The typical Broward County homeowner spent 6.8 years in their home before selling in 2022, which was a comeback to 2019, pre-pandemic figures. After a brief period of time in 2020, when tenure dipped to reach 6.7 years, followed by a similarly subtle increase to 7.0 years in 2021, homeowners in Florida’s second-most populous county returned to their buying and selling patterns from before the pandemic.
Here are some more highlights from our homeowner tenure analysis for Broward County:
- Compared to 2019, homeowners held onto their homes for slightly longer in 2021, but the median homeowner tenure reverted to its pre-pandemic level of 6.8 years in 2022.
- This might mean that many homeowners became more averse to risk and change during the pandemic and decided to wait out the instability, postponing selling and buying, but not for long.
- Broward County owners preferred modular and mobile homes: At 7.6 years, these homes recorded the longest tenures, followed at a distance by condos, where the median owner spent 7.1 years.
- Owners in the county were quite divided when it came to home size: They either loved the smallest homes the most, or the homes that were 2,000 to 3,000 square feet in size, as homes in these categories had the longest tenures.
- Their least favorite were the homes ranging between 500 and 1,000 square feet and that were less than 5 years old.
- Of the county’s 5 largest cities, owners preferred Miramar, Pembroke Pines and Hollywood: Single-family homeowners in Miramar and Pembroke Pines kept their homes for 7.9 and 7.8 years before selling, while condo owners in Hollywood held out the longest at 7.8 years.
County Stats: Median Homeowner Tenure Returned to 6.8 Years in 2022
Overall, mobile homes in the county boast the longest tenures, while co-op owners kept their homes for the least amount of time, no matter the year
Although condos, mobile homes and single family homes all recorded slight increases in tenure in 2021, homeowner tenure for co-ops fell from a high of 6.9 years in 2020 to reach 5.4 years in 2021, barely above the mark for their owners to see a modicum of a deal, per the five-year rule. In the real estate industry, the so-called five-year rule states that homebuyers should wait at least five years before selling and moving, to avoid losing money.
What’s more, owner tenure for co-ops cratered in 2022: At 3.6 years, it wasn’t only the lowest median tenure of all home types last year, but of all four years taken into consideration in the analysis. This means that, aside from being relatively rare in Florida, the many disadvantages of buying and owning a co-op are much clearer to Floridians than the pros of owning this type of property.
Aside from the arduous vetting and approval process, co-ops make it impossible for their owners to build equity, which doesn’t seem to go a long way in sparking Broward County’s residents’ love for this type of property. Whether home seekers see them as potential homes or just investment properties, their appeal is extremely low.
That was definitely not the case with mobile homes and even condos. Home owners in Broward County held onto mobile homes for 7.6 years. Although this number was the lowest it had been in four years, it was still higher than the median tenure for all the other property types. After staying at 7.8 years in 2019 and 2020, it briefly climbed to 7.9 years in 2021, only to fall to 7.6 in 2022.
With their median tenure of 7.1 years, condos were a close second. Despite their promise of more space and more privacy, single-family homes in Broward County only recorded the third highest tenure, meaning they came after mobile homes and condos in Floridians' preferences.
When it came to home age, Broward County homeowners had two clear preferences: Homes 11 to 20 years old and homes 21 to 50 years old had the longest homeowner tenures. In fact, only homes older than 51 years old had slightly longer tenures, while homes in the other categories weren't even close.
Recently-built homes, or homes under five years old were Broward County owners' least favorite. Although it makes sense for homes under five years old to have the lowest tenure, it was obvious owners weren't dragging their feet when upgrading: After a median of 2.3 years, homeowners already decided to sell and possibly look for something better.
Analyzing homeowner tenure by square footage, a most curious trend took shape: Broward County owners held on the longest to homes with the least available square footage. At 7.5 years, the tenure for homes less than 500 square feet in size was longer than for any of the other categories.
Homes ranging 2,000 to 3,000 square feet came second, with a median tenure of 7.3 years. However, homes in all the other categories had tenures below 7 years, and even below 6 years. The most surprising of all was the fact that homes in what appeared to be opposing categories had two of the lowest tenures: Homes between 500 and 1,000 square feet and homes larger than 5,000 square feet both had tenures of less than 6 years.
This could be proof that the largest homes could simply be too unaffordable to keep for long, while smaller homes could be too uninviting to bare.
Top 5 Cities: Owners of Single-Family Homes in Miramar Held Onto Their Homes Longest
At the opposite end, Fort Lauderdale co-op owners sold their homes after only 2.7 years
Compared to 2019, when the median homeowner tenure in Miramar was 7.1 years, in 2022 it reached 7.8 years. What's more, despite being the largest increase of the five most populous cities in Broward County, this number is actually down compared to 2021, when it stood at 8.4 years. Residents in Miramar definitely decided to hold onto their homes for longer.
The same couldn't be said about residents in the other four large cities in the county: Hollywood saw the median homeowner tenure increase, but only slightly, from 6.7 to 6.8 years, whereas tenure in the other cities actually decreased. Homeowners here were selling their homes faster than before, either because they decided to upgrade, move to a different city or simply give up an investment property in order to take advantage of the rapidly rising prices.
Owners of 3,000- to 5,000-Square-Foot Homes in Miramar Stayed There Longest, Unlike Owners in Fort Lauderdale
Owners in Broward county's largest cities love spacious homes. With only a few exceptions, homes ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet, and also homes in the 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot range had the longest tenures.
With median tenures ranging between a meager 4.0 years and much more impressive 8.7 years, it's safe to say homeowners in some cities liked their homes better than owners in other cities. For example, owners of homes ranging between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet from Fort Lauderdale sold their homes after only four years. Similarly, owners of homes larger than 5,000 square feet from Miramar and Fort Lauderdale, as well as owners of homes between 500 and 1,000 square feet in Hollywood spent only slightly more than four years in their home before selling.
However, other homeowners waited much longer before selling their homes, which could prove their home, or their city was a better fit: Owners of large homes from Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood and Coral Springs kept their homes for at least 8 years before selling.
Pembroke Pines stole the show in this category: Owners of homes larger than 5,000 square feet spent an impressive 11.4 years in their homes before selling.
Looking at homeowner tenure by home age, owners' preference for homes aged 11 to 20 years old became obvious. No matter the city, these homes had the longest median tenure, almost all of them longer than 8 years.
Homes between 21 and 50 years old were a close second, but the median tenure here was less than 8 years in all the cities. Two surprising facts came from Miramar and Pembroke Pines: Although homes over 51 years old generally had shorter tenures, in these cities they were higher than 8 years.
Although it's normal for newer homes to have shorter tenures, it was obvious that owners in Broward County's largest cities are not jumping at the possibility to buy and own a new home for too long: Miramar led the way, with the absolute shortest tenure for new homes, while Pembroke Pines owners spent quite a bit more before selling their new home.
In this case, it's also possible that many of the newer homes are seen as the more affordable, starter properties that first-time buyers opt for. As such, it makes sense that they would upgrade as soon as possible, or as soon as a new job or family addition demanded it.
There are many factors that influence how long owners keep a home before selling. Property type, square footage and home age are just three of them, but more important than these, location and economic factors play a hugely important role. As such, they might also affect how much time owners spend in a home before deciding to upsize or upgrade. A new job in another city, a growing family or simply a need for change could convince current homeowners to look for better options.
Methodology
- Working with proprietary data from our sister company PropertyShark, we looked at all home sales in Broward County and its five largest cities from 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 that also had a previous sale date. Consequently, we excluded all properties that didn't have at least two reported transactions.
- We calculated the homeowner tenure as the difference (in years) between the most recent sale date (for all four years of reference, meaning 2022, 2021, 2020 or 2019) and the previous sale date.
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