Pair of Florida Cities Among Nation’s Highest in Home Price Appreciation

Not EVERY corner of the country is in danger within today’s housing market. There are cities whose property values have actually risen significantly over the last few months.

Chief among them? A couple of sectors in the Sunshine State. Indeed, the Florida home mortgage industry is never truly in danger of dying because the waterfront land is simply too attractive to hopeful owners. In this case, the two towns leading the way are Orlando and Tampa Bay.

Business Week recently screened real estate markets around the nation, only considering cities that had a median home price higher than the national average of $227,500. The magazine wanted to avoid areas that were already undervalued. It found the average appreciation on home prices to be 3.7 percent.

Not so in the aforementioned cities, however. Both Orlando (17%) and Tampa Bay (18.8%) more than quadrupled the national appreciation average. People continue to move there and sellers continue to find the deals they were hoping for.

As Florida mortgage broker phones ring off the hook in those towns, other areas should soon follow. Many predict that the housing bubble will grow again into a boom down the line.