S & J Journal

I want to share this article with you from the  South Florida Business Journal: South Florida led the nation in all-cash home sales according to a study by RealtyTrac . Just over 70 percent of October home sales in South Florida were cash deals, the highest among the Top 50 metropolitan areas. Many of the purchasers in those deals are investors, often foreign investors, or wealthy, second-home buyers. Working families rarely have the resources to shell out cash for a home. Read article.

As of last week... Inventory of Single Family Homes in Coral Gables is down to 271. Freddie Mac said about record low 30-year mortgage loan rates:  30-year rate fell last week from 3.53% to 3.49%. It was just over 4.5% one year ago.

First-time homebuyers are struggling to buy in this recovering real estate market, the Sun Sentinel reported last week. Although prices are affordable and mortgage interest rates are at an all-time low, first-timers are facing competition from banks who have tightened lending requirements and investors who are cash buyers. Sellers prefer cash or even buyers that have pre-approved conventional loans because they are weary of FHA loan transactions. Even when these first-time buyers put down offers on a home over the list price, they often lose it to cash buyers. Today’s first-time buyers also face a shortage of available homes. First-time buyers accounted for roughly a third of all home sales nationwide in May, according to the National Association of Realtors. Ideally, the percentage should be 40 percent or more, said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the Realtor trade group. It is conventionally first-time buyers that stimulate confidence in the real estate market. To compete...

Demand is up, inventory is low and prices are rising. That is what a Miami Herald article is saying today. In South Florida communities stretching from Homestead up to Weston, bidding wars are exploding and real estate inventory is quickly diminishing. Read more.