Shenandoah Miami Real Estate: 2023 Year in Review

If 2021 and 2022 were about speed, 2023 was the year Shenandoah’s market reset. Buyers slowed down and started negotiating again, yet our neighborhood still had one of its strongest years on record. 118 single-family homes closed, up from 107 in 2022, even as single-family sales across Miami-Dade County fell 14%. Total sales volume reached $103.6 million, the highest of any year since at least 2016. The median sale price rose 5.0% to $798,000, and the median price per square foot rose 8.9% to $501, crossing $500 for the first time.

The backdrop was the steepest climb in borrowing costs in a generation. The Federal Reserve kept raising rates through July, bringing its benchmark rate to its highest level in 22 years. Thirty-year mortgage rates followed, peaking at 7.79% in late October, the highest in more than two decades, before easing to about 6.6% by December. Add the regional bank failures in the spring and steep increases in homeowners insurance costs across Florida, and buyers became far more cautious about what they would pay. Many of our neighbors with low-rate mortgages chose to stay put, which kept the number of homes for sale in check.

The biggest change I noticed was in negotiating power. In 2022, homes sold in a median of 28 days, and 43% sold at or above asking. In 2023, the median time on market nearly doubled to 54 days, only 18% sold at or above asking, and 44% of sales needed a price reduction, up from 26%. The typical home sold at 92.9% of its original list price, down from 97.2%. Prices held up, but sellers who priced for 2022 conditions found themselves chasing the market.

At the top of the market, new construction set the pace. Shenandoah’s two highest sales were both newly built homes: 2134 SW 10th Street at $2,200,000 and 2015 SW 13th Street at $2,050,000. Sales of $1 million and above rose to 30, a quarter of the market. Featured below are two of my 2023 closings in our neighborhood: 2214 SW 17th Terrace, which sold in July for $796,000, and 2177 SW 12th Street, which sold in October for $1,275,000.

2023 was a memorable year for the neighborhood itself. In February, the Miami Shenandoah Neighborhood Association organized a historic walking tour of Shenandoah with historian Dr. Paul George of HistoryMiami, exploring the stories behind our homes and streets. And in June, I attended the grand opening of the new Shenandoah Park Pool & Aquatic Center, part of a roughly $9 million redevelopment of Shenandoah Park that added an Olympic-size pool, new locker rooms, walking trails and a rebuilt basketball court.