South Florida home values rose more than 6 percent in the second quarter and likely will keep appreciating by roughly the same amount into 2013, according to a report from aZillow.com.
The real estate website’s Home Value Index for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties is $148,300, up 6.4 percent in the April-through-June period compared with the same months of 2011. Prices in the three-county region are projected to jump 6.1 percent through the middle of next year.
This is the most sustained uptick in more than six years. Still, the region’s housing recovery is likely to level off, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said.
The price increases now are driven mostly by a lack of properties for sale. When more sellers put their homes on the market, the supply will increase to meet demand and prices eventually will soften, Humphries said.
He expects that cycle – price spikes, more homes for sale, values languishing -- to repeat during the next few years.
“I think we’re going to have more flatness in the market – not price declines,” said Humphries, who has called a housing bottom in South Florida. “Coming out of a long recession like this, that’s fantastic.”
The local markets with the biggest annual price increases in the second quarter were Deerfield Beach (20.8 percent) and Fort Lauderdale (17.3 percent), Seattle-based Zillow said.
Nationwide, almost one-third of the 167 metro areas analyzed posted annual increases. The Zillow index reflects values of all homes – not just recent sales.
Broward County real estate agent Jon Klein agrees that prices here can’t keep up the current pace and are bound to retreat.
“You’ve got to be realistic,” he said. “It’s not 2006 anymore.”
Source: Sun Sentinel
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