Three Miami-Area Cities Have Nation's Strongest Buyers' Markets

The United States housing market is oversaturated with sellers, so much so that real estate company Redfin says sellers have never outnumbered buyers to this degree since they began collecting data on the topic in 2013.

Redfin ranked cities with the highest disparities between sellers and buyers; three South Florida cities claimed the top three spots. Sellers outnumber buyers nearly three to one in Miami, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, according to Redfin.

While Redfin says the buyers' market extends across the country, nowhere is it stronger than South Florida. "Six of the top ten buyer’s markets are in Florida, and one is in Texas," the study reads.

The study ranks Miami, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale as the top three cities with the greatest imbalance between buyers and sellers, with significantly more available listings than buyers. Jacksonville comes in at fifth, Tampa at sixth, and Orlando at ninth place.

The Sun Belt's surging popularity during the pandemic, when droves of people were moving from more expensive parts of the country, caused home prices to rise, according to Redfin. "To meet surging demand, homebuilders ramped up activity — especially in Florida and Texas, where there is now a housing surplus."

In February, Redfin reported that Florida's housing inventory hit a record high, driven by a surge in homebuilding, rising insurance costs from natural disasters, and soaring HOA fees pushing condo owners to sell. During the same month, Florida's housing inventory hit a record high, at more than 172,000 homes for sale.

While the housing surplus has contributed to dropping home prices year over year in Jacksonville and Tampa, home prices from the previous year increased by 5.6 percent in Miami, 2.7 percent in West Palm Beach, and 1.2 percent in Fort Lauderdale.

But, according to Redfin experts, relief is in sight. The company expects home prices to drop by about 1 percent over the next year.

"Prospective buyers may see their purchasing power increase, and prospective sellers should consider selling sooner rather than later," the study states.

Redfin used active MLS listings to estimate the number of sellers in the top 50 metro markets. They tracked data on pending sales to estimate the number of active buyers, finding that sellers outnumbered buyers in 31 of the cities.

The company found about 1.9 million home sellers and about 1.5 million buyers in the U.S. That's the highest number of sellers since March 2020, when 2 million people were trying to sell homes at the beginning of the pandemic.

"At no other point in records dating back to 2013 have sellers outnumbered buyers by this large of a number," according to Redfin. " In other words, it’s a buyer’s market."

In 2024, sellers outnumbered buyers by a small margin, and buyers outnumbered sellers just two years ago, according to the company.*

"The balance of power in the U.S. housing market has shifted toward buyers, but many sellers have yet to see or accept the writing on the wall," Redfin senior economist Asad Khan said in the study. "Many are still holding out hope that their home is the exception and will fetch top dollar."

"But as sellers see their homes sit longer on the market and notice fewer buyers coming through on tour, more of them will realize the market has adjusted and reset their expectations accordingly."

Redfin economists pointed to several factors contributing to the buyer's market, including the high cost of buying a home and economic uncertainty.

The national median home price rose about 1.6 percent from 2024 to about $432,000. Like everything in South Florida, home prices are much steeper; the median home sale price in Miami is about $575,000, West Palm Beach ($514,000), and Fort Lauderdale ($452,000), according to Redfin data.

President Donald Trump's recent tariff threats are also cooling homebuyer demand; Redfin reports that one in four Americans are shelving major purchases.