2017 South Florida Real Estate Market Developments

“Roy Oppenheim here “”From the Trenches.”” Again, a very happy 2017 to all of you. I wanna talk a little bit about the state of the real estate market here in Florida and what we can expect, particularly in the residential area, and there are a lot of moving factors in the market we have to look at, not just as one entire market, but in the market segment. So let’s begin. First of all, we’re seeing interest rates that are starting to slightly creep up. When that happens, obviously people, particularly first-time home buyers will have difficulty necessarily reaching to the more expensive home that they want to buy, and they have to settle for less. So that’s actually gonna put a drag on the value of the increases that we may see in entry-level homes in the beginning of the year. At the same time, we’re also seeing foreigners who are having difficulty getting the right conversion rate for their currency because the dollar is currently so strong. But at the same time, even though they may not be able to bring in as many dollars and buy high-end luxury homes as they have in the past, they still think that America is the most stable economy, that our dollar is the most stable economy, stable market, stable currency. And so we will probably see still a fair amount of foreigners coming into the United States. The high-end, clearly, is not doing as well as it has, and we’ve seen some weakness at the higher end. But overall, we think that that market will remain fairly stable and the same thing with the entire real estate market. With the new administration coming in, with less regulations and more infrastructure being built, there’s a high likelihood that there will be some more inflation that comes into the economy. In the past year, inflation’s been either at 1.9%, 2%, which is way below average, and so if we start to see a higher inflation rate because more money is being spent and because the currency of money is starting to move around quicker, that can have a very positive effect on real estate values and really all assets in there. So all ships will rise. So if you don’t own a home, this is probably still a great time to do it. I think, long-term, it’s still one of the best investments. Home ownership is lower than it has been in the United States for some time, but rentals are getting more expensive, and so I’m still very bullish on people owning homes in this country. So if you have any questions, feel free to call us. Roy Oppenheim “”From the Trenches.”” Have a great year.”