Sunny in northeast Florida: More signs of a housing rebound

Sunny in northeast Florida: More signs of a housing rebound

Residential real estate markets continued to recover in northeast Florida, according to a recent poll conducted by the Atlanta Fed. In late June, staff from our Jacksonville Branch along with the Bank's Center for Real Estate Analytics met with nearly 250 real estate professionals at the Florida Realtors conference in St. Augustine, Florida. Conference participants hailed from the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Flagler, Gainesville, Lake City, and Amelia Island areas, and most were residential real estate professionals. We asked a series of questions to ascertain the state of the residential real estate markets in northeast Florida. Their responses showed that conditions continued to improve.

For example, a significant majority reported that June home sales exceeded the year-earlier level.

In addition, the sales outlook for the remainder of the year was positive as most expected modest gains on a year-over-year basis.

Importantly, most participants agreed that home prices have bottomed or begun to recover.

And the majority of respondents anticipate modest home price growth during the second half of 2012 compared with a year earlier.

While these responses represent only a segment of the regional housing market, we read the results as further indication that the hard-hit residential real estate markets are making progress toward recovery.

By Jessica Dill & Whitney Mancuso, senior economic analysts in the Atlanta Fed's research department