Fewer S. Fla. existing condos, townhomes for sale

By josephine on May. 11, 2010.

Finding a condo or townhouse to purchase in South Florida is getting a bit tougher.

The number of existing condos and townhomes on the market this month has fallen by 23 percent, year-over-year, according to a new report from Condo Vultures LLC, a Bal Harbour-based real estate consultancy.

There are now less than 40,000 available, down from 52,000 in May 2009.

However, that does not include new units that developers are marketing.

“The inventory is depleting for a variety of reasons, ranging from more investors and second-home buyers purchasing units at prices they think are deeply discounted, to primary users taking advantage of the government incentives related to real estate,” said Peter Zalewski, a Condo Vultures principal, in a news release. “There also have been some sellers who have decided to take their condos off the market as a result of obtaining mortgage modifications.

Miami-Dade County has the most condos and townhouses for resale in South Florida, with 41 percent, or 16,200 units, of the overall available inventory. That’s down 21 percent from nearly 20,600 condos and townhouses for resale in Miami-Dade in May 2009, according to the report.

Broward County has 30 percent, or 12,100, of the condo and townhouse inventory available resale. That’s down from 17,200 units a year ago.

In Palm Beach County, there are about 11,300 condos and townhouses for resale, representing about 29 percent of the region’s available resale inventory. In May 2009, there were 13,900 condos and townhouses for resale in Palm Beach County.

In the meantime, total pending sales are up, with more than 12,200 condos and townhomes under contract in South Florida. That’s up 77 percent from the same time last year, when there were 6,900 contracts.

Florida gains 1,100 high-tech jobs

By josephine on May. 3, 2010.

South Florida Business Journal

4/29/2010

Florida’s high-technology industry added 1,100 net jobs in 2008, according to the 13th annual Cyberstates report, published Wednesday.

The modest 0.4 percent gain – to 292,300 high-tech jobs – during a recession compared with an overall 4.1 percent loss in the state’s private workforce in 2008.

Other findings from the study include:

• Florida high-tech firms employed 44 out of every 1,000 private-sector workers in 2008, ranking 26th nationwide.
• The state’s high-tech workers earned an average wage of $68,200, or 72 percent more than Florida’s average private-sector wage, ranking 33rd nationwide.
• The state’s high-tech payroll totaled $19.9 billion in 2008, ranking it seventh nationwide.
• Florida had 24,500 high-tech businesses in 2008, ranking it third nationwide.

Nationwide, the high-tech industry lost 245,600 jobs in 2009, for a total of 5.9 million workers. The recession–induced 4 percent drop is slightly lower than the 5 percent decline in the private sector as a whole and followed four years of steady growth in tech industry employment.

The study is put together every year by the TechAmerica Foundation.

RealtyTrac: South Florida ranks 11th for foreclosures

By josephine on May. 3, 2010.

South Florida Business Journal

4/29/2010

South Florida saw one out of every 46 homes fall into foreclosure in the first quarter of the year, according to Realty Trac.

The Irvine, Calif.-based marketplace for foreclosure properties ranked the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metropolitan statistical area 11th in the nation for properties with foreclosure filings.

Only two other Florida MSAs – Cape Coral-Fort Myers (third) and Orlando (10th) – had more.

In the first quarter, the South Florida MSA had 52,224 homes in foreclosure. That was up 10.36 percent from the fourth quarter of last year and up 71.3 percent from a year earlier.

The Las Vegas MSA continued to post the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 28 homes falling into default. That’s 4.9 times the national average.

Nationwide, there were 932,234 properties with foreclosure filings in the first quarter, or one in every 138 homes. That was up 7.23 percent from the previous quarter and up 16 percent from a year ago.