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| Florida’s existing home, condo sales rise in April 2009
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| Florida’s existing home sales rose in April – the eighth consecutive month that sales activity increased in the year-to-year comparison. Existing home sales rose 18 percent last month with a total of 13,111 homes sold statewide compared to 11,133 homes sold in April 2008. April’s statewide existing home sales were slightly higher than statewide activity in March. Florida Realtors also reported a 21 percent rise in statewide sales of existing condos in April; existing condo sales last month increased 6.2 percent over the total units sold in March.
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| @ Florida Association of Realtors | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0419 EDST
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| SW Florida area home prices buck U.S. trend
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| Homes prices in Sarasota-Bradenton rebounded 9.5 percent from March to April, pushing the market's median sales price up about $20,000 from a possible bottom earlier this year. The median in April was $164,300, up from $150,000 in March and a February low of $144,000. That bucks the trend of falling prices nationwide, though it remains unclear whether it will hold.
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| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Mixed signals abound Manatee / Bradenton housing data
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| Although sales of existing homes rose statewide in April, the Sarasota-Bradenton area was among five regions in Florida that saw sales drop. Local home sales fell 12 percent and condo sales by 17 percent, last month compared to the same month a year ago, the industry group said. Statewide, sales rose by 18 percent and 21 percent respectively.
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| @ Bradenton Herald | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Bank sales help set record in Lee County /Ft. Myers
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| Lee County is facing a looming shortage of a precious financial resource these days: houses taken in foreclosure and dumped back on the market by lenders. Houses sold by banks and other "distress sales" accounted for 74 percent of the record 1,468 Realtor-assisted sales made in April in the county. Fewer than 1,000 foreclosure houses remain among the 12,500 homes listed for sale.
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| @ Ft. Myers News Press | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Existing-home sales continue rising statewide as prices continue to fall in Greater Orlando area
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| Prices in the four-county metro area fell by 34 percent in April from a year earlier, compared with a statewide decrease of 31 percent. Not only did local resale prices continue their year-long decline, dropping to $141,800 in April from $215,700 a year earlier, they also slid further from March, when the median price was $151,500. Those historically low prices helped drive the area's continuing uptick in sales, with a 38 percent increase last month compared with April 2008.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Hitting bottom? Palm Beach County housing market, national economy show signs of life
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| In another sign that the deepest economic downturn in decades is drawing to a close, Palm Beach County home prices rose modestly in April. The median price of an existing single-family home climbed to $234,400 in April, up from $228,100 in March but down 25 percent from a year ago. The number of sales totaled 681, up 3 percent from a year ago but down slightly from March.
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| @ Palm Beach Post | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0345 EDST
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| April housing sales soar in Broward County
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| Broward County's median price for existing homes in April was $191,300, down 36 percent from $298,100 a year ago. Sales countywide jumped 33 percent, to 690 from 518. Meanwhile, few areas in the state boast cheaper condominiums than Broward. The median price for existing condos tumbled 47 percent to $79,900. Condo sales shot up 39 percent. Ten consecutive months of sales increases are making a dent in the inventory of properties for sale. The number of available homes and condos in Broward is down 18 percent from a year ago.
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| @ Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Broward's housing market may rebound sooner than Dade's
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| Spurred by astoundingly low prices, low interest rates and an $8,000 tax credit, April home sales rose for the ninth-consecutive month over the same year-ago period in Miami-Dade and Broward. Miami-Dade single-family home sales were up by 98 percent and by 70 percent for condos.
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| @ Miami Herald | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0415 EDST
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| For Canadian indebted, homes often more trouble than they're worth
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| A veteran bankruptcy trustee says homes are starting to become part of the problem for consumers with runaway debt. The situation is not as bad as in the early 1990s recession, when the fall in home prices was more extreme than we have yet seen. But James R.Yanch says many consumers have found their homes are not the panacea for unmanageable debt they might have been a couple of years ago.
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| @ Toronto Star | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0646 EDST
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| What's Bank of Canada's take on the loonie?
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| The currency has not been of major concern in recent months, having eased to levels more favorable to the country's exporters. But now, as the it marches back towards parity with the greenback, even amid ongoing domestic economic weakness, the market is listening for guidance on the bank's stance on the loonie when it releases its interest rate announcement on Thursday next week.
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| @ Financial Post - CA | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0652 EDST
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| UK's FSA releases ‘not-so-stressy’-test methodology
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| Britain’s stress-tests presumed a peak-to-trough fall in GDP of over 6 per cent, unemployment at just over 12 per cent and a 50 per cent peak-to-trough fall in house prices. FT Alphaville sources had suggested the tests were based on a 50 per cent fall in house prices and a 16 per cent fall in GDP, both peak to trough. If the wider market presumption was indeed a 16 per cent GDP drop, the much less stressy scenario revealed could certainly explain some of the falls seen in bank share prices at the open of the FTSE on Thursday.
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| @ Financial Times - UK | Posted: 05/28/09 at 0655 EDST
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