28 October 2009
The Florida property market is recovering from the credit crunch and property slowdown at a rapid pace, according to one expert.
Colin Murphy of Torcana property agency says that the supply of properties in Florida has fallen dramatically over the six months due to a virtual halt in construction levels and an increase in residential demand.
“Developers are not starting new construction projects and prices of existing stock have been slashed by up to 75%,” says Murphy.
He adds: “The market bottomed out in December 2007 and it took another 15 months before activity reverted back to late 2006 levels. Over the past six months, it has been quite frantic, with huge volumes of new contracts being issued to a wide variety of buyers.”
Murphy believes that Florida property values have now bottomed out and given that sterling and euro are strengthening against the US dollar – currently trading at $1.63 and $1.48, respectively – now is a good time for Brits and Irish to buy a home in Florida.
Murphy comments: “Prices are still low, but they are not going lower, of that I am quite sure. There will always be good deals out there for the shrewd and well connected buyer, but the days of snapping up a high quality unit for $50-60k that used to cost $200-$230k are numbered.
“With the [UK] pound and euro continuing to strengthen relative to the dollar, your hard earned cash can now stretch very far indeed. If you wanted to buy a US home valued at $60,000 in late May it would have cost Brits and Irish buyers around €45,000/£40,000. Now it will cost €40,000/£36,500. That’s quite a difference.”
See Also: Marc Da-Silva (269), Florida (3), Colin Murphy (2), Torcana (2)
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