Why 2024 – 2025 Could Be the Best Time to Buy a Home in Florida, Ever

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Florida is currently the strongest buyer’s market in the United States, and we have a wealth of data to support that statement.

According to numerous reports, the state of Florida has turned into one big buyer’s market. Major housing markets like Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville currently offer the most buyer-friendly conditions that we’ve seen in years.

Local home buyers often ask: Is now a good time to buy a house in Florida?

And for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025, the answer is a resounding yes.

This guide explains (A) how Florida transitioned into a buyer’s market, and (B) what it means for those who plan to buy a home in the Sunshine State later this year or in 2025.

Report: Florida One of the Best Markets for Home Buyers in 2024

From a buyer’s perspective, an ideal real estate market has the following:

• Plenty of properties available to choose from
• Motivated sellers who are willing to negotiate
• A slow pace that allows for careful consideration

And that’s Florida in a nutshell, as of summer 2024.

In fact, according to one report, Florida currently has some of the most buyer-friendly housing markets of any state in the nation. And those conditions could continue into 2025 as well.

In August, housing market analysts from Realtor.com published a list of the “easiest” real estate markets for home buyers. These are cities and metro areas where buyers have the most bargaining power, due to local supply and demand conditions.

Florida dominated their ranking, with nine of the top 10 spots.

Here are the 10 markets where buyers have the most power in 2024:

1. Lubbock, Texas
2. Punta Gorda, Fla.
3. Lakeland, Fla.
4. Crestview, Fla.
5. Tampa, Fla.
6. North Port, Fla.
7. Miami, Fla.
8. Port St. Lucie, Fla.
9. Gainesville, Fla.
10. Orlando, Fla.

To quote the August 2024 Realtor.com report:

“Florida markets dominate this list because they’ve seen some of the highest growth in active listings, both year over year and since before the pandemic. Many cities, such as Punta Gorda, are also seeing price corrections after overheating during the pandemic housing boom.”

Exhibit 1: More Homes on the Market in 2024

On August 1, Realtor.com also published their latest nationwide housing market update with data for the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. Their researchers track a variety of metrics for major cities across the U.S., including the number of active real estate listings.

According to their August housing market report:

“July brings a growth in inventory across the country as all four regions saw active inventory grow year-over-year. Nationwide the total number of homes for sale increased by 22.6%, growing for the ninth straight month and surpassing last month’s rate of 22.4%.”

Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami

We downloaded their data for the 50 largest U.S. metros and sorted it based on the year-over-year change in active listings. This revealed which real estate markets had the biggest increase in inventory over the past year.

Florida metros took four of the top seven spots, with Tampa way ahead of the pack.

Metro Area	Active Listings YoY
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.	+94.90%
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.	+78.70%
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, Calif.	+77.70%
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colo.	+75.10%
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.	+73.50%
Jacksonville, Fla.	+73.30%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla.	+71.60%
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Ariz.	+60.90%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.	+60.70%
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C.-S.C.	+59.70%

Individual home buyers must decide for themselves if it’s the right time to purchase a home. And a lot of different factors play into that decision, including financial circumstances, employment, and long-term plans.

But from an inventory and bargaining standpoint, the rest of 2024 will bring a lot of opportunity for home buyers across the state of Florida.

We expect these favorable conditions to extend into 2025 as well.

Exhibit 2: Slower Price Growth, Less Urgency

During the pandemic years of 2020 to 2022, home prices in Florida skyrocketed like never before. You can see this is the graph below, which shows the median home value for the Sunshine State going back eight years.

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You can also see how home prices in Florida leveled off in 2023 and into 2024. Today, house values are rising at a much slower pace and have flattened in some cities across the state.

Here are Zillow’s home-price forecasts for Florida’s major metropolitan areas over the next 12 months, stretching into summer 2025:

• Jacksonville: 0.1%
• Miami: 2.0%
• Orlando: 0.8%
• Tampa: 1.2%

Slower price growth can benefit home buyers in several ways, including the following:

• Affordability: It narrows the gap between price growth and wage growth, which ultimately increases affordability within the housing market.
• Urgency: It takes some of the stress and urgency out of the home buying process. Buyers don’t feel as rushed to get ahead of fast-rising prices.
• Equity: When home prices decline following a sharp rise (as they did in 2023), it gives buyers a chance to come in at the “bottom” of the market. This creates a high likelihood for sustained price growth going forward. 

This overlaps with the trends outlined in the previous and next section. They’re all connected. A cooling real estate market created an inventory pileup, which in turn led to price declines and a gradual shift toward a buyer’s market.

Exhibit 3: Sellers Are More Willing to Negotiate

It also takes longer for Florida home sellers to sell their properties these days, compared to a year ago. Sales have slowed, there are fewer buyers, and houses are sitting on the market for longer periods of time before going under contract.

Because of these trends, most sellers are more eager to negotiate over the sale price and other terms—if it will help them land a buyer.

The following graph shows the percentage of real estate listings with a price reduction. Such reductions occur when a homeowner comes onto the market at once price point, but later reduces the sale price due to a lack of offers.

What to notice: Florida (green line) has a much higher percentage of price cuts when compared to most other states (red line).

The main reason for this has to do with the overall pace of the real estate market. In most Florida cities, the median number of “days on market” has increased significantly over the past year or two. That means it takes a lot longer to sell a home these days.

The following table shows the median days on market during July 2024. “Median DOM” is the midpoint (similar to an average) for how long homes stay on the market before being sold. The right column shows how that number has changed over the past year.

Metro Area	Median DOM (July)	Year-Over-Year Change
Jacksonville	57	+7
Miami-Fort Lauderdale	72	+8
Orlando-Kissimmee	58	+12
Tampa-St. Petersburg	59	+13

All of the DOM numbers shown above exceed the national average, and especially Miami. This shows that Florida’s housing market is generally moving at a slower pace, giving buyers plenty of time to consider the merits of each individual property.

This provides further evidence that now could be a good time to buy a home in Florida, with buyer’s market conditions spreading across the state.

For Many Floridians, Now Is a Great Time to Buy a Home

We could be witnessing the best time to buy a home in the state of Florida, perhaps ever.

The problem is that a lot of would-be home buyers don’t realize this.

They might not know there are more homes available … or that they have more negotiating leverage … or that sellers are slashing their prices at a rate we haven’t seen in years.

And that’s precisely why we publish reports like this. We want aspiring homeowners to know that current conditions could be ideal for buying a home in Florida.

Of course, buyers still need to perform their own due diligence. They need to review their finances, establish a budget, and consider their long-term housing goals.

But from a real estate market standpoint, the rest of 2024 and 2025 could be a great time to buy a home in the Sunshine State.