The Florida Housing Market Is On Fire

However, the big macro housing reports don't fully capture how energetic the story is at the ground level.

We recently saw video of a frenzy in California.

Now, Lesley Deutch of John Burns Real Estate Consulting reports that "Florida is on fire."

Deutch listed five points (we abbreviate):

1. Land Prices are rising rapidly. "In some submarkets, land and finished lot prices have now surpassed peak levels."
2. Home Prices are rising rapidly. "In markets like Orlando and Naples, new home prices are increasing approximately 1%-2% per month in many communities. Lotteries are back."
3. The Active Adult market is back. "In Southwest Florida, builders are reporting a 20%-25% increase in traffic and sales over last year (which was a very good year!)."
4. Foreign buyers are helping the market. "Foreign buyers are not limited to the condos in Miami anymore. In Orlando, a large influx of foreign investors-typically paying all cash-have helped the market recover and are driving up demand and prices in the region."
5. Foreclosures are declining. "Since Florida is a judicial foreclosure state, the time it takes for a foreclosure to occur is considerably longer. But the banks are slowly releasing the foreclosures, and the large number of investors in the state are buying them as quickly as possible."

Despite all of the current excitement, Deutch believes prices can go much higher as affordability continues to be very favorable to buyers.

Read more at RealEstateConsulting.com.