Seminar Panel To Discuss New Economic Data Indicating Possible Real Estate Double Dip

Aug. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- Skittish real estate investors already faced with plummeting prices and a tight lending market received a double dose of bad news after the U.S. and Florida governments released reports on August 19 and August 20 indicating an increase in unemployment rates.

Consumer confidence in hard-hit South Florida could be shaken even more, following the August 20 state report showing that the region had among the worst unemployment rates in Florida. The data is not seasonally adjusted.

Condo Vultures® is hosting a Sept. 14 seminar entitled "Concerns Grow About Possible Double Dip In South Florida Real Estate" with three local experts who will explore the possibility that a further erosion of consumer confidence will play a factor in another residential market tumble.

Oliver Ruiz, the Residential President of the Miami Association of Realtors, and Dr. William G Hardin III, the Director of Real Estate Programs at Florida International University, have confirmed their participation in the discussion that starts at 6.30 pm following a one-hour networking session that starts at 5.30 pm.

Condo Vultures® founder Peter Zalewski will moderate the panel scheduled for the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel in Downtown Miami.

In the tricounty area, Miami-Dade's unemployment rate reached 13.2 percent in July, nearly two full percentage points higher than a year-ago when the rate stood at 11.4 percent

Broward County saw its unemployment rate jump from 9.8 percent in July 2009 to 10.4 percent, and the unemployment rate in Palm Beach County reached 12.2 percent, up from 11.5 percent a year earlier, according to the most recent government statistics.

South Florida's residential resale inventory has increased by nearly five percent, or 3,300 properties, since May 31, raising concerns that the tricounty region could be headed for a double dip as more product comes onto the market.

Condo Vultures® Realty LLC, a licensed Florida buy-side brokerage, has actively tracked the available residential resale properties in South Florida on a weekly basis since Nov. 24, 2008, when there were 107,527 single-family houses, condos, and townhouses on the market.

As of Aug. 16, the South Florida inventory is down 36.3 percent from the initial levels in 2008, according to the report.

Distressed properties - bank-owned residences and short sales account for 36.3 percent, or 24,847 properties, of the overall available inventory. Short sales represent 29.8 percent, or 20,428 properties, and bank-owned residences account for 6.5 percent, or 4,419 properties, according to the CondoVultures.com report.

The remaining 43,656 South Florida residences on the resale market are listed without any reference to distress. Many of these sellers are owners who want out nearly five years after South Florida residential real estate reached its peak in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the licensed Florida sell-side brokerage CVR Realty™.

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Condo Vultures® LLC is a Bal Harbour, Fla.-based consultancy and publishing company focused on collecting, analyzing, and communicating intelligence on the South Florida real estate market.