Closed sales data reflected fewer short sales and foreclosures last month, the trade group reports. Short sales for single-family homes dropped 49.3% and foreclosures fell 53% year-to-year; short sales for townhouse-condo properties declined 51.7% and foreclosures fell 41.4% year-to-year.

Florida Realtors chief economist Dr. Brad O'Connor notes that the March home sales decline was the largest in over a year excluding September 2017 when Hurricane Irma briefly shut down the Florida housing market.

“Still, year-to-date, single-family home sales are down a little under 1%, so it will be important to watch the April numbers very closely when they come out next month,” O'Connor says. “At that point, we'll have a better idea if March was just a blip, or perhaps whether it was the beginning of a very gradual slowdown in sales growth that appears to become more inevitable the longer our statewide housing shortage persists.”

Some of the major Florida housing markets posted mixed results, For example single-family home sales in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach fell 7.6% as compared to March 2017 but the region's median single-family home price rose 7.4% to $350,000. The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA saw its single-family home sales fall 4.5%, but its single-family median rose 9.2% to $259,900. Single-family home sales in Jacksonville in the month of March were basically flat (down 0.8%), but its median single-family home price shot up 13.6% to $250,000.