Florida's struggling housing market reports first positive shift in months

Florida has reported a year-over-year increase in single-family home sales for the first time since January - a rise of 2.8 percent in June - defying the recent downward trend in the state's struggling housing market, according to the latest data by Florida Realtors. Falling prices might have helped: in June, the median sale price of a single-family home in the Sunshine State was $412,000, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier though still up a staggering 46 percent from 2020. [Source: Newsweek]

YIGBY law fast-tracks affordable housing on church land

Dubbed YIGBY – for “Yes in God’s Back Yard” – it allows churches, synagogues and other religious institutions to develop affordable housing on their properties regardless of zoning, if at least 10% of the units are affordable. To be eligible, parcels must hold houses of public worship on the site or be adjacent to those that do. The acronym is a play on another, NIMBY, which stands for Not In My Back Yard, a longstanding reference to residents' opposition to neighborhood development proposals. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]

Column: A developer’s view on resilient Florida real estate

Florida homebuyers have specific expectations when it comes to investing in a new home. Namely, resilient housing in resilient areas — homes that aren’t just code compliant, but thoughtfully built for long-term risk. As developers work to meet these expectations, we’re already seeing changes to the state's real estate market. [Source: Tampa Bay Business Journal]

New law requires flood disclosure in real estate deals

After Hurricane Ian devastated Fort Myers and other Gulf Coast communities in September 2022, many residents who bought or rented mobile homes or other units discovered they were living in flood zones. Most said they would have wanted that information before signing leases or purchase agreements. Beginning Oct. 1, real estate agents, rental management companies and private landlords in Florida will be legally required to disclose a property’s flood history and risk. [Source: Gulfshore Business]

Trapped by high costs and buyer’s market, South Florida condo owners are hurting

More condo owners, especially those in older, ill-maintained buildings in South Florida, are finding themselves caught between the closing walls of increasingly unaffordable ownership costs and a wary market, wherein to sell quickly they’d need to do so at a steep loss. The conditions have set the stage for a deepened affordability crisis that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta warns could undermine South Florida’s economy. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

STAT OF THE WEEK
$70 billion
Baby boomers hold nearly $18 trillion in U.S. real estate — and a large share is concentrated in Naples. A new study valued the Naples real estate owned by the 65+ demographic at $70 billion. [Source: South Florida Agent Magazine]

ALSO TRENDING:

› Is a coastal exodus helping Orlando's housing market? [Orlando Business Journal]
Housing markets along Florida's coasts are experiencing serious slowdowns as high insurance dampens buyer interest — a potential benefit to Central Florida’s inland markets. Homes on Florida’s Southwest coast, including Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Naples, are experiencing a dramatic cooling. In fact, many markets along Florida’s coasts are losing momentum from the previous year., while inland markets fare better.

› Miami-Dade commercial real estate sales climb to $3.4 billion in 1st half of 2025 [South Florida Business Journal]
Commercial real estate investment sales have surged in Miami-Dade County, with transaction volume increasing by double digits across all asset classes in the first half of the year. Transactions totaled $3.4 billion from January through June, Avison Young indicated in its semiannual U.S. investment sales report, which placed Miami at No. 1 in Florida and number No. 9 in the nation for sales volumes.

› Former Tampa Bay Times printing plant to be redeveloped with apartments and townhomes in North Kenwood [St. Pete Rising]
A major redevelopment is coming to the North Kenwood beighborhood of St. Petersburg, where the former Tampa Bay Times printing plant once buzzed with activity for over 60 years. Dallas-based real estate firm Crow Holdings, founded in 1948 by legendary developer Trammell Crow, has filed plans to build a 392-unit garden-style apartment complex. The plans, submitted on Monday to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, call for six four-story apartment buildings, a clubhouse, and 577 surface parking spaces..

› Developer plans to move forward with hundreds of apartments in Wekiva Study Area [Orlando Sentinel]
A developer’s controversial plan to build hundreds of apartments in the environmentally-sensitive Wekiva Study Area has reached an impasse with Seminole County officials, who say the project is not allowed under new restrictions written into a state affordable housing law. A recent county meeting with planning officials, developers and lawyers quickly took a heated turn when an attorney for the developer angrily threatened to sue Seminole if it doesn’t approve the project under the 2023 Live Local Act.

Florida bill would ban cell phones at school for elementary, middle school kids