Florida housing on the up

After what has been a tough time for property holders everywhere, there is finally some good news. It has been announced that the property market in Florida is improving.

Speaking about the news, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, David Lockhart, said: “The economy in South Florida has seen a resurgence in foreign spending, primarily on real estate and tourism. Our contacts in the real estate sector have noted for some time that international investors, mainly from Canada, Europe and South America, have been active buyers of this area’s distressed residential real estate assets."

While latest data released by the US Census Bureau showed that there is still a long way to go for the housing market across the country, this is a step in the right direction.  

The seven major metropolitan areas that had the worst vacancy rates during 2012 were all listed as being in Florida, with Cape Coral-Fort Myers leading the way at a staggeringly high 37%. This means that two out of every five houses, apartments and condominiums were vacant just two years ago.

The database looked at breakdowns for the country’s 100 biggest metropolitan areas, which were taken from the Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey and showed that the most stable markets were to be found in California, with seasonal states that depended on tourism showing the highest figures when it came to vacant properties.

Overall, the average when all 100 markets were considered was 10.9%, and all seven of Florida’s metropolitan areas came in well above this figure.