Florida is possibly now just as famous for its real estate woes as it is for its laid back, sunny, attitude. The real estate disaster left a sizeable scar on Florida’s once premium, high-end residential property market. Nowadays, homeowners are lucky if they’ve kept at least half the value their house used to be. However, the market isn’t completely stagnant. In February, Miami managed to get 1550 homes sold.
In the Miami area, the number of homes in foreclosure remains extremely high in comparison to other metro areas and within the United States overall. There are currently 40,598 foreclosures in the area.
The median sales price for a home in Miami is $155,000. The average listing price, however is nearly triple at $431,131*. Sales prices have dropped by 27.9 percent from December 2009 to February 2010. This reflects the downward trend in home prices across the nation. Florida, however, has been particularly hit by price drops as the market prices during the peak of the housing bubble rose to astronomical numbers.
Because there are so many houses in foreclosure in Miami and Florida as a whole, there are plenty of buying opportunities to be had. For first time home buyers a condo near the beach may have once been completely off-limits. However, now it may be within reach.
Prospective home-buyers can take advantage of the tax credit for home purchases before it expires. This is a buyer’s market after all. Mortgage rates in Miami are currently averaging 4.97 percent for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.
For Americans with a good credit history, many lenders will offer a below 5 percent mortgage loan. The Federal Reserve’s buyout of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities has allowed mortgage rates to remain artificially low. However, the Fed will cease its purchases by the end of March.
Once the Fed starts its so-called ‘exit strategy’, analysts predict that interest rates as well as mortgage rates will increase by one or two points. This means the time to buy or refinance is now especially in tropical locales like Miami where the number of foreclosures provides ample choice.
Written by Lani Shadduck
Huliq.com
*DataSource: realtytrac.com
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