Prices of existing condos in Palm Beach County plunged 30 percent in October - the sharpest annual decline since the Florida Association of Realtors started tracking them in January 2006.
The median price of an existing condo in Palm Beach County was $158,900 in October, the association said Wednesday, down from $225,500 in the same month last year.
"Individual sellers are becoming more realistic and lowering prices," said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach real estate consultant specializing in the condo market. Seller incentives have failed, he said, and appraisers have "returned to fundamentals."
Palm Beach County has a 35-month supply of existing condo units, McCabe noted.
These are existing condo units, so what's likely going on here is that speculators snapped a bunch of new development and are now watching their money disappear. Or, more likely, the banks who lent them money are watching their money disappear.