Florida housing crisis escalates in five major cities as sales plummet

Home sales in five major Florida cities have plummeted amid a snowballing real estate crisis in the southern state.

Natural disasters, rising homeowner's association (HOA) fees, increasing insurance costs and new condo regulations have come together to sap demand from a market that was booming just four years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fort Lauderdale, a city on Florida's east coast, saw pending sales drop 15.2 percent year over year during a four week period ending on November 10, according to a Redfin analysis.

The next worst cities were Miami and West Palm Beach, with yearly declines of about 14 percent each.

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Nationwide, pending sales actually rose 4.7 percent over the same time period.

Florida real estate has been in a downward spiral for months, with some condo owners listing their properties for 40 percent cheaper than they're worth just to unload them.

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'The recent hurricanes have been a major disruption in existing or pending sales, even for unaffected homes,' said Phil Crescenzo Jr., Vice President of the Southeast Division at Nation One Mortgage Corporation.

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Florida native and former real estate agent Ro Barber told DailyMail.com that house, mortgage and insurance prices have rocketed up in response.

'We push out the middle class every time after a storm like this,' Barber said. 'It's not because of the storms that people move away - it's the real estate trends that come after... all of the rental prices go sky-high and people just get priced out.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14101963/florida-housing-crisis-escalates-cities-sales-hurricane-recovery.html