Florida House Prices Slashed by Nearly 25% of Sellers

Amid an ongoing insurance crisis and lingering high mortgage rates, Florida homeowners are slashing prices to make their properties more appealing—with nearly 25 percent currently selling for less than they originally asked for.

As of early Monday, Florida had a total of 202,463 properties—including houses, condos, single-family and multi-family homes, townhomes, and lots—listed by agents on Zillow, and 8,654 listed by owners and others. Among all properties listed by agents, 47,335 appeared in the "price reduction" category, while among those listed by owners the number went down to 1,167—for a total of 48,502.

The numbers were noticed by vacation rental investor Rohin Dhar, who first posted them on social media and compared the rate of properties sold at a price reduction in Florida with those in Texas and California.

As of early Monday, Texas had a total of 176,957 properties listed by agents on Zillow and 9,802 by owners and others. Of the property listed by agents, 28,184 had a price reduction, while 1,053 of those listed by owners and others were going for a lower price.

In California, there were a total of 73,506 properties listed by agents and 3,997 listed by owners and others. Of the first, 9,545 had a price reduction; among the second, the number was only 310.

The percentage of properties with a price reduction in Texas and California, respectively about 16.7 and 13.5 percent, was lower than those in Florida, which were about 24.3 percent of all properties.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), previously told Newsweek that Florida homeowners' willingness to sell—even at a lower price—might be due to the home appreciation the state has seen since the pandemic.

"Florida had the highest home price appreciation over the past three years, and some people may be cashing out," Yun said, adding that the higher insurance premiums in the state might also be playing a role.

"Property insurance readjustments—like any other added cost of ownership—will induce some additional sellers," he said. "Some retired homeowners on fixed income could be forced to sell."

Home insurance in Florida was among the highest in the country after having increased by 102 percent in the past three years, according to data from the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) cited by Fox 13.

Florida Realtors chief economist Brad O'Connor previously told Newsweek that an increase in the number of sellers might be linked to the fact that many homeowners who had been avoiding moving from their properties to dodge higher mortgages now believe rates won't go further up.

"I think people are now more comfortable with the fact that interest rates are up here to stay," O'Connor said. "I think initially when rates rose quickly, people were uncertain as to where they would go from there. But now we're pretty much in a situation where I think everyone is comfortable with the idea that rates are probably going to stay about where they're at, or they're going to decline somewhat in the next year or two."