Florida is ripe for the picking
There are plenty of opportunities to be had in Florida right now as house
prices drop and sales numbers rise across the Sunshine State.
Orlando home prices have now hit a 12-year low and therefore present shrewd
opportunities for canny overseas property buyers to snap up bargain
properties.
The real estate industry blames the price drop on the end of the federal
homebuyer tax credit and the fact that more than 70% of August sales were of
distressed properties. In August, only 28% of sales were "normal" sales of
properties not in financial trouble, and the remaining 72% were either
bank-owned properties or short sales - when a house sells for less than the
mortgage owed on it.
The Orlando Regional Realtor Association believes that there are signs that
the market is stabilizing.
The difference between sales and asking prices narrowed slightly from 94.44%
in July to 95.04% in August and the inventory of houses listed for sale for
over 6.5 months increased only slightly from July to August.
Mortgages are available for international buyers with a 30% down payment.
There’s now no need to buy one of the well-publicised re-possessed
properties, which may not be in a good state of repair, when investors can
buy a normal property for the same price or less.
Posted: 28 September 2010
Source: Overseas Property Professional
original article no longer available online
