents say they felt the surge.
“We were part of that,” said Douglas Elliman broker associate Michael Merrill. “We had a number of transactions.”
“It has been busier than usual for me this time of year,” said ONE Sotheby’s International Realty agent Hank Wolff, who had a closing in Seminole Shores last week and has another closing coming up. “I do feel like buyers and sellers are more active.”
“It is hard for us to get our story out to buyers in our feeder markets and even buyers and sellers in Vero,” Hernandez said. “I feel like we’re always fighting the bigger voices, the national media, whether it’s television or newspapers or online.
“We hear that Florida’s inventory is on the rise, that there’s abundance of inventory and we are back above pre pandemic levels – which may be true in some markets – but here inventory has actually been falling for the past five months.
“Our inventory peaked at 2,300 houses and condos in March and has dropped to about 1,700, so buyers who are waiting for more inventory so they have more options and leverage may be kidding themselves.
“We get painted with this broad brush of being a part of Florida, and therefore, buyers and even some agents think that whatever is happening in Miami and in Tampa must be happening in Vero Beach.
“Consumers are getting the national news, and what catches their attention are headlines about how bad the market is in Florida and Texas. But what’s happening in other places is not what is happening here.”
Hernandez said he isn’t sure exactly what brought on the impressive August activity but thinks it is due mainly to declining interest rates and pent-up demand.
“Interest rates help,” he said. “And then there is the fact that people have been sitting on the sidelines for so long. When interest rates went through the roof in 2023, buyers pulled back tremendously, but at some point, people have to make a move.”
People who have had a life event such as the birth of a child, the death of a spouse, retirement or a new job, who would have moved under normal circumstances, have been stuck in place because they don’t want to give up a low mortgage interest rate for one in the high sixes or sevens, or they are not sure they can afford a house or condo with interest rates at those levels.
But interest rates in the sixes have become normalized to some extent as people have gotten used to them, and now that they have fallen into the low sixes – down as low as 6.13 percent earlier this month – people are moving off of the sidelines to continue with their lives.
“People get to a point where they are fed up with waiting and decide to take the plunge,” Hernandez said.
