South Florida Home Contracts Slump in ‘Uniquely Bad’ Slowdown

South Florida’s pandemic-fueled real estate boom is showing more signs that it’s running out of gas.

In April, contracts to buy homes in the Miami, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale regions slumped from a year earlier, with the biggest declines in a Redfin Corp. analysis of the 50 most populous metro areas. Pending sales in Miami tumbled 23%, while transactions were down nearly 19% in Fort Lauderdale and about 14% in West Palm Beach. Homes in the three metro areas also lingered on the market the longest, the brokerage’s data show.