Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 13 percent in fourth quarter 2008 compared to the same period a year earlier, with a total of 30,163 homes sold, according to FAR's latest housing statistics. It marks the second consecutive quarter for increased existing home sales; sales activity rose 5 percent in 3Q 2008 compared to the same period the previous year. Existing condo sales increased 3 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 4Q 2007.

INTERNATIONAL INTEREST UP

The Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) reports that foreign real estate lenders could grow lending by as much as 58 percent in the United States this year, with interest in cross-border property investing especially robust. In a recent AFIRE member survey, the top five most attractive U.S. cities in terms of investment dollars were the District of Columbia, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston. Meanwhile, 53 percent ranked the United States as the nation providing the most secure property investments. Respondents also listed multifamily housing, office space, industrial properties, retail and hotels as the top five preferred property types.

When will prices bottom out?

• Housing prices will hit bottom in the fourth quarter of 2009, predicts Moody's Economy.com in a new report.
• "Despite the darkening national economic outlook and the weak conditions in the housing market, some positive signs give hope that a bottom in the housing market is coming into view," the report says.
• On average, home prices will decline 36 percent from the peak in the first quarter of 2006, the report says.
• By the end of the housing downturn, nearly 62 percent of the nation's 381 metropolitan areas will have experienced double-digit-percent declines in house prices, peak-to-trough, says the report.
• The declines will exceed 20 percent in about 100 metro areas, according to the report, and the recovery will be "lackluster."
• "A number of uncertainties in both the housing and economic outlooks remain, and the risks tilt to the downside," says Moody's Economy.com Chief Economist, Mark Zandi.

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