Florida Market Outperforms Most States

Howdy!
Long time no visit...
Actually (am not sorry to say), I've been so busy with my real estate customers, that posting my rantings here had to take a hiatus, sort of a break for all of you, perhaps.
Having been brought up as Catholic, though; and through my self inflicted sense of guilt about not posting here (mea culpa)... is what has brought me back to you today, my silent readers...
Having just successfully completed three transactions since my last posting in this blog... proves to me that buyers are ready to do business, if sellers come to earth with their asking prices. After so many years of prices rising by 20 percent per or higher over the previous year's prices... who can blame sellers for expecting what is now an unrealistic price for their home?
It's our job as professionals to educate our customers as to the current realities of the market, with proof in writing and statistics (RAGFL keeps great monthly stats on real estate listed & sold for Broward County at www.R-World.com ) to show sellers and buyers, the market as it is, and not as we wish it were...

*** Anyhow, here's an article from the Florida Association of Realtors website, which may not make "headlines" in the "regular media"... but I thought you may enjoy some "good news"...

Florida real estate market reached bottom in 2007, report saysORLANDO, Fla. – Jan. 8, 2008 – A new report from the Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund Inc. (The Fund) finds that Florida’s housing market slowed in 2007 in nearly every county analyzed. The report also shows that real estate markets flattened out in spring 2007, before the subprime mortgage crisis in August knocked markets down another 10 percent across the state. Since then, the state’s housing market has flattened and is expected to begin to recover during the next several years.The 2008 Fund Real Estate Forecast, commissioned by Florida-based Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund's Consumer Education Campaign, was created by economist Dr. Hank Fishkind of Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates, Inc., using deed data for more than 30 Florida counties. The report provides a snapshot of the national economic outlook and 33 county-specific forecasts for 2008 through 2010, as well as a section detailing how actual 2007 data compared to projections that were made in last year’s Fund 2007 Real Estate Forecast report.“Florida is one of the leading states for job creation and outperformed the rest of the country despite the housing market meltdown,” Fishkind says. ‘The state’s population growth also slowed, but is still nearly greater than all of the other Southeastern states put together. Florida has a very large and powerful economy that has gone through a cyclical downshift, but it is still outperforming compared to the rest of the nation.”The Fund’s 2008 Real Estate Forecast shows that Orlando continues to be the strongest residential real estate market in the state because of its large share of fast-growing industries, such as tourism, healthcare, education and defense manufacturing. Not all markets in Florida mirror Orlando’s resiliency, however. Miami-Dade is currently going through the worst condominium bust cycle that Florida has seen since 1975, according to Fishkind. Additionally, the report says that significant excess supply of single-family homes in the Fort Myers and Cape Coral markets will not begin to be absorbed until 2010.“With Florida’s real estate market, it is important to maintain some perspective as recent reductions in home prices come after a very lofty and unsustainable peak, and prices are still up considerably compared to 30 years ago,” said Fishkind. “Florida has created a tremendous amount of wealth and – despite many of the problems that loose lending practices and subprime mortgages have caused – the state now has the highest level of homeownership ever. The market has some indigestion now, but housing markets will return to normal during the next few years; the damage for some is significant, but in the aggregate, Florida still had some significant economic gains.”For more information, go to: http://www.myrealestatestory.com/template.cfm/5_6 © 2008 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®