Steve Eckhardt's Tampa Area Blog

In the years 1950 through 2008 Florida grew by more than 125,000 residents every year.  But, for the year April 2008 through 2009, Florida lost residents for the first time in over 61 years.  Last year's population decline, a result of the economic slump, was the first since 1946, when military personnel left the state at the end of World War II.  It seems as if that slump has come to an end after just one year.

In the latest report from April 2009 to 2010, Stan Smith, director of The University Of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research, estimates that Florida added a modest 21,000 residents between 2009 and 2010.  "At the state level, foreign immigration continues to be relatively strong, and the state also continues to have substantially more births than deaths, which are really the drivers of Florida's growth in the last year," Smith says.

While population growth isn't the only factor that can affect housing prices, it is certainly a positive sign that the Florida market is stabilizing.  The largest population gains were in some of the biggest counties. Miami-Dade led by adding an estimated 8,253 residents, followed by Hillsborough, 6,353, and Broward, 5,834.

Steve Eckhardt, Broker, Luxury Real Estate Professional

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Early last week NAR released the national numbers for July sales.  Overall sales saw a large drop 27% from June and 25% year-over-year from July 2009. While the pundits debate whether the sharp drop in overall sales was a meaningful indicator of market activity or just a product of the expiration of the home-buyer tax credit and artificially time-shifted demand, they all seem to have missed the fact that while overall sales were sharply down, sales in the $1M+ price segment were UP in every region across the country and more than 6% nationally:

"Luxury homebuyers have been buying this summer," said Laurie Moore-Moore, CEO of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM).  "After waiting in the wings, many affluent buyers spent the summer shopping for value and snapping up trophy properties."

Statistics would indicate that she's right. According to The National Association of Realtors (NAR), for 2009 million-dollar and above home sales were just 1.2% of total sales or about 61,500 sales nationally.  In July 2010, million dollar plus market share was up to 1.9%.  While sales of homes in the $500,000 and above range rose dramatically in June, the million-dollar-plus market segment was the only price range in July showing positive growth compared to last year.  "The mix of what is selling has shifted in favor of homes priced at $750,000 and above," added Moore-Moore.

It is likely that the 0.7% increase in the national median sale price for July was largely function of this increase sales at the upper end as opposed to growing price strength in the lower-priced segments of the market. 

Bottom line:
The luxury segment is outperforming the market overall, and this is a good news story that needs to be told!  

Steve Eckhardt, Broker, Luxury Real Estate Professional

Contact me at (813) 765-1182

www.TheFloridaAuthority.com

www.SearchForTampaHomes.com

Check Out Steve Eckhardt's Other Social Networking Profiles

Facebook   http://www.facebook.com/CornerstoneProperties

Twitter  http://www.twitter.com/theflbroker

Flickr  http://www.flickr.com/photos/27264581@N08/

LinkedIn  http://www.linkedin.com/in/cornerstoneproperties

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/csmtggrp85