S.Fla. Residential Real Estate Leading the Nat'l Recovery?
Nationally, home prices dropped to 2002 levels according to the latest real estate surveys.
And that makes last year one of the worst in recent history for the national real estate markets.
But it turns out *our* residential market is defying the national trend.
The National numbers confirm the countrys' critical housing recovery has yet to make much progress.
Home prices throughout most of the nation dropped even more than expected the end of last year, plunging to their lowest levels in a decade.
Local Realtor Liza Mendez of the Miami Association of Realtors worries "The national market is still bottoming. Based on those numbers, it may still be bottoming out".
Residential prices have already plunged more than 30% off their peak back in 2006.
Some national real estate forecasters expect national prices to continue falling thru the spring. But some local real estate experts tell me that's not what they expect here in South Florida.
That's because low prices and foreign cash has fueled our real estate recovery into one of the best in the nation.
In fact, Metropolitan Miami and Phoenix are the only markets nationwide to see any growth according to the latest S&P 500/Case Schiller surveys.
Home/Condo Prices Rising
Miami-Dade
Homes: $170,000, Up 13%
Condos: $122,500, Up 36%
Broward
Homes: $177,00 Up 7%
Condos: $73,500, Up 7%
Source: Miami Association of Realtors
January sales' figures show Miami home and condo average selling prices made some solid gains from December. Condos prices climbed a whopping 36%. Single family homes appreciated by about 13%.
Broward's Markets are seeing a 7% gain.
So how are we doing right now?
Liza Mendez says "Hot, hot, we don't have enough homes, there juist aren't enough homes now for the demand. We have buyers where we just can't find them the right homes. It's unprecedented how fast we're coming back, unprecedented".
Local sales and prices are expected to continue improving around South Florida at least through the fall.
And as we enter March and the end of the First Quarter, South Florida's housing recovery looks like it will remain one of the strongest in the country.
