Florida Real Estate Market Update

Florida real estate market trends, while having their own periodic changes, ups and downs, have remained rather in sync with the current markets across the nation. Sales have been up lately due to the tax credit offered for first time home buyers, but they aren’t necessarily going to stay that way. It’s essentially the sticker after the shot, if you will. Kids go to the doctor and get a shot, and then they get a sticker or some other prize for making it through. Home buyers can now bite the bullet and invest in the Florida real estate market that has stopped crashing down, and they’ll get a big fat tax credit of up to $8,000 for being so brave.

True to form, people are eating up this tax credit, and many people who might not have even thought of buying a home right now given the Florida real estate market and the state of things are buying. Sales are going up, slowly, and prices are still down, which is a dynamic combination. Any glimmer of hope in the Florida real estate market will likely bring more hesitation than before. In previous years, when the market started improving, people dove into anything that they could to get their piece of the pie. Today, people are acting with careful, deliberate motions so that they don’t get in over their heads because they’ve seen what can happen when one bad day turns into a couple of years.

Sales have dropped in September, and are expected to be a little lower in the coming months, largely because of the tax credit. While it initially caused a surge of activity for the Florida real estate market and other markets in the U.S., these were people that were intent on buying early next year or even later, which means their sales won’t be there at the beginning of 2010 because they’ve made their purchases.

It takes a lot longer to rebuild than it does to demolish something. The Florida real estate market is no different. In rebuilding the market, the focus will be on rebuilding jobs, rebuilding trust, and rebuilding the dream that people once had of owning a home, rather than the nightmare of the real estate market that has been the past couple of years. As long as home prices are down and people are being given incentive for their courage, home buying should continue, although no one should expect a surge of buyers any time soon.