When will housing affordability improve? Spoiler alert: It will take some time

When will housing affordability improve? Spoiler alert: It will take some time

Inflation is slowing and job growth has surged, but many Americans still feel the burden of expensive housing – fueled in part by high demand, low inventory and mortgage rates. Home prices across the U.S. rose 5.5% over the past year in December 2023 and they are projected to increase 2.8% year over year by December 2024, according to CoreLogic, a consumer and business information company. [Source: Florida Phoenix]

How short-term rental regulations could impact the South Florida market

According to AirDNA, a short-term rental data analytics company, in December there were over 22,000 available listings in Miami-Dade county – a 19% jump from 2019. Broward County saw a 71% increase from 2019, with over 17,700 available listings that same month. “We’d be hard pressed to find a market that has absorbed or taken on the concept of short-term rentals more than Southeast Florida,” said Ken H. Johnson, a real estate economist and professor at Florida Atlantic University. [Source: NBC Miami]

Million-dollar home sales were rare around Pensacola. Now they’re everywhere.

After Jennifer McKeown-Putney moved away from the Florida city of Pensacola in 2021, she could think of only one thing: moving back. Located on the westernmost edge of the Florida panhandle and along the Pensacola Bay, the city is the site of America’s first multiyear European settlement, established over 400 years ago, according to the University of West Florida. Its metro area is made up of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties and includes the Pensacola Beach community and the small city of Gulf Breeze, which have frontage on the bay, the Santa Rosa Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. [Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Solar boom: Polk County among Florida's hotbeds for utility-scale solar power plants

Every year, a land conference in Florida is hosted by Lakeland-based commercial real estate broker Dean Saunders for updates on the various land-use trends and tabulations of large land transactions in Polk County and across Florida. And for nearly the past 10 years, the conference has shown astronomical growth in one type of land sale: large agricultural tracts sold for solar power generation. [Source: The Ledger]

Buying in Florida? Second homes are not the same as an ‘investment property’

Over the past couple of years, thousands of buyers from "up north" have purchased houses and condos in Florida with various ideas about how to use the property. Some intend to relocate here full-time, some want to be seasonal residents until they eventually become full-time residents, and some want to own property they can offer visitors and snowbirds for short-term rental. Property owners must have accurate information about the difference between second homes and investment properties. [Source: Islander News]

ALSO TRENDING:

› Cash homes sales in Naples hit nearly 60% [Business Observer]
The amount of homes being purchased for cash in the last half of 2023 and first month of 2024 has seen a "significant surge," according to a new report.Naples real estate agent Mike Rodriguez, with Coldwell Banker Realty, compiled the report using Attom Data. Rodriguez says the data is for the six months ending Jan. 31.

› Disney’s affordable housing project squeaks through zoning board [Orlando Sentinel]
Disney’s proposed affordable housing project won a narrow endorsement last Thursday from Orange County’s planning and zoning board, as objections from its neighbors dampened enthusiasm for the desperately needed below-market homes.

› Deeper shipping channel water helps spur boom in industrial real estate in Jacksonville [Jacksonville Business Journal]
Size matters. That was the theme of Jaxport’s State of the Port presentation at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront hotel on Thursday. With the deepening of the St. Johns River completed, Jaxport is focused on growing its capacity for containerized and breakbulk cargo, port officials said.

› Investors are buying cheaper homes at a record rate — and certain markets have their attention [Orlando Business Journal]
Most of the homes being purchased by investors — about 68.6% during the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Redfin — are single-family homes. Condos represent the second-largest share of purchased properties, at 19.2%, followed by townhouses at 7.1% and multifamily properties at 5.1%.

Tags: Real Estate eNews

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