Decline in South Florida homes for sale giving sellers an edge

Those tend to sell within a few days, at or near the asking price, Real Estate agents say. Homes for Sale But even homes that are in the foreclosure process are selling fast because there are relatively few of them, agents say. Foreclosure homes have flooded the market since 2007, but buyers are gradually exhausting the stock. Lenders so far have been slow to release new properties for sale, although some analysts fear a looming reversal if foreclosures pick up momentum again. Also contributing to the falling numbers of available homes: Owners staying put and not paying mortgages, daring lenders to foreclose, brokers say. Wozniak, a 38-year-old restaurant manager, spent $45,000 refurbishing her home in The Cove neighborhood after buying it for $165,000 this year. She replaced the roof, fixed the pool, added landscaping and installed wood cabinets and granite countertops in the kitchen. The home sold three weeks ago for $290,000 – just $9,000 less than she was asking. At the end of May, Broward County had 12,544 homes and condominiums for sale, down 45 percent from the same period two years ago, according to an analysis by the Keyes Co. Palm Beach County had 21,683 listings, representing a 28 percent decrease from May 2009. Sellers are faring better in some pockets of the region than others. Weston, one of the most desirable areas of South Florida, has just 320 single family Homes for Sale, according to Keyes. But Boynton Beach, with roughly the same population, has more than three times as many listings. During the housing downturn, a glut of homes and condos for sale helped drive down prices by 60 percent or more. And that means competition among buyers has heated up. Some buyers that need a loan to afford a home are frustrated as investors swoop in with cash, higher offers, or both. He's made three offers since January with no success, getting out-bid each time. He needs to move soon because he's renting a home that's in foreclosure. Banks are likely to move those stalled cases through the court system soon. And some analysts expect that lenders eventually will release foreclosed homes for sale in big numbers, and that so-called shadow inventory will give buyers the edge once again. That point was made clear to him on a recent vacation to the Greek islands, when he noticed that merchants had signs in their windows referencing Delray Beach and Boca Raton.