According to media stories all over the country, the South Florida market, from West Palm Beach to Miami, is awash in overpriced condominiums, just waiting for eager buyers to snap them up for pennies on the dollar.

It’s evident in South Florida, as well as other areas of the country, that houses are moving faster, and inventory is decreasing. In fact, inventory levels are down to less than an 8 month supply. Home sales have increased for the fourth month in a row. Barring a barrage of foreclosure dumping by banks, we are seeing a leveling out of prices.

Long-term mortgage rates continued to trickle down last week. It was a very slight drop, but as current mortgage rates remain near historic lows, interest in home sales will continue to rise, perhaps helping the economy bounce back faster.

Earlier this month, I was willing to proclaim that we’d hit the bottom of the real estate market. Market reports from around the country are starting to catch up with me. This week several stated that they now believe the bottom is at hand.

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For close to a year, the housing market in Florida has been showing gains. The fact that prices have continued to fall has certainly helped to increase sales and reduce inventory. But more important, in one segment of the market, it’s helped to push prices up. While we are seeing bidding wars on foreclosures and short sales in the low priced segment of the market, higher priced homes have quietly edged up 1.1% in price.

The latest housing down market has not only placed more apartments for rent but also more houses for rent. And you thought it's only the houses that are not selling. The current situation is putting renters to negotiate lower prices and get better deals on their rent.

There is an old cliché that says you must first believe in yourself, before others will believe in you. That same statement could currently be applied to Florida. We’ve been beaten up by the press for the last several months. Evidently those blows have had some effect, because we’re down by 58,000 residents at last count.

Somebody has got to step up to the plate and proclaim that the real estate market in Florida has bottomed. Since I am not famous or well known in any way, I’ll proclaim, “Florida real estate has hit its nadir.” The next stop on the real estate trajectory is up.

The national association of Realtors reported Friday that pending home sales rose 3.2% in July. This is great news because expectations were set at 2% and this now makes six months in a row in which pending home contracts have increased. This is the first time we have had such a streak in the eight year history of the Case-Shiller index. Many believe that the enthusiasm is being fueled by the $8000 First Time Homebuyer income tax credit that is set to expire on Dec 1st, 2009.

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Auction sales of homes have been making the news lately. That’s because many banks around the country find that auction sales move their REO (real estate owned) inventory much faster than conventional sales. Approximately 10% of the foreclosures around the country are selling this way. But they’re selling not only to Americans, but to a large percentage of foreign investors.