Miami Metro Area Home Sales Surge in March

The Miami metro area housing market is heating up. According to a ""report"":http://www.dqnews.com/Articles/2010/News/Miami/RRDAFL100430.aspx recently released by ""MDA DataQuick"":http://www.dataquick.com/, a San Diego-based provider of property data,[IMAGE]

6,658 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in March in the metro area encompassing Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward counties. This was the highest number of total escrow closings for March since 2007.

As a result, total home sales were up 43.3 percent from February and were 43.1 percent higher than March 2009. MDA DataQuick said a month-to-month increase in sales is normal for the season, but the notable 43.3 percent

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gain was well above the average February-to-March increase of 30.8 percent since 1997, when the firm's complete Miami-area stats began.

March marked the 13th consecutive month in which the region's overall sales rose on a year-over-year basis, and it marked the 16th straight month that re-sales of single-family detached houses and condos combined have increased from one year to the next. In addition, new-home sales in March were higher than a year ago for the first time since last November, but were still the second-lowest for March in the history of MDA DataQuick's stats for the Miami metro area.

Data regarding home prices was mixed. The median price for all new and resale houses and condos sold in March in the Miami metro area was $142,000, up 0.5 percent from February but down 11.3 percent from March 2009. The last time the median was higher than this was in December of last year.

March's median price was 51 percent below the peak median in June 2007, as prices have fallen on a year-over-year basis for 30 consecutive months. However, the 11.3 percent drop from March of last year to March of this year marked the smallest year-over-year decline since May 2008.