According to a A-P Re/max poll April sales increased from last year in four of the Southern metro areas covered by The Associated Press-Re/Max Housing Report Washington D.C. and the Florida cities of Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Throughout the South, low prices mean good deals for buyers and a strategy change for sellers. In Miami, April sales increased an eye-popping 56 percent compared with the same month last year. Sales are rising in areas with the greatest price declines, the same cities that were at the center of the earlier housing bubble. Transactions have increased for three straight months in the four cities, and the real estate market likely has hit bottom in terms of sales there.
Boosted by sales of foreclosed homes and incentives for first-time buyers, sales of pre-owned homes rose 2.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million in April, a real estate trade group reported Wednesday. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) group chief economist, said most of the sales were lower-priced homes, the entry point for first-time buyers. First time buyers made up about 40 percent of the national market, lured by low mortgage rates and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers that’s set to expire Nov. 30.
