One of the states hit hardest by the housing downturn is starting to shine again, according to two unrelated reports.
A check by Housing Intelligence of median prices of all homes sold in January in markets with at least 2,000 closings finds that the top five were all in Florida.
Thanks to strong investor demand, the median price of both new and existing homes leaped 27% in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area from January 2012, and Orlando was a fairly close second with a 22% gain, according to HI, which is the research arm of the Hanley Wood publishing company.
Palm Bay clocked in with a 21% jump, followed by Tampa with a 16% improvement and Miami up by 16%.
Meanwhile, the latest report from Condo Vultres, a South Florida-based consulting firm, indicates that developers in the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach area are hoping economic issues across the pond will prompt people in many Western European countries to step up their investments in the United States, particularly the Sunshine State.
International buyers already have played a major role in acquiring the excess South Florida condo inventory that flooded the market beginning in 2007 at the start of real estate crash. Estimates are that foreigners have acquired some $3.8 billion annually in condo, townhouse and single-family house resales in the Miami-Miami Beach-Fort Lauderdale market.
Besides resales, foreigners are buying new condo units directly from South Florida developers—or lenders that have repossessed troubled properties—with unsold inventory from the boom that began in 2003. And they are playing a key role in the latest South Florida new condo boom where at least 31 towers with nearly 6,250 units are proposed.
According to the National Association of Realtors, citizens of France, Germany and Spain account for 23% of all foreign transactions in the state.
