According to the December 2024 Market Report by the Naples Area Board of REALTORS® (NABOR®), the Naples, Florida, area housing market ended the year with a 26% increase in new listings for December. Overall inventory increased 35.7% to 5,695 properties from 4,198 properties in December 2023. Notably, most of the inventory available is now in the $500,000 to $1.5 million price category. We are also at 8.6 months of inventory in December, and back to a more balanced market.
For December, overall closed sales increased 4.6% to 594 closed sales from 568 closed sales in December 2023. Furthermore, the higher inventory resulted in a 7.4% increase in pending sales during December. While nationwide mortgage rates have actually increased, 57.9% of all Naples, Florida, area sales recorded during December were all cash sales. According to the December report, the $500,000 to $1.5 million price category reported the highest number of closed sales (3,862) during 2024.
With many more options available to buyers, the average days on the market increased 42.4% to 84 days compared to 59 days in December 2023. (Historically, days on market have averaged 90 to 120 days.) The December report also showed 1,076 price decreases for the month, which could help make properties more attractive to buyers during this selling season.
While the median closed sale price in the single family home market remained stable, increasing moderately by 2.3%, December saw a 13.9% decrease in the median closed sale price in the condominium market from December 2023. In fact, median closed sale prices for condominiums located in the Naples Beach area (zip codes 34102, 34103 and 34108) decreased significantly by 29.6% from December 2023.
A relatively new factor, which may continue to impact the cost of condo ownership, is the new Florida law requiring residential condominium associations to complete structural integrity reserve studies for buildings that are three or more stories tall. It also requires associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs and to conduct a survey of reserves every decade. Depending on the age of the property, the findings of these reports could result in condominium associations assessing higher fees on owners to fund the reserves and repair costs. Thus, condo assessment increases may well have been a factor driving the median closed sale price decrease for condominiums in the Naples Beach area during December.