Continuing fears dampen Florida real estate outlook

The real estate market could get worse before it gets better, according to the latest quarterly survey conducted by the University of Florida. Respondents in the survey said they feared stagnant financial markets, rising unemployment and another round of foreclosures in 2010, said Timothy Becker, director of UF’s Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. Becker said he expects foreclosures, both commercial and residential, to continue to plague Florida because of the issue with refinancing mortgages and the statewide unemployment rate, which at 11.8 percent in December was at its highest since 1975, and may continue to climb. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was slightly better in December at 11.3 percent. Fourteen Florida cities were among the top 100 markets in the nation for foreclosure rates, and eight of them were in the top 20, according to the RealtyTrac 2009 Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report. The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro ranked No. 22 with 4.77 percent of housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

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