Tag Archives: Zillow

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florida-homeIt seems like South Florida’s housing market might be on the road to stability. November 2014 scores for Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach were 72.2 on the Multi-Indicator Market Index which is 10.57 percent higher than last year’s figures. Only three cities had larger yearly gains (Chicago, Denver and Las Vegas).

What is also positive for the region’s housing market is that it looks like this upward swing is set to continue in 2015. Indeed, according to Stan Humphries, Chief Economist at Zillow, low-end homeowners are finding it easier to sell now that lost equity is being regained. As a domino effect, more properties will be on the market for those young professionals looking to buy in 2015.

In addition there has also been a plummet in the distressed market. Foreclosures and short sales are not as common. Indeed, figures showed a nearly 40 percent decrease in short sale closed sales from November 2013 to November 2014.

Thus it should come as no surprise that Deputy Chief Economist at Freddie Mac, Len Kiefer, found “consistent improvement” in the market since May 2014. But he does caution that affordability “is starting to be an issue in South Florida.” Thus while figures indicate that there is good news ahead, it’s not all going to be plain sailing in the region.

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According to a report from Zillow, in the third quarter of 2011, those selling their homes in Palm Beach County lost money on almost 46 percent of occasions.  This was an increase of 3.4 from the second quarter.  As well, in September, national figures were 34 percent of homes selling for a less which is three percent more than for the same time frame last year.

And it looks like there is more bad news along the way.  According to one economist at Zillow, home prices are meant to plummet a further three to five percent before hitting rock bottom nationwide.  The economy isn’t doing great with unemployment, negative equity and more. With such features plaguing the economy, is going to be a long time until the housing market stabilizes.

Florida Homeowners

Close to 50 percent of homeowners in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach owed more on their mortgages than the worth of their homes during the third quarter.  This figure has slightly increased since the second quarter.  It also looks like next year, the values on South Florida homes will be hitting bottom.  At that point, banks will have to start unloading all these homes.  The one silver lining on the cloud according to the Zillow report is that there has been a reduction in pace of home-values.