Inventory crunch eases for homebuyers

The tight supply of homes in South Florida’s resurgent real estate market may be slackening, according to industry analysts and real estate agents quoted in local press.

Prices nosedived following the recession, not hitting bottom until last year. Institutional investors and cash-rich foreign buyers have been duking it out over the perceived deals, leaving traditional homebuyers on the sidelines. As a result, inventories are the lowest they’ve been in a decade.

“Word is reaching more sellers that it’s not a depressed market anymore,” Dean Ehrlich, a broker-owner of RE/MAX Sun & Sea in Parkland, Fla., told the Sun Sentinel.

If it’s no longer depressed, it’s no longer a bargain, which may force open more lending channels to mortgage-dependent homebuyers.

Listings are up across South Florida, with inventories creeping up to five months’, with economists seeing six months’ inventory as a healthy residential market. [Sun Sentinel] — Emily Schmall