Fort Lauderdale area real estate prices are on a huge upswing and you can see the news just about everywhere you look. From the Real Estate section of the local Fort Lauderdale newspaper that for year has spent many pages on gloom and doom, to the signs in front of local real estate offices that are covered with positive accolades about the local real estate market. It appears that on many levels the bottom has passed and happy days are here again for the sellers of Ft Lauderdale Real Estate… but maybe, not so fast!
Just like there was a perfect storm of events that burst the bubble on the real estate boom. There appears to be some events that have fueled a quick reversal in prices that simply may not last. I want to get to the point of this Fort Lauderdale Real Estate article before I even explain my theory further.
I don’t expect the exuberant price increases to continue, I expect to see a leveling off and a return to a stable market!
It’s a great time to be a buyer of South Florida Real Estate, and if you are a buyer its time to come to grips with the fact that you missed the bottom. Now maybe the time to start working closely with a Fort Lauderdale Realtor to find a great deal before the next rise in prices, prices you out of your dream home.
Now that we got right to the point, let’s talk about why the quick upswing in prices and somethings that could slow down the dramatic shift. To begin I need to quote Gary Keller, not sure of it was original but it was from him that I heard it, ” the pendulum swings fastest at the bottom”, and that has certainly happened. Large hedge fund investors in the Fort Lauderdale market have been buying property at a feverish pace, and often paying over market value driving prices up? The rumors are they are not renting these homes as quickly as they thought and are slowing down on these purchases. I do not think this will hurt the market in itself as there are many smaller investors ready to buy all the distressed homes that come to market and bidding wars will remain a norm.
Fort Lauderdale Real Estate force #2, the cranes are moving again over the City of Fort Lauderdale. You still can’t sell a condo or a home for what it will cost to build but the gap is closing quickly. In Fort Lauderdale where vacant land is in short supply we have seen the return of the individual home owners willing to build. There are people building their personal dream homes at all levels of the local real Estate market. In addition 1000’s of new rental properties are currently under construction in the city. These can slow down the market by causing a drop in rents, forcing smaller investors to drop their sale prices and creating a chain reaction to help level the playing field. Certainly this is not a good or bad thing; it is just another one of the forces facing our market.
Last but not least in Broward County we still have approximately 40,000 properties at some point of foreclosure. Based on some new laws the banks have had to regroup in order to be successful in their foreclosure actions. But as they do come back to court and these actions do start to move forward, and property does become available it will certainly cause some downward pressure on pricing.
As I see it, great days are ahead for the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate market, but at this point is was time for a little reality check! This is not the time to allow a market very short on inventory to cause you to become a reactive buyer. Its time to identify what you are looking for and wait for the perfect home to come your way.It is thetime to be diligent and watch prices and interest rates so you can make a decision that is right for you and your family.