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Florida’s housing market is entering a stretch where the next few months could say a lot about where the rest of 2026 is headed.

Florida Realtors® Chief Economist Dr. Brad O’Connor said one key metric is worth watching closely: how long it takes homes to go under contract.

In April, single-family homes sold in Florida spent a median of 44 days from listing to contract. That was almost identical to April 2019 and April 2025, two years that started from a similar place but moved in very different directions afterward.

“In 2019, time on market kind of settled down into the summer and remained pretty consistent the remainder of the year, whereas last year, time on market grew significantly over the remainder of the year,” O’Connor said during Florida Realtors’ April housing market update. “So one question we might ask ourselves is, which path will 2026 take?”

The answer matters for Realtors because time on market can shape inventory, pricing strategy and seller expectations.

If homes sell more quickly, inventory could tighten, putting more upward pressure on prices. If homes sit longer, buyers may gain more negotiating room and sellers may need to adjust expectations sooner.

That makes local market data especially important heading into the summer. Realtors® may want to watch days on market, price reductions, pending sales and neighborhood-level inventory before advising buyers or sellers based solely on statewide trends.

April offered some reason to watch closely. Closed single-family sales rose nearly 2.5% year over year, marking the eighth consecutive month of annual gains. New pending sales, a forward-looking measure, rose 8% compared with April 2025.

“As a result, I think we can be pretty confident that our run of rising closed sales will continue into May, and likely June,” O’Connor said. “Only time will tell.”

The broader takeaway: Florida’s market has not clearly chosen its 2026 path yet.

For Realtors, that means the most useful question may not be whether the market is hot or cold statewide. It may be whether local homes are starting to move more like 2019, when conditions settled into a steady pattern, or more like 2025, when time on market continued to grow.

© 2026 Florida Realtors®