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
