After months – nay years – of far-from-positive news on the Florida housing front, it seems that there is something to smile about now for those navigating the South Florida housing market.  Maybe the crash will now – slowly at first – start to end.  Experts cannot say how long it will take for things to really turn around and there are likely to be some hiccups on the way, but the general feeling is that the bad news is about to end.  And, for those looking for more information, they should have made sure they were in attendance at the South Florida Housing Summit.

Why Good News?

So why the optimism?  First, there are less resale inventory since buyers are increasingly purchasing smaller properties at cheaper prices in the Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach areas.  Second, the properties now owned by banks in South Florida only account for less than 22 percent of the close to 42,000 residences which is a drop from  over 100,000 properties that were on the market at the end of 2008.

In addition, there are already plans for the construction of a further 24 condo towers comprising 4,500 units in the tri-county region even though there is not nearly enough funding for construction available.  As Melanie Dawn recently tweeted, “low home prices begin looking up in South Florida.”

Resale Price Escalation

According to figures from the Florida Association of Realtors, in January 2012, there was a 13 percent increase in resale prices for single-family units in Miami-Dade County compared to the figure for the same time frame in 2011.

Of course, it has to be recognized that this could just be a blip, but if there are further increases in February and March this would show a stability in rising home prices for a longer stretch than it has encountered since February 2007.  It seems that house prices are increasing, in part due to the rising interest of international buyers.