Many walk away from housing purchases

More homebuyers have been backing out of home-purchase agreements in many parts of Florida and across the U.S., a new analysis shows. Florida and Texas are seeing more newly built homes “than anywhere else in the country, ”leading some buyers to back out of deals because they feel they might find a better option, according to Redfin, a real estate data and service provider. About 53,000 home-purchase agreements—or 15.1%of homes that went under contract in October—got canceled in the U.S. that month, according to a recent Redfin analysis. That’s up from 14.3%inOctober 2024. And several metropolitan parts of Florida saw higher cancellation rates in October when compared to a year earlier: Fort Lauderdale region: A fifth of overall pending sales, or 20%, fell out of contract in October, or higher than the 17.5%recorded in October 2024. Miami region: 17.6%of pending sales fell out of contract in October. It was 16.6%a year earlier. Orlando region: 19.1%of pending sales fell out of contract in October, higher than the 18.6%documented a year earlier. Jacksonville region: 19.2%of pending sales fell out of contract in October. It was 18.9%inOctober 2024. Still, not all large metropolitan areas in Florida experienced higher cancellation rates. The West Palm Beach region saw 14.1%of pending sales fall out of contract in October, the same as a year earlier. The Tampa region had 19.1%of pending sales fall out of contract in October, or less than the 22.2% recorded a year earlier. Redfin’s analysis relied on MLS pending-sales data. “The data is seasonal, which is why it compared this October to past Octobers, ”Redfin said. Contributing factors Buyers seeing more new homes in Florida and Texas likely is a contributing factor to why they’re backing out of purchases. Other factors could be homeowner association fees and insurance rates. Dave Magua, a Keyes Company broker associate, put together a report about home-sale cancellations in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He found six key drivers behind the cancellations: —Insurance costs have soared in Florida, with homeowners paying more than$3,000 above the national average. This leads to unpredictable and unaffordable long-term ownership costs, and buyers often don’t know about these “true costs” until after signing a contract, Magua’s report states https://enewspaper.sun-sentinel.com/shortcode/SUN315/edition/4e89e670-3ed4-40e3-bf2a-84200d7469ea?page=a76c4782-e1dc-426f-b091-089728bf0159&