The Florida Association of Realtors and international real estate portal Homesgofast.com both note positive movements in the Florida property market. The realtors’ associations’ most recent sales report shows that there was an upswing in existing home and condominium sales in April, 2008 over the previous month. 11,200 homes were sold in April, while 3,900 condos were sold during the month. Homesgofast.com report that April saw the most enquiries from its overseas buyers this year. The association figures represent a 20% increase for home sales and a 21.6 increase for condo sales from March, 2008.
The median price for homes in April was $198,900 while for condos it was $179,900. The numbers for April were certainly better than March, but still lagged far behind last year’s results. The median home price in April, 2007 was $239,000, which resulted in a 17% price drop over the past year.
Real estate in Florida is still struggling to recover from the slowdown in the market, but these maybe signs that things are improving in recent months. It has long been a buyers’ market throughout the Sunshine State. It looks as if that might change soon, but nobody is making any firm predictions.
Nicholas Marr Homesgofast.com ‘we are definitely experiencing more movement in the Florida market, the UK buyers who have always planned to buy in Florida for retirement or a holiday home are jumping for joy as they benefit from low prices and strong pound ’
Nationally, the median sales price for single family homes in March was down 8.3% from a year earlier, as the median price in March, 2008 was $198,200. The latest National Association of Realtors (NAR) housing outlook predicts that the market will improve over the course of the second half of 2008. Chief Economist for NAR Lawrence Yun is cautiously optimistic about the rest of the year: “There are many reasons for people to get into the housing market today, and very few reasons not to,” Yun says. “With the plentiful supply of homes for sale at affordable prices, interest rates approaching 40-year lows, and the strong track record of housing as a good long-term investment, conditions are ripe for buyers.”
Florida Property
