South Florida New Home Construction Slows on Account of Land Shortage
The Sun-Sentinel is reporting today that the building of new homes was down for the first quarter of 2005. All over Southern Florida, and particularly in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, new home construction levels fell short of where they were at this time in 2004. Miami-Dade county had a 20.9% decrease.
Palm Beach is the one area not severely affected to date; however, even there, construction of new single-family homes seems to be starting to slow down.
David Dabby, a realtor based out of Coral Gables, summed up the situation: "Regardless of how good market fundamentals are, we're running out of land."
The shrinking availability of undeveloped land will place further strain on a market that is already experiencing extremely high demand for real estate – and, as a result, extremely high prices. As availability of lots really starts to bottom out, expect the market to adapt, with construction of condos and multi-family developments starting to replace that of single-family homes.
Market analysts like Bradley Hunter of Metrostudy intend to watch inventory very carefully for the next few quarters, keeping an eye out for a drop off in occupancy that could signal that the market that is becoming overheated, and may potentially be in danger of decline.
Palm Beach is the one area not severely affected to date; however, even there, construction of new single-family homes seems to be starting to slow down.
David Dabby, a realtor based out of Coral Gables, summed up the situation: "Regardless of how good market fundamentals are, we're running out of land."
The shrinking availability of undeveloped land will place further strain on a market that is already experiencing extremely high demand for real estate – and, as a result, extremely high prices. As availability of lots really starts to bottom out, expect the market to adapt, with construction of condos and multi-family developments starting to replace that of single-family homes.
Market analysts like Bradley Hunter of Metrostudy intend to watch inventory very carefully for the next few quarters, keeping an eye out for a drop off in occupancy that could signal that the market that is becoming overheated, and may potentially be in danger of decline.
