Finding a Footing in Fort Lauderdale

Posted by Eric Miller on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 11:38am.

Despite wavering stability in the nation as a whole, a spurt of real estate sales activity along the eastern coast of Florida has seen the markets in areas like Miami and Fort Lauderdale doing a dance of recovery, suggesting that buyers are once again recognizing the tremendous value-add of life amid Florida’s sun-drenched beaches.

Following price drops through 2010, Ft. Lauderdale has enjoyed a stabilization in 2011, with sales activity proving strong throughout the summer. Investors and international buyers provided some of the steam for the summer rally, with luxury condominiums and beachfront properties—particularly popular with these buyers—selling fast and furiously. Collective prices for the summer months of June, July and August were up 13 percent from 2010, according to data collated by online real estate data site Trulia.com. And numbers released by the Broward Council of the Miami Association of Realtors showed that pending home sales in July 2011 were up four percent over the same month last year.

Is it recovery time in Fort Lauderdale? Maybe so. While many analysts point to the impact of heavy sales in the luxury condo market as the unsustainable basis of the recent rebound, the fact is that total pending contracts in July were up 14 percent from July 2010 across all home types, from single-family homes to condos. And pending sales for single-family homes were actually up four percent from the prior year, while the pending home sales numbers for the nation as a whole—as reported by the National Association of Realtors—were down by 1.3 percent. All of this points to the fact that demand for housing in Broward is strong, and is coming not just from overseas or overstuffed pocketbooks, but from average families and households as well.

Some people look and wonder, why now? We look and wonder, “what took everyone so long?” What is driving the attraction—aside from reasonable pricing on homes in one of the nation’s most beautiful cities—is the simple fact of Ft. Lauderdale’s dynamic city culture. From the myriad options for outdoor enthusiasts—stand-up paddleboarding, sport fishing, surfing, hiking, and biking, just to name a few—to the vibrant pulse of downtown after dark, Ft. Lauderdale blends the sensational entertainment and natural relaxation of a vacation, with the economy and infrastructure of a business-friendly environment. The proximity of Ft. Lauderdale to the Florida Everglades, as well as the city’s concentration of local-interest museums means that the city offers a unique and infinitely-interesting selection of diversions for residents and visitors alike.

These fundamental attributes of Fort Lauderdale haven’t changed much over the past few years. But buyers, after being shaken to stillness by fears of an economic disaster, are slowly remembering what it means to buy a home and put down roots in a place as extraordinary as Fort Lauderdale. Besides the unique Floridian culture, besides the sublimity of a cosmopolitan city that has the heart of a beach town, buying a home in Fort Lauderdale now means building a sense of community and pride of place in a location where you love to live. Who wouldn’t want to move on a dream like that?

Eric Miller is an award winning Florida Realtor, salesperson and broker. His website, FortLauderdaleGroup.com provides an up-to-date guide to Fort Lauderdale Condos for sale, and the most complete buyer, seller and investor information for the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Market.

1 Response to "Finding a Footing in Fort Lauderdale"

Larue wrote: Hi there to all, the contents present at this web site are truly amazing for people knowledge, well, keep up the nice work fellows. Posted on Sunday, December 4th, 2011 at 10:18pm.

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