News for UK buyers of Orlando property
It was – note the past tense – the worst housing recession anyone but
survivors of the Great Depression can remember.
From the frenzied peak of the real estate boom in 2005-2006 to the
recession’s trough earlier this year, home resales fell 38 percent and sales
of new homes tumbled 76 percent. Construction of homes and apartments
skidded 79 percent. And for the first time in more than four decades of
record keeping, home prices posted consecutive annual declines.
Now take a deep breath and exhale. The worst is over.
By every measure, except foreclosures, the housing market has
stabilized and many areas are recovering, according to a spate of
data released in the past two weeks. Nationwide, home resales in June are up
9 percent from January, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Sales of new homes
have climbed 17 percent during the same period. And construction, while
still anaemic, has risen almost 20 percent since the beginning of the year.
Even home prices, down one third from the top, edged up in May, the first
monthly increase since June 2006.
“The freefall is over,” says Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and
Policy Research.
Posted: 3 August 2009
Source: Florida Association of Realtors
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