Florida house prices will bottom out and international real estate buyers could serve to boost the Florida housing market in 2011 according to experts
CEO of Orlando-based Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty, Roger Soderstrom
The real estate market, especially well-established markets in all price ranges including luxury homes, second homes and vacation homes, has likely hit bottom and there’s no place to go but up anymore,” Soderstrom said.
“Home buyers who have been waiting for the market to turn are much more optimistic this year and are moving quickly to find the bargains in good neighbourhoods,” Soderstrom said.
One the most trusted sources of foreclosure information RealtyTrac released foreclosure numbers: In the four-county Orlando area, one in every 275 houses had a foreclosure legal filing in December, with Osceola being the hardest-hit, with one filing for every 158 hours.
In Florida, one in every 343 houses faced a foreclosure filing in December, and the number was one in every 500 homes in America, RealtyTrac reported.
The new foreclosure numbers showed that the number of filings, while still substantial, have declined from November to December: down 11.5 percent for the metro Orlando area, 22 percent for Florida and 2 percent for the nation. Soderstrom said investors from Asia and Europe and second home and holiday home buyers who reside in the Northeast, UK and Canada will bolster Central Florida housing sales in 2011.
“In reality there is a segment of real estate in Central Florida that is undervalued today,” Soderstrom said. “Real Estate remains a neighbourhood business, and some neighbourhoods that have experienced fewer casualties in the housing market are performing much better than neighbourhoods with a large number of foreclosures,” he said.
