By Paul Owers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 25, 2008
South Florida’s housing market looks worse now than it did at the end of a brutal 2007.
With the slump staggering into a third year, buyers are having trouble getting home loans because lenders are tightening credit standards, and the surge of mortgage defaults and Foreclosures is adding to the glut of properties already for sale.
Existing-home sales and prices fell in February across Broward County, the Florida Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales dropped 28 percent, to 360 from 498 a year ago, while the median price of $307,700 was off 15 percent from last February’s $362,200.
It was the median’s largest percentage decline year over year since the Realtors’ group started keeping statistics in 1994.
Broward’s home prices had held relatively steady for much of last year, compared with other parts of Florida. But many sellers here are asking less for their homes and condominiums as the market downturn lingers.
“Everybody in Broward was sticking to their guns before, but now a lot more people are saying, ‘I’m going to do what it takes,'” said Cathy Prenner, a real estate agent with Campbell & Rosemurgy in Lighthouse Point.
See the full article here.
