Are Florida home values falling? Here's what the latest numbers show

• Recent national reports suggest Florida's home values are falling and foreclosures are rising.
• The Florida Realtors association reports that closed home sales and average sale prices actually increased in February.
• Realtors argue that national reports are using list prices, which are not the same as actual home values determined by closed sales.
• Despite some price reductions, distressed property sales remain a very small fraction of the overall Florida market.

[This story has been updated to change a quote by Realtor Jann Rotstein to one that more clearly states what she meant to convey.]

A pair of recent national reports have singled out Florida as the poster child for "falling home values" while another reported the state had the most foreclosures in the nation last year.

The Florida Realtors association on March 16 released new statewide home sales numbers that paint a different picture of the state's real estate market.

Closed sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose to 18,379 in February, up 3.9% from the same month last year. The median sale price held steady at $412,000, down just 0.7% from a year ago, while the average sale price rose to $639,288, up 1.7% from last year.

Sales of townhouses and condominiums in Florida rose in February to 7,060, up 8.6% from a year ago, while the median sale price dipped 1.9% to $309,000 and the average sale price rose 8.3% to $517,554.

As for foreclosures and short sales, Florida Realtors reported 236, just 1.3%, out of the total number of single-family homes sold in February. Distressed sales accounted for 79 − 1.1% − of the total number of townhouses and condos sold during the month.

"We have not seen prices really decline," said Joel Schemmel, a Realtor in Sarasota with the realty firm Douglas Elliman.

While median sale prices aren't rising rapidly like they did during the COVID-19 pandemic, which fueled a surge of people moving to Florida, "it's not really bad," said Schemmel of the current state of the Florida real estate market.

"The overall market here transaction-wise is up," he said, comparing this year so far with 2025, when home sales were "flat." "We've been very busy with showings and now we're starting to see offers come in. It's like the market was before COVID. It's a return to normal."

That's not how the trio of recent reports by Realtor.com depict the Florida real estate market.

Why are national reports saying Florida home values are falling?

The Austin, Texas-based real estate website published an article Dec. 15 with the headline: "Home values are falling in these 10 major metros — Florida dominates the list."

On Jan. 15, Realtor.com published a story titled "Florida had the most foreclosures in the U.S. in 2025 as rates continue to rise across the nation." It cited a report by the Irvine, California-based real estate data analytics company ATTOM that counted 34,336 "foreclosure starts" in Florida last year. ATTOM counts properties where default notices have been issued that might not necessarily end in foreclosure.

Realtor.com published another article on Feb. 4 with the headline: "Florida homeowners lost a median of $10,157 in home value last year."

In both its articles in December and February, Realtor.com cited as evidence that list prices for homes on the market in Florida in both late 2025 and January 2026 were down compared the same periods the year before.

The Dec. 15 article included six Florida metro areas in its list of the nation's top 10 housing markets showing "the greatest year-over-year median home value losses."

Northport-Bradenton-Sarasota ranked No. 1 with an 8.6% drop in median list price from $515,223 in late 2024 to $478,800 in late 2025.

Other Florida metro areas on the list:

• Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 2 with a 7.9% decline in median list price to $399,900.
• Lakeland-Winter Haven at No. 4 with a 4.4% decline to $339,900.
• Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach at No. 6 with a 4.4% decline to $398,351.
• Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater at No. 7 with a 4.2% decline to $400,000.
• Jacksonville at No. 8 with a 3.3% decline to $389,000.

The property appraiser's office for Volusia County — which includes the cities of Deltona, Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach — reported the combined "total just values" for real estate properties in that county in its latest fiscal year rose to a new record high $108.5 billion, up 3.8% from fiscal 2024.

List price is not an indicator of home value, say Florida Realtors

"List price and home value are not the same thing," said Brad O'Connor, chief economist for the Florida Realtors association. "If they (Realtor.com) are using list prices, it could be that home values are falling or it could be that this year's sellers are being more realistic."

List prices are the amount would-be sellers hope to get for their house, which may not always be realistic, according to Realtors.

"As agents, we really don't use list prices as an indicator of what a home is worth," said Mike George, who along with his wife Cindy, is an agent with LPT Realty in Lake Mary. The husband-wife Realtor team is based in New Smyrna Beach, which is part of the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach area.

"We look at what comparable homes actually sold for in the last 90 days," said George. "That's where a buyer and seller actually agree on a price. For actual home valuation, I look at a closed sale price, an arms-length transaction between an unrelated buyer and seller."

Asked for his take on the overall housing market in Florida, George said, "I don't see prices falling right now. Sellers are getting around 95% of their asking price. I see it as a healthy market that's fairly balanced between buyers and sellers."

Price reductions don't necessarily mean owners are willing to sell at a loss

A look at the sales history of randomly selected single-family homes currently on the market in the Daytona Beach area show show several with price reductions from the original list price, based on information publicly available on Zillow, Realtor.com and other real estate websites.

However, even at the lowered asking prices, the owners still stand to make a healthy profit compared to what they paid for their properties, property records of those homes show.

In Port Orange's Waters Edge community, for example, two three-bedroom, two-bath houses on the same cul-de-sac had for-sale signs on March 11.

The house at 6820 Amici Court was put on the market on Dec. 16 with a list price of $389,000. The asking price was reduced on Jan. 26 to $369,000 and lowered again on Feb. 25 to its current $359,000 asking price. It was put under contract four days later. The sellers paid $165,000 for the property in 2008.

Two doors over, the house at 6824 Amici Court was listed for sale on Nov. 11 for $405,000. The asking price was reduced on Jan. 14 to $403,000, and lowered again on Jan. 28 to $388,000. It was put under contract two days later. The owners paid $218,000 for it in 2008.

Around the corner, Jann Rotstein, a Realtor and property manager with Daytona Realty Inc., is representing the owners of a three-bedroom, two-bath house for sale at 1823 Creekwater Blvd.

The house, built in 2009, has already had two price reductions.

According to Zillow and Realtor.com, the house was originally listed for sale on Nov. 17 for $409,000. The asking price was lowered on Jan. 27 to $402,000 and lowered again on March 3 to $395,000.

The owners paid $245,000 for the house in 2017 and have used it as a rental property ever since.

While it has a new air-conditioner and new appliances, the house has had no other significant improvements and still has its original roof.

"Some sellers have flexibility in timing and are weighing their options rather than feeling pressure to sell quickly," said Rotstein.

In some cases, would-be sellers are simply testing the market to see what their homes would fetch.

"If there's no urgency to sell, they might put it out there with a high asking price just to see what happens," O'Connor said.

Distressed property sales in Florida remain few in number, so far

During the Great Recession and the years immediately following it, delinquency and foreclosure rates in Florida rose as high as 20% — one in five of all homes — in the first quarter of 2010, according to a 2026 study by Duke University.

Distressed sales of homes in Florida today are nowhere near that level. According to the Florida Realtors' latest statewide home sales report, foreclosures and short sales accounted for just 1.3% of the 18,143 total single-family homes sold in February, while distressed sales accounted for 1.1% of all townhouses and condos sold.

That said, the 175 foreclosures of single-family homes in Florida for the month were up 15% from the number in February 2025, while the 61 short sales were up 74% year-over-year. The 55 foreclosure sales of townhouses and condos were up 55% year-over-year, while the 20 short sales were up a whopping 233%.

"I'm not concerned with the level of foreclosures (and short sales) right now," said O'Connor. "It could double and still be just a tiny fraction."

One reason why Florida is unlikely to experience a flood of homes where the mortgage loans are underwater, meaning that the homeowners owe more than the property is worth, is because the adjustable rate mortgage loans that were so prevalent during the real estate bubble years that precipitated the Great Recession are few and far between today, said O'Connor.

"Most homeowners have fixed-rate mortgages and are not in danger of losing their homes even if home values dropped," he said.

Properly priced homes are still selling, say Florida Realtors

Ron Myers is a real estate investor and licensed real estate agent in Palm Beach County who owns a business in Wellington called Ron Buys Florida Homes.

"List prices are down across the board almost 5%," said Myers, who added, "Sellers are frustrated mainly because they feel we're still in the COVID era when homes were selling fast. During the pandemic, prices were skyrocketing."

"The problem is there are some homeowners who are hanging on to a number they saw at one time on Zillow that they can't get. They act as if Zillow is their bank account," he said of the real estate website's "Zestimate" feature.

"If their home isn't selling, for sellers would there their best best is the drop the price," said Myers.

Some would-be sellers get hung-up on price estimates they see online

As to whether home values are falling, it depends on when you bought your home, said Kati Spaniak, a Realtor in Jacksonville with eXp Realty.

"If you only bought three years ago (at the height of the COVID housing boom) and are trying sell it now, you might have to sell at a loss," she said. "But if you bought before COVID, most likely you're going to make a return."

Spaniak said she recently helped clients sell a home that they bought in 2019 for $735,000. While they did make some improvements to the property including adding a pool, they put it on the market for well over $1 million and were disappointed with how long it took to sell.

They wound up selling it for $1.1 million, but not the original much higher amount they were hoping for.

"The (original list) price was a touch high," Spaniak said.

The problem, according to Spaniak, is the "unrealistic prices" many would-be sellers are seeking because of the "unsustainably hot market" — Florida's COVID real estate boom — that began in late 2020 and continued through the end of 2023.

"Now we've returned more to normal," she said, adding that homes in general are selling for more than they were before 2020, but not for the prices they might have gotten during the COVID real estate boom.

It's all a matter of perspective, said Myers. "If they bought the house 10 years ago, obviously it's worth more today, but is it worth more than it was six months ago? I'd argue it's not. In my opinion, everything is still over-priced even now. If it wasn't, properties would be flying off the shelf."

Economist defends company's claims about Florida's housing market

Joel Berner, a senior economist with Realtor.com, responded via email to questions from USA Today Network-Florida about his company's recent reports about the Florida real estate market.

"While the data we generally share focuses on active listing data, this specific information is based on direct value estimates rather than list prices," he wrote. "We have data providers that send us results from their Automated Valuation Models for each property in the country, and that is what is used here. ...

"Our Automated Valuation Model (AVM) is designed to incorporate recent sales as comparable properties. While the jump in closed sales you noted is encouraging and may lead to upcoming jumps in AVM valuations, we observed a trend throughout 2025 where homes generally lost value. The uptick in sales activity suggests that the market may be reaching a price point that is finally attracting buyers.

"The increase in sales activity you pointed out is a healthy sign. This is a favorable environment for buyers who were previously priced out and could be a good opportunity to buy."

Clayton Park is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. He covers everything from insurance, utilities and home prices to groceries, gas and auto prices as the Florida consumer pocketbook reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to [email protected]. You can get all of Florida's best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://news-journalonline.com/newsletters.