Home prices up 11 percent in South Florida, study says!

South Florida fared better than most of the nation in July when it came to rising home prices.
The metro area of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties saw an 11 percent increase from a year earlier, according to data from the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Index. San Francisco and Las Vegas were the only other areas in the 20-city index with double digit growth, according to the Sun Sentinel.All of the cities showed year-over-year price gains in July, but none posted better annual returns than they did in June.

While home price gains have slowed in South Florida, the three-county region fared better than most of the nation in July, according to a report released Tuesday.

The metro area of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties saw an 11 percent increase from a year earlier, data from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index show. San Francisco and Las Vegas were the only other areas in the 20-city index with double-digit growth.

All of the cities showed year-over-year price gains in July, but none posted better annual returns than they did in June.
The “broad-based deceleration in home prices” continues, prices still are rising faster than inflation.
“The slower pace of home price appreciation is consistent with most of the other housing data on housing starts and home sales,” he said.

Many analysts consider the Case-Shiller index the leading authority on national home prices. Unlike local Realtor boards, which release a median price for homes sold in a given month, the index measures the price of the same house over time. But the index lags Realtor board data by a month and does not include condominiums.

“Supply and demand are starting to even out more than they have over the last year or so,” Ehrlich said. “When that happens, buyers have more options, and you start to see a slowdown in price appreciation.”