Florida Real Estate Prices On the Rise in Miami and Orlando?

As we all know, Florida has seen some of the most dramatic falls in real estate prices and the total number of homes sold since the housing market collapsed. Although things are bad in much of the state, it seems that the real estate market in Florida may be on the mend.

Some of the most hard hit areas such as the Orlando, Miami, and Fort Myers areas have seen nice rebounds in the number of homes sold over the last several months, raising hope that prices will soon follow. Fort Myers, located in Southwest Florida, has seen the number of home sales rise from about 850 sales in February of 2008, to well over 1,700 in October of this year. Miami has seen even bigger gains in that time period, with approximately 2,000 sales in February of 2008, compared with over 5,100 last month.

As inventory reduces, prices should begin to rise, not only in hardly hit Florida, but in real estate markets nationwide. The one variable that is still an unknown is what affect remaining foreclosures may have on this market. As long as foreclosures trickle in, instead of all hitting at once, inventory reductions should hopefully leave us with a stronger market come the end of 2011, and 2012.