New Yorkers, Washingtonians and Atlantans are logging more and more internet searches for South Florida real estate, a sign that the region’s troubled housing market could receive even more outside investment in the future.
In the wake of a severe housing bust, Florida has become one of the most popular locales for Americans seeking low-priced real estate, according to a report released Wednesday by real estate website Trulia.com.
“Despite the big price declines, and probably because of the big price declines, we’re seeing so much inbound search activity from people within Florida and especially from outside Florida,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist for Trulia.
The report compared the number of inbound searches for South Florida real estate to the number of outbound searches to gauge how many people are thinking about moving to the region. In Broward County, the ratio was 2.15, meaning twice as many people are looking to potentially move into Broward County than are looking to move out.
In Miami-Dade, the ratio was 0.8, a net negative but still one of the highest ratios among the nation’s larger metro areas. The report did not include international searchers, which make up a large chunk of South Florida homebuyers. More than two-thirds of all searches for South Florida real estate came from more than 500 miles away.
New Yorkers have shown a growing interest in South Florida real estate, according to the report. New York is the top non-Florida locale searching for homes in South Florida and Miami-Dade ranks as the second most popular search destination for New Yorkers, after Los Angeles.
At Canyon Ranch, a luxury condo building in Miami Beach, about 100 of the 130 unit sales this year have gone to buyers from New York and other states in the Northeast, said Michael Sadov, director of sales.
“It’s a combination of people who are planning to retire here, and people who see that the prices are anywhere from 25 to 30 percent less,” he said.
Because of the high levels of housing distress, South Florida’s real estate market is in need of outside investment to prop itself up. With nearly half of South Florida mortgages underwater, local homeowners do not have the purchasing power to absorb the huge crop of distressed inventory set to hit the market in the near future.
At the same time, the region’s discounted prices are attracting unprecedented investment from outside the region, and particularly outside the country, with international buyers spending more than $3.8 billion on South Florida real estate this year.
By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/16/v-print/2503809/south-florida-attracts-domestic.html#ixzz1duOoRSth
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