South Florida Housing Inventory Down 39% from Two Years Ago

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According to South Florida-based Condo Vultures, the South Florida housing market is showing small signs of improving based on the number of single-family houses, townhouses, and condos currently available for resale in the tricounty region.

In the last two years, the number of homes for resale in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties has declined by nearly 39 percent to less than 66,000 as of Nov. 22, 2010, compared to nearly 108,000 on Nov. 24, 2008, according to Condo Vultures new report.

Pending sales during the same two-year period spiked 128 percent from 9,300 in November 2008 to nearly 21,250 in November 2010, according to the report based on Florida Association of Realtors data.

"The number of residences for resale in South Florida has tumbled by more than 41,500 properties since the Lehman Brothers failure and the Troubled Assets Relief Program was adopted in autumn 2008," said Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures LLC. "Statistically, the South Florida region has painfully made strides toward stabilization despite the lack of financing available for purchasers, especially those looking to buy condos. The unknown is when the lenders will finally begin to release their bank-owned product.

"Earlier this year, the number of bank repossessions that have occurred in South Florida since 2007 - the beginning of the real estate crash - surpassed 100,000 properties. It is unclear how many of these bank-owned properties have yet to be sold."

Condo Vultures has tracked available resale inventory and pending sales in South Florida on a weekly basis since Thanksgiving week of 2008.

During the first 18 months of research gathering, the resale inventory consistently held steady or gradually decreased on a week-over-week basis, tumbling to 65,000 properties on the South Florida market by May 2010.

As the region went into June 2010, the resale inventory began to increase as bank-owned product and tired individual sellers began to list their properties for resale to take advantage of the buyers who historically attempt to purchase before the current school year was scheduled to begin in late August.

The recently listed resale product pushed overall inventory up to more than 69,000 homes in September 2010.

The trend of increasing inventory was abruptly reversed in October when issues related to administrative irregularities involving foreclosure proceedings began to surface. Several lenders took the dramatic step of halting foreclosure proceedings while evaluating their respective foreclosures processes.

For the last eight weeks, the number of resale properties on the market has fallen by 3,000 properties to less than 66,000 homes as of Nov. 22, 2010, according to CondoVultures.com.

Some industry watchers predict that foreclosures that are currently on hold will be initiated in 2011, which could bring more product onto the South Florida resale market.

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