Year-over-year single-family home sales fell 20 percent in April as condo-townhome sales declined 26 percent in Broward County.

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South Florida home sales stayed sluggish in March, as buyers and sellers waited to see whether the Florida Legislature will lower property taxes.

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Existing home sale figures for March will be released today, and experts are predicting little movement in the sluggish South Florida real estate market.

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How do you recognize when the real estate market hits bottom?

That’s a question Florida housing market prognosticators are still trying to figure out.

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A deluge of South Florida residents are falling behind on their monthly mortgage payments, raising fears that many of the delinquent property owners will lose their homes to foreclosure this year and next.

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For those of us who are not billionaires - or even millionaires - in the South Florida housing market, life has gotten tougher.

It’s difficult to find an affordable house, especially when adding on the cost of homeowners’ insurance and property taxes, the Sun-Sentinel notes.

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How about some good news?

Since some readers continue to blame the media (in this case, the Palm Beach Post) messenger for the message (home sales and prices are slowing; inventory is growing and Florida mortgage activity tanking), it’s time for some pleasant news in the land of residential real estate.

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Spiraling Florida mortgage costs. Congested highways. Hurricane fears. Property insurance and property tax crises.

All these things are supposed to be making South Florida a less attractive place to live and work.

Yet new Census estimates released by the Miami Herald show the region continued to be a people magnet, drawing 455,869 new residents - primarily immigrants - from April 2000-July 2006.

That’s the ninth-largest metropolitan area increase in the country during that time.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines the metro area as Broward County, Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County. The new report shows a 9 percent increase in population the past six years.

“That’s a lot of people, and that’s major growth for an area already as large as we are,” said Ted Leonard, senior planner for Broward County.

It’s also a significant enough increase to ratchet up urgency for solving problems like traffic congestion, the affordable housing crisis and other growth-related concerns, planners say.

“That amount of growth brings consequences,” said Richard Ogburn, assistant director of research at the South Florida Regional Planning Council.

And there is no end in sight.

A slowdown in population gains during the past two years is a momentary lull. Census numbers released last month showed that from July 2005-July 2006 the number of people moving into Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach from other states - known as domestic migration - was less than the number moving out.

The South Florida housing market growth is being fueled almost entirely by foreign immigration, a trend the new U.S. Census report says is happening in large metro areas across the country.

Without immigrants pouring into the nation’s big metro areas, cities like New York, Los Angeles and Boston would have shrinking populations as well.

Statewide, Florida metro areas continued to grow, with the Orlando housing market the state’s fastest-growing, with a 21 percent increase.

Among smaller metro areas, Cape Coral-Fort Meyers had the third-fastest growth rate in the nation, while Naples ranked seventh, despite the staggeringly high Florida mortgage loan costs in Southwest Florida.

“The slowdown or plateau we’ve seen in the domestic migration is not a break,” said Leonard. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it for another year or so until the housing market straightens out and home prices and income achieve more equilibrium. But it’s just waiting to take off again, and it will.”

SOURCE: Miami Herald

The Hidden Hollow townhomes in eastern Davie look a lot like the other developments popping up around South Florida.

Few people see the fluorescent light bulbs, the energy-saving dishwashers or special air-conditioning filters that help make these buildings among the first truly green homes in the South Florida housing market.

The green movement has taken a long time to spread to homes, because of everything from cost to wariness among both builders and buyers.

But with the rising price of energy and a more crowded Florida real estate market, small architects in South Florida are now banking on green home building as a way to stand out.

“You don’t have to get really exotic,” said Jeffrey Evans, standing in the kitchen of one of the Davie homes. The architect already has the go-ahead for another project in Davie. “All the things that make the development green are readily available.”

Until recently, going green evoked solar-paneled homes for granola-eating buyers. It didn’t help that Florida mortgage costs have risen through the roof, or that the Sunshine State lacks most financial incentives for green building offered in other parts of the country.

Therefore, most advances in green building were for commercial real estate, government-funded projects or academic sites, where costs could be spread out. Any green residential development tended to be in the North or Central Florida housing market.

Now the cost equation is changing.

Green builders argue that although a green home might cost 3-5 percent more upfront, the long-term financial and health benefits are worth it.

They say the extra $1-2 for the monthly Florida home mortgage payment pales next to the 25-30 percent saved on energy and water bills.

Also, some green home builders want an edge in a market where state home sales were down by almost a third in 2006.

“Builders are realizing they need to differentiate themselves to the masses,” said Roy Bonnell, executive director of the Florida Green Building Coalition. “And one way to do that is to go green.”

In August 2005, the U.S. Green Building Council launched a program to certify homes as green, called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

About 345 home builders nationwide representing roughly 5,800 homes are taking part, and 150 homes have received the certification, according to numbers released this week. The program is expected to double within the next six months, acting director Jay Hall said.

Continue reading in the Miami Herald …

Many South Florida residents are eating out less and springing for fewer big purchases like a new car or a vacation, the Miami Herald reports.

It’s not just because of the increasing cost of living, either.

Economists talk about new consciousness among consumers who relied heavily upon their houses for their worth and are now watching the Florida real estate market slow way down.

And as the South Florida housing market slides, the new consumer psychology is rippling through the region’s economy - and is already hurting South Florida’s biggest companies.

Companies are saying they’re starting to see less business because of the housing slowdown. And it’s not just the obvious businesses within the housing industry - like real estate, Florida mortgage or construction companies - which have already seen clear hits.

Miami-based home builder Lennar, for example, reported last week that its first-quarter profit tumbled 73 percent on softness in the housing market made worse by problems with subprime lenders. Lennar warned it doesn’t expect to meet its 2007 earnings guidance.

But companies you wouldn’t automatically associate with housing are also pointing to the Florida real estate slowdown as a big culprit for less earnings, in such industries as varied as car dealerships, cruise lines and shipping companies.

In February, although prices remained relatively flat, sales of single-family homes declined by 31 percent in Miami-Dade County and 20 percent in Broward County compared to a year ago, Florida Association of Realtors data indicates.

The condo numbers were worse, and inventory has nearly doubled. And there’s little doubt that all those for-sale signs may wreak havoc with consumer confidence (psychology) as the housing market slows.

The boom saw many homeowners taking out sizable adjustable rate mortgages or simply tapping home equity out of their properties. Now, with possible Florida home loan rate increases and the equity well drying up, people are more worried and therefore more cost-conscious.

As fears of Florida mortgage problems escalate, the confidence among Floridians dropped last month, according to data released by the University of Florida last week. The index, last month at 92, declined to 86.

“Housing is an increasing problem,” said survey director Chris McCarty. “It’s very clear that people were using their home equity to fuel spending, so I don’t think this should be that much of a surprise,” said McCarty, citing the rampant speculative buying and use of exotic loans.

Economists see the housing slowdown working its way through the economy in this fashion: First, home prices slow down, then the number of people who are extracting equity from their homes also starts to taper off. That pool of money shrinking leads to fewer purchases of big-ticket items.

Last year, 16 percent of the new car purchases in the Sunshine State were made with a Florida home equity loan, said Art Spinella, the president of Oregon-based market research firm CNW Research. That compares to 9 percent in 2000.

Follow the link to continue reading in the Miami Herald …