South Florida has been experiencing a promising turnaround within its real estate market, with respectable increases in home values and sales volumes having been demonstrated across the state. This appears to be encouraging a growing number of homeowners to consider selling up.
With properties in high demand and speculative investors continuing to seek out potential opportunities, homeowners are finding themselves in a very different position to that of just five years ago. Bidding wars between investors are driving up prices and putting homeowners in good stead to sell.
According to a recent survey carried out by federal mortgage lender Fannie Mae, one-quarter of American homeowners currently believe that now is the time to sell. This figure represents an 11% increase compared with last year.
A combination of factors has given sellers the upper hand for various reasons: record low mortgage rates have encouraged market activity and sales inventory has dropped to 1.74 million as of January, according to the National Association of Realtors. Also, properties located in desirable investment areas are being whipped off the market in a median of just 71 days and analysts at CoreLogic have revealed an 8.3% price increase prices from December 2011 to December 2012.
Industry analysts are predicting further price increases in 2013 and beyond with, the next five years estimated to produce projected value rises of over 3%. Although this percentage increase mirrors that of the 2006 bubble, according to the Fiserv Case-Shiller this figure is on track at a steady and 'normal' pace.
Reported figures such as these are giving sellers a new-found confidence in the real estate market, encouraging sales activity in South Florida and further afield.