Realtors Say Prices Still Influenced by Florida Foreclosures

Home prices are still weighed down by Florida foreclosures, based on sales records from Florida Realtors.

In the first quarter, the median price for all single-family houses sold dropped to $133,800, a five-percent drop from the $140,900 median in the same quarter last year.

The year-over-year price decrease for condos was even bigger, as cheap distressed properties for sale pushed down sharply condo prices. The median price for pre-owned condos fell by 13 percent to $95,800, compared to the first quarter median of $110,000 in 2009.

Despite the price decreases, real estate analysts at the University of Florida said that the Florida real estate market has hit its lowest point and has started stabilizing. They explained that 17 metro areas in Florida have posted substantial increases in sales of pre-owned homes in the first quarter and that all metro areas posted increases in condo sales.

A total of 38,846 pre-owned homes in Florida were sold during the quarter, marking a sharp 24 percent from the 31,410 homes sold one year earlier. Total first-quarter sales also marked the seventh straight time that year-over-year house sales increased.

Similarly, total sales of previously owned condo units spiked by 67 percent to a total of 16,897 units in the first quarter, compared to the 10,131 units sold one year earlier. The total also marked the sixth time condo sales increased year-over-year.

The sharp increases in condo and single-family home sales were driven by low-priced bank owned homes in two ways: the increased sales of REO units, and the downward price pressure of REO units that made home prices more attractive to buyers.

As prices fell, the pace of Florida foreclosures continued to surge. In the first quarter, foreclosure filings in the state rose by seven percent over the quarter to 153,540 postings, which also marked a jump of 29 percent from the same quarter in 2009. This quarterly total included 59,067 foreclosures filed in March, which marked more than 9 percent of increase from the prior month.

In charts of USA foreclosures by state over the past two years, Florida has been occupying the top four places together with California, Nevada and Arizona. In the 2008 foreclosure chart, Florida ranked second in foreclosure rate, and in the 2009 chart, it ranked third. In the first quarter of this year, it placed third.

In recent reports released by the Mortgage Bankers Association and TransUnion, Florida ranked among the four states with the highest mortgage delinquency rates. In the TransUnion delinquency report for the first quarter this year, Florida ranked second with a default rate of 14.65 percent, second only to Nevada, which posted 15.98 percent. Seventeen of the 50 states posted increases in default rates over the quarter.

Although some analysts pronounced that Florida home prices already hit their bottommost level, University of Central Florida analysts contended that prices are still approaching their bottom levels.

Nonetheless, local realtors hope that Florida foreclosures slow down substantially so they would lose their negative price influence on newly-built homes and nondistressed pre-owned homes.

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