Good Morning Everyone,
The Miami Herald story below has provided great encouragement to our buyers this past week. The results of this study released by Trulia shows Miami as the #1 city in America where it is now more advantageous to buy than to rent. With rental values strengthening across South Florida, contrasted against the best home values for purchase that we have seen in a decade, more and more of our residents are returning to home ownership.
Currently, sales of single-family homes & condos in Miami-Dade represent 51% of all sale/rental transactions, with 49% of all transactions being rentals. In Broward, 56% of all transactions are sales and 44% are rentals. In 2008, sales across Miami-Dade had fallen to 38% of all transactions, while 62% were rentals. As the numbers reflect, we have made tremendous progress toward re-balancing the market over these past two years.
The total number of Miami-Dade and Broward sales increased by 79% between 2008 and 2010 — from 28,000 total homes & condos sold in 2008 to 50,000 sold in 2010. And…. pending sales in January 2010 are up over 20% compared with 2009. There’s definitely new energy in the air! But, don’t forget about our backlog of foreclosures and short sales, which will continue to keep pressure on pricing. While we are pleased with the increase in the number of sales, we aren’t anticipating an increase in values until we can slow the flow of new distressed properties into our inventories. 2011 is going to be another good year for the number of South Florida homes sold.
Enjoy our great winter weather this season…. and Keep Selling!
Ron
The Miami Herald Posted Tuesday, 01.25.11
Miami top big city to buy home now
It makes more sense to buy a home in Miami rather than to rent, according to a new report from Trulia, which ranks Miami as the nation’s top buyer’s market.
BY: TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
Is there any upside to having a sky-high foreclosure rate, double-digit unemployment and a tight credit market? According to a respected real estate firm, these elements help make Miami the top market in the nation to buy a home rather than to rent.
Miami has moved up two spots since last year to become the nation’s most attractive market to become a homeowner rather than renting, a new report by real estate research firm Trulia found. The study, released Monday, compared home prices and rental rates in the nation’s 50 largest cities to determine where homeownership made the most financial sense.
Potential buyers are starting to take note of South Florida’s shifting buy-vs.-rent dynamic. Arden Shank, director of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, said first-time homebuyers from Broward and Miami-Dade counties are flooding his office.
“We have more families coming through the homebuyers preparation process than we have ever had,” he said. “A lot of people who were priced out of the market before can now afford to buy a home.”
Trulia came up with the ranking by comparing the cost of buying a median-priced 2-bedroom, 2-bath home with the cost of renting a similar property for a year. Cities were ranked as either “buy” or “rent” based on the ratio of buy-to-rent costs.
For example, the median-priced 2-bedroom in Miami costs $140,201, according to the website. To rent a 2-bedroom apartment for a year would cost $22,459, resulting in a buy-to-rent ratio of 6 (Trulia rounds to the nearest whole number). In other words, renting a home for six years would cost about as much as buying a home free-and-clear. The markets where it makes the least financial sense to buy — places like New York and Seattle — have buy-to-rent ratios as high as 31. Any ratio below 15 was considered a buyer’s market.
The report factors in costs associated with homeownership like interest, insurance, and property taxes. Even with the additional costs, buying a home is more affordable than renting in 72 percent of the nation’s largest cities. The cities where homeownership is a particularly desirable option are places struggling with high unemployment and foreclosures — areas like Phoenix, Jacksonville and Fresno.
Trulia found in the midst of the buyer’s market, renting is becoming more popular and more costly at the same time.
“Since the start of the `Great Recession,’ many former homeowners have flooded the rental market. Following the principles of supply and demand, renting has become relatively more expensive than buying in most markets,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia, in a statement.
Read more:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/25/2032762/miami-top-big-city-to-buy-home.html#%23ixzz1Cg9lFwnq