Housing market to 'spring forward'
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

As the destructive hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 become more of a memory, real estate professionals are predicting 2007 will be the year the deflated housing market rebounds to a state of normalcy.

"With the spring, which is always the case, things are heating up," said Mark Lee, a broker with Resort Realty. Lee should know a little something about market trends, as he has 25 years of experience in real estate.

"It's still kind of a standoff between sellers and buyers," Lee said. "The sellers aren't willing to lower their prices and the buyers are not willing to pay the price the sellers have. When sellers do lower their prices, there's definitely going to be a market out there."

National and statewide figures seem to reflect this mentality that the housing economy will be ripe for the picking in 2007 and should blossom within the coming months.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing-home sales are projected at 6.42 million this year and 6.66 million in 2008, compared with 6.48 million last year.

"Although existing home sales will be marginally reduced due to subprime lending restrictions, they should be gradually rising this year and next," said NAR's chief economist, David Lereah.

While many market experts believe 2007 will be an improvement, an official from the University of Florida's (UF) Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies doesn't expect sales to be astronomical. The center's director, Wayne Archer, said the numbers will be better but won't come close to peak levels from 2005.

"If you're thinking of buying a house, there's probably not much to be gained by holding out at this point," Archer, said. "It doesn't look like prices are going to fall anymore."

According to records kept by the Florida Association of Realtors, the state's median sales price for existing singlefamily homes in January was $239,300. A year ago, it was $243,200, which represents a 2 percent price decrease. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less. In January 2002, the statewide median sales price for single-family homes was $128,900, which represents an increase of about 85.6 percent over the five-year-period.

Optimism about Florida real estate seems to be particularly strong among foreign investors. Many respondents to a study conducted by UF commented that foreign investors and lenders are aggressively trying to invest more capital in the state's rental markets.

"They apparently have no fears about the future of these markets, despite what we perceive as our problems with hurricanes, taxes and other concerns," Archer said.