Fort Myers Cape Coral Lehigh Acres Homes and Condos For Sale

MIAMI – July 23, 2010 – When Joel Flores learned that his girlfriend was pregnant, he decided it was time to get serious about buying his first home. After 12 years of saving up, the 38-year-old computer technician set his eye on South Florida’s depressed foreclosure market, certain he could land a steal.

But like many other middle-income Floridians looking to buy, he found savvy investors were beating him to the punch on foreclosures in the under-$150,000 market he could afford.

As South Florida’s home sales have continued to outpace national trends, distressed properties are still dominating the market, with more than half of all homes and condos sold last month at some stage in the foreclosure process. And cash-happy investors have been scooping up these bargain basement deals at a fast clip, often before middle-income buyers can get financing.

According to figures released Thursday by Florida Realtors, South Florida’s sales of existing homes and condos saw increases in June compared to the same month last year, even as national sales slumped with a post-tax-credit hangover. Miami-Dade sales of single-family homes increased 1 percent to 686, and condo sales jumped 33 percent to 855.

In Broward, single-family home sales were down 2 percent year-over-year to 862 in June, and 1,003 condo sales represented an 8 percent increase for the year.

Year-over-year prices are down nearly across the board, and a deeper look offers up one reason for the ever-falling home values: Most of sales taking place these days involve distressed, discounted properties. Short sales and purchases of bank-owned home accounted for 60 percent of home sales in Miami-Dade last month, and 56 percent of sales in Broward. Nationally, distressed properties have accounted for about 30 percent of sales this year.

With plenty of properties still defaulting – South Florida has had 95,357 foreclosures in the first six months of 2010 – investors from across the country and abroad have decided to come to the rescue, cash in hand, and often to the detriment of people needing a mortgage to buy a primary residence.

“It’s outrageous,” Flores said. “Investors have a pretty good monopoly on it.”

Since foreclosures sell at an average discount of about 25 percent, their dominance of the local real estate market – and the presence of investors negotiating all-cash deals – have put additional downward pressure on average home prices.

Median sales prices for single-family homes in Miami-Dade were $203,300 in June, down about 4 percent from June 2009. That price represents an increase of 3.4 percent from May. For Miami-Dade condos, median sales prices were $128,800 in June, down 9 percent from the same month a year earlier.

In Broward, the median single-family home sold for $209,600 in June, up 2 percent from the year before, but down 3 percent from May. Broward condos saw their median prices slip to $78,600 last month, down 6 percent for the year and 3.5 percent for the month.

Statewide, median home prices were at $143,400 in June, down 3 percent for the year. Florida condo prices found a median at $95,000, down 16 percent for the year.