According to Florida Realtors' it is anticipated that the Florida housing market will continue growing in 2014.  While this will be at a somewhat slower pace, there will still be approximately a 10 percent increase in residential sales.  While values of homes in the region have gone up around 12 percent throughout the last year-and-a-half, this trend is not expected to continue in 2014.  Nonetheless, according to John Tuccillo, Chief Economist at Florida Realtors “home values will rise at roughly about five percent a year, which is in line with historical trends.”

Further, according to Dr. Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist at Freddie Mac, “the market has improved substantially...the amount of vacant housing oversupply (nationally) is the least in 10 years.”  He further explains that in all price point classes, its around 6 weeks for a Florida home to be on the market.  Still, he pointed out that prices are still very much lower than the peak before the mortgage crisis.  Indeed, America’s mortgage rates have shifted and there has been a report of a slight decrease to 4.42 percent for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage.  It is forecasted that in 2014, rates will slowly increase as the Federal Reserve considers tapering back its bond-buying program.

Perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising.  Florida is a great place to live and raise a family.  Just look at its education record.  There was another increase in the state’s high-school-graduation rate this year, totaling 75.6 percent, some even getting over 90 percent of their students to commencement.  This is part of a 10-year trend of improvement.  Further, seven schools in central Florida posted graduation rates higher than 90 percent.

In addition to great school results and positive news for Florida housing the state is adding private-sector jobs at its fastest pace since the economic recovery began as seen through payroll processor ADP.  It has witnessed a further 19,450 non-government jobs in November.

So the fact that Florida housing is set to continue improving – albeit at a slower pace – is simply in line with the rest of the living standards akin to the state over the last few years.