Home Price Plunge Eases a Bit in Broward
Sellers, take note. The beleaguered Broward County housing market showed slight improvement at the end of 2006, giving some hope that the worst of the area’s yearlong real estate slump might be over.
The median price of an existing home last month was $367,600, only a slight drop from the $369,000 in December 2005, the Florida Association of Realtors reports.
There were 618 sales, a 7 percent drop from 666 in December 2005.
While certainly not stellar, those figures are better than what many people had expected after sales remained slow throughout 2006 and South Florida housing prices started dropping in the summer and kept at it through the fall.
West Palm Beach housing analyst Brad Hunter sees a glimmer of hope for frustrated sellers.
“We’re not out of the woods yet. But we’re starting to see some signs of a return to equilibrium very slowly,” he said.
Mike Larson, an analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter, isn’t as optimistic.
“Sellers shouldn’t expect sunshine and roses in 2007,” Larson said. “If you’re a buyer, I expect you’ll be in the driver’s seat, and you should negotiate like it.”
Florida mortgage loan rates are creeping up, and he expects the inventory of homes to rise as frustrated sellers who took their properties off the market late last year try again this spring.
Analysts agree that it will take months to sell all the properties on the market. Broward now has 35,362 homes and condominiums for sale, more than double the number from this time last year.
For 2006, the median price for an existing home in Broward was $367,800, up 2 percent or $6,700 from 2005’s $361,100. The median means half the homes sold for more, half for less.
Sales fell 26 percent last year, putting the county in the middle of the pack with other metro areas statewide. The Florida condo market remained uncertain as sales for the year declined sharply but prices rose.
After a five-year boom, Broward’s housing market faded last year, as short-term investors left the market. Sellers accustomed to fast deals learned they had to wait weeks or months just for someone to look at their homes and make an offer.
Sellers resorted to providing incentives such as cars, cruises, bonuses and more to buyers and their real estate agents, often to no avail. Some desperate sellers held auctions, while others inquired about swapping homes.
Sherrie Nemetz has been trying to sell her four-bedroom home for nearly a year. She finally fielded her first offer, and it was for more than $100,000 less than the $449,900 listing price.
She has reduced the asking price and switched agents.
Her next goal: trying to improve how the house shows on the Internet.
“There are just so many houses on the market. If your house isn’t marketed correctly, there’s no incentive for people to look at it,” Nemetz said.
Mike Pappas, president of Keyes, said he expects sales to pick up as buyers try to beat looming Florida home loan rate hikes.
What’s more, Florida legislators decided to pass a measure that’s expected to lower Floridians’ property insurance costs - Gov. Charlie Crist signed the bill Thursday.
“That definitely brings some stability and a calmness to the market,” Pappas said.
As the market sagged in 2006, foreclosures became a major concern.
Local residents stretched to buy homes and struggled to keep up with rising property taxes and insurance premiums, leading to a dramatic rise in home mortgage defaults.
Broward had one foreclosure for every 35 households in 2006, which ranks ninth out of the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas, RealtyTrac reports. The county had more than 21,000 foreclosures last year, up more than 55 percent from 2005.
These figures include properties in pre-foreclosure, at which point most Florida mortgage lenders file their notice of intention to take back the property. Many homeowners resolve their debts before losing their homes.
