Foreclosure Riddled South Florida Will Take Years To Recover

The housing boom has become a memory. The reality is the housing crisis of today. Foreclosure riddled South Florida will take years to recover from it. The houses are not selling but sitting on the shop shelves being jostled around by more foreclosed units coming in to occupy space.

Near Delray Beach is a three bed roomed fancy house with a golf course and a view of the lake. It was up for sale in December 2005. That was when Hurricane Wilma had battered Florida and gas was priced at $2.40 per gallon. But even after slashing the price by 50% the house continues to sit and wait for the magical buyer. Nine hundred and twenty six days have passed and the counting still goes on. Originally it was priced at $699,000 two years ago but now the asking price is $329,000. During the boom years houses were sold within days but today the waiting is being counted in years.

In South Florida 9,828 houses have been in the market for over a year. It calculates to one out of every 10 houses. Nearly 1,058 units have been languishing for over two running years in the counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade. The estimate is not accurate because many houses are yanked off the market for cosmetic changes and then after changing hands from one agent to another it makes a re-entry with a feel-young look.

The traditional agents like Jackie Moore blame the present foreclosure crisis on greedy owners who thought that the boom would continue forever. Loan restrictions resulting from the foreclosure tsunami has led to further reduction in number of buyers. Also the gloomy general economic health has made the price of the REO homes well beyond the reach of the average man. The people got used to thinking that a house would quickly give results if sold within two years. But a house is long investment. In the 70’s one was prepared to wait for 14 years to calculate the equity of the house.

The houses affected by the foreclosure catastrophe and waiting to be sold are of many sizes and price tags. Some are million dollar mansions that foreclosures have not spared either. Charles Resta of For Lauderdale complains that his house in Harbor Beach has been in the market since the end of 2006. Despite bringing down the price from $1.9 million to $1.4 million it still remains unsold. Not everybody can wait like Charles.

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