Lower prices not yet bargains

Even though South Florida housing prices have dropped, many working people still can’t scrape the money together for down payments, and it’s now harder to get a mortgage. Home prices in Broward and Miami-Dade are down more than 20 percent from their 2005 peaks, but they still exceed the reach of many local wage earners. Nationally, the median American home price peaked in 2005 at 4.73 times median income, but was 9.46 in Miami-Dade and 7.75 in Broward in the same period. William Hardin, director of real-estate programs at Florida International University, says those prices are untenable, but demand remains fueled by wealthy foreign and out-of-state buyers.