Why should buy Real Estate in South Florida, why buy now?

First of all, we are blessed to live and sell property in one of the world's most beautiful areas, with gorgeous oceans and beaches everywhere you go and fantastic weather to boot. This makes South Florida a year-round market with tourists, students, investors, retirees and immigrants flocking here and falling in love with the area every day. Hello! I did not say factories or bankers, or any other business group or trade, the majority of the buyers creating demand for our product are as recession proof as they come. When the currency goes one way, we get more tourism and buyers from one country, when it goes the other way, we get more from another. Students come all year long and retirees are still finding South Florida a great place to live with a terrific lifestyle that is getting better, more sophisticated and interesting every day and can not be easily matched.

How is that for demand? Now we add to this our geography. South Florida properties are on a peninsula and/or islands with ocean all around and protected wildlife in the center. Guess what? Now we have scarcity, less and less land will be available for development. In my opinion, our properties here in South Florida are not built on sand or coral; they are built on solid gold. It will run out, we will not be allowed to build into the protected wildlife areas and we will not be allowed to build into the ocean. Again, a better situation than most of the country.

Why now? Properties, especially here in South Florida, are not like stocks, they are not likely to ever be worth $0. Most experts believe they are either at or very close to the bottom of the price adjustment. With good negotiation on the purchase of property here now, it should be possible to mitigate any small additional negative adjustment in price, which means that for the wise and well represented investor or home buyer, capitalization through appreciation is almost inevitable. How is that for an investment?

So now we add it all up: a very desirable area, future scarcity caused by limited land and a considerable reduction in new construction over the past few years, increased demand caused by more buyers finding they can afford property in South Florida now because of reduced prices, motivated sellers and low interest rates, nothing but positive appreciation (in many cases positive cash flow is now possible on many multi-family properties) and we have what I believe is a unique time in the history of South Florida real estate. A combination of conditions that may have never taken place before and probably will never be repeated again, creating an unprecedented opportunity for the savvy real estate buyer to acquire property in a buyers market with excellent future prospects for those who plan to hold or sell. I am convinced that we will start to see the existing REO and conventional listing inventory get absorbed faster and faster as we move into 2009, once the reality of the market becomes more widely understood and public opinion about the future of our economy starts to sway as if it were a giant, unstoppable pendulum, from concern and despair toward a hopeful anticipation for improvement and long term stability.

The time is NOW for investing in South Florida Real Estate.
Joe Robaina, Realtor
Director of Franchise Development
Realty World - Florida Region