Source: Wayne Archer (352) 273-0314
Gainesville, Fla -- Buyers in Florida for homes, should buy now and not wait. The price is right as the state's single-family residential housing market bottoms out, according to a University of Florida study released today.
"If youre thinking of buying a house, there's probably not much to be gained by holding out at this point," said Wayne Archer, director of UF's Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. "It doesn't look like prices are going to fall anymore."
The real estate industry completed a quarterly survey in January which shows that the share of respondents observing drop in single family housing prices has dipped, while a growing number find prices staying even with inflation.
When prices maintain the same level as inflation, then we're probably in some kind of equilibrium. We see this as a benchmark which indicates the market is stabilizing. The exception for this is condominiums, which are overbuilt and prone to naive and speculative investors.
Because of the dominance of single-family housing, the findings have far-reached and potentially optimistic implications for the real estate industry, Archer said.
"You can't get away from the fact that the single family housing market is the single largest driver of the real estate market". "Most brokers and real estate agents are dealing with single family housing. "Most lending for housing and home furnishings are driven by single family housing, so when it stabilizes, that's important".
One possible explanation for the housing market turning the corner is a restricted supply of land for residential development, Archer said. The shortage meant there was less overbuilding than there might otherwise have been, he said.