Florida is one of the eight-states-running-out-of-homebuyers

by Douglas A. McIntyre, Michael B. Sauter and Charles B. Stockdale
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
provided by

The single biggest problem in the U.S. real estate market is simple: There are very few homebuyers.
That seems obvious, but the "buyers' strike" has caused house prices to drop, along with an epidemic of foreclosures. What's worse, the long depression in real estate is probably not over. S&P has forecast that home prices will drop by 7% to 10% this year. The S&P Case-Shiller Index has dropped for most of the 20 largest real estate markets over the last several months. RealtyTrac recently reported that more than 1 million homes were foreclosed upon in 2010.
Many economists argue that the housing market may take four or five years to stabilize. Even if that's proven to be true, the all-time highs of 2006 may never be reached again.
24/7 Wall St. looked at a number of the standard measures to find the housing markets facing the biggest problems attracting buyers. After a detailed examination, six metrics were chosen: (1) vacancy rates for 2010; (2) foreclosure rates for 2010; (3) November 2010 unemployment rates; (4) change in building permits from 2006 to 2010; (5) change in population from 2005 to 2010; and (6) price reduction by major cities for 2010. Taken together, they create a strong statistical base to describe markets which buyers have largely abandoned.
The real estate crisis has gone on for four years. In the states 24/7 Wall St. has chosen here, the crisis will go on much longer:

1. Michigan
2. Nevada
3. Arizona
4. California
5. Illinois
6. Georgia
7. Oregon

And: #8. Florida
Vacancy Rate: 21.03% (2nd Worst)
2010 Foreclosures: 5.51% (3rd Worst)
Decrease in Building Permits 2006-2010: -81.37% (3rd Worst)
Unemployment in Florida is 12%, the fourth worst in the country. (The REAL unemployment and under-employment is much higher) Approximately 1.1 million residents are out of work. Statistics show that 21.03% of the state's housing units are vacant. Furthermore, 5.51% of homes have been foreclosed upon. Florida was among five states that had the largest real estate booms from 2000 to 2006. Residential prices in some  areas like…Palm Beach rose by much more than double during that period. New home and condominium construction soared. Many of those residences have never been occupied and are still part of the inventory of homes for sale.

If you are thinking about selling, now or in the near term, even if you owe much more than your home is worth, please call me directly at 561-602-1258. We just know how to sell homes, even in this market...I just put a home in The Greens under contract in under a week and had a closing yesterday for another Winston Trails seller for whom we applied a secret strategy that generated overwhelming property interest and a top price in about 2 weeks.

Winston Trails Market Report

As of March 3rd, there are 29 homes on the market in Winston Trails...8 of the 29 are short sales...with about 7 more that would be considered short sales if they were priced at current market. There are 16 homes (not included in the 29), that are under contract. Of those 16, 9 are reported to be short sales and 2 are bank owned properties...Below is a map view of the properties currently on the market:

Going from memory (which gets a little hazy at my age), the highest number of properties on the market in here was about 117 back in 2007 and the lowest was about 8 back in 2005. Obviously, everyone knows why the ultra-low number in 2005...but 2007 was another story!

2007 was the "transition" year in the real estate darkness that fell upon us...the speed of the price declines accelerated begining in early 2007, but the homeowners would not believe it yet. Sellers (and agents) continued the old fashioned CMA "look-back" method of pricing, ignoring the market dynamics in place at that time, in their pricing equations. What happened was that sellers and buyers were at an impasse. Sellers still wanted to sell for 2006 prices and buyers knew the game was over...homes sat on the market with sellers and agents not realizing that they'd better sieze the moment...and more and more sellers, hearing about the market softening, tried to sell before the music stopped; but it was already too late. Many, many sellers who said this in 2007 "I'm not giving my house away", would now be thrilled to sell their home for 2007 prices.

The lesson in the 2007 story is this: Most agents old fashioned ways of pricing only work well in a stable market. In a rapidly changing market, with many variables affecting real estate values, pricing is much more complex.

Thanks for reading,