Collapse in once-booming Florida real estate hotspot is ‘breathtaking’

The Miami housing market is on a knife-edge as spiraling numbers of homebuyers pull out of deals. It’s the latest area in the Sunshine State at risk of a crash.

Inventory is flooding the market, prices are being slashed, and sales are stalling —as the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs raise fears of a recession. 

‘April pending sales are way down and it will be even worse next month,’ says local Florida realtor Jeff Lichtenstein.

‘It really started about two weeks ago with all the jitters and up and down Wall Street everyday day. Uncertainty is an issue.’

In March, 18 percent of pending home sales in Miami fell through, according to Redfin. 

That gives the city the 20th-highest cancellation rate among the 50 largest US metropolitan areas. 

‘The collapse in demand in Miami’s housing market is breathtaking,’ real estate analyst Nick Gerli, CEO of real estate analysis platform Reventure App, wrote on X.

‘Sales are down 50 percent from pandemic peak, and are 30 percent below the long-term average for March.

‘There’s a narrative building in Florida that somehow Miami won’t be impacted by this housing downturn. And that narrative is likely wrong.’

Lichtenstein says the market has gotten so bad he is now going over strategies in order to educate his clients on what to do.

‘Sellers have to be more flexible and prepared so they get homes under contract and have deals stick,’ he says.

‘Pre-inspections are a must so don’t have uglies found at inspection which results in cancellation.’

Lichtenstein adds that sellers need to make decisions quicker now (within 24 hours) as buyers are bailing the more time they have to think.

‘Someone flighty could fly away and buy next year,’ he says.

Long inspection periods, drawn out closing times and weekslong mortgage approvals are also causing buyers to bail.

‘Inspections need to be done in 5-7 days, closings done within 30 days, mortgage approvals within 15 days instead of a month, and a hefty percent down,’ Lichtenstein adds.

‘If a buyer decides to walk, the more money a seller has down, the better the situation they are in,’ he says.

The median sale price of a home in Miami is $650,000.

Along with single family homes, condos in the area have become a huge problem.

‘That part has everything to do with higher assessments older condos had to face in order to fix any repairs that were needed from mandatory state inspections and putting in proper reserves,’ he says.

‘Higher insurance isn’t helping.’

During the pandemic, Florida saw a boom in sales as buyers were able to work remote and loved the weather, low taxes, and affordable cost of living.

The Miami market saw a nearly 50 percent uptick in listings from March 2024 to March 2025, ‘a bigger increase than normal,’ according to Realtor.com.

Homes are also sitting on the market longer and being priced too high, causing potential buyers to get cold feet about the purchase.

Homeowner association (HOA) fees and insurance premiums are also turning buyers off. Natural disasters are scaring people away from the area too.

Gerli reports that there are up to 51,000 homes for sale in the Miami metro area, which includes Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade county, which is a record high for the area.

To attract buyers, the Florida markets now need to undergo a price correction, Lichtenstein says.

‘On the other hand we’ve had some buyers still want money in real estate,’ he says. ‘Tariffs are the wildcard.’