Sales in Florida may be helped by rate cut

On Thursday, the Florida Association of Realtors will release its final housing reports for 2007. While numbers are not good, Fed interest rate cut may help.

Most believe that those numbers will not be good. In fact, they may be pretty bad considering the once optimum locations dotting Florida's cities.

November numbers are a contributor. In November, house sales in Florida on existing single family homes dropped by 18 per cent. This is over the figures from 2006. In addition to this poor news, the average median resale price for property in the state dropped in 2007 over 2006. The fall was 9 per cent, which dropped housing prices here to a median US $184,000.

While this news is not good for the housing industry is, some real estate experts here believe it could be a good piece of news that the Federal Reserve dropped their key lending rate so substantially again. Coupled with lower sale prices, this cut, which was 0.75 per cent, could help to spur the housing market here. The rate, which is a benchmark rate that the Federal Reserve charges banks to borrow funds, sits at 3.5 per cent.

It may also help to boost the overall number of homes being constructed here as well. Home construction has done poorly here recently. A rate cut may help to spur home buyers into building as well.