If you’ve been looking to purchase a house on the Vero barrier island, a springtime window of opportunity would appear to be opening.

The single-family home market in 32963 has shifted in buyers favor, with a 12-month supply of homes built up as of early April.

The standoff between buyers and sellers that characterized the island market for the past two years, with sellers still hoping for pandemic prices and buyers ever more value conscious, has ended.

“It is a buyer’s market on the island,” says ONE Sotheby’s International Realty broker associate Cindy O’Dare. “Listings are stacking up and supply and demand is very uneven at the moment.”

“I would call it a buyer’s market, not a balanced market, on the island,” says Douglas Elliman broker associate Sally Daley. “For single-family homes in 32963, 56 percent of active listings have had a price reduction in order to attract a buyer.”

Single-family home inventory in 32963 was up 24 percent in March compared to March 2024, according to figures provided by O’Dare’s business partner, ONE Sotheby’s agent Richard Boga.

And data provided by Daley shows inventory continuing to increase, up 30 percent in mid-April compared to a year earlier.

There were approximately 240 price reductions on island homes during the first quarter, with reductions often outnumbering new listings on the hot sheet that shows daily real estate activity.

“Sellers whose homes have been on the market for a year or more are finally giving way and saying, ‘What is it going to take to sell the house?’” says Boga. “They are conceding that the tide has turned, and buyers are in the driver’s seat.”

Dale Sorensen Real Estate broker Matilde Sorensen agreed that the market is trending in buyers’ favor, adding the caveat that “it depends on the neighborhood.”

It also depends on the market segment and the individual house.

While sales numbers and volume were down in the first quarter in most price segments on the island – under $1 million, $3 million to $5 million, and over $5 million – sales and dollar volume were up in the $1 million to $3 million range. “That segment may have gotten a boost from high-end condo buyers who got cold feet because of all the negative press about condos and decided to spend a couple of hundred thousand more and get into a single-family home,” Boga says.

At the same time, a seller with a newly renovated home in any price range, with a new roof and updated systems in a nice neighborhood between the bridges, still has more leverage in dealing with buyers than the seller of a home that needs work and is in a less convenient location.

The north island club communities – John’s Island, Orchid Island and Windsor – are examples of neighborhoods where the market remains more balanced or may even favor sellers, in part because homes behind those gates come with country club memberships that can be hard to secure elsewhere.

“The market is still strong in the elite, north island club communities,” says O’Dare. “They are outperforming the rest of the island.”

“The waitlists for membership at other island clubs increases the appeal of those communities,” says Boga.

Looking at sales across the 32963 area in the first quarter, unit sales were steady, and dollar volume was down by only about 7 percent.

But when JI, Orchid and Windsor are excluded from calculations, first-quarter unit sales for the rest of the island were down slightly, year over year, and dollar volume was 20 percent lower, according to figures provided by Boga.

While many sellers are becoming more realistic about pricing their homes, some are still holding out hope for higher prices than the current market supports.

“I have several clients who are now begging me bring back offers we had in February that they thought were too low,” says O’Dare.  “But I can’t get those offers back at this point.”

While the market shift can be painful for sellers, it is great news for buyers.

“I know it seems Pollyannaish, but what I say to my clients is that if you are thinking of buying and is it going to be a hold for the next four to five years or more, then, without a doubt, it’s a good time to buy,” says Daley. “There are fewer buyers out there and you will generally have the upper hand, more so than in a market where there is more competition.”

“It is a great time to buy,” agrees O’Dare.