Cash Investors re entering the real estate market

An article written Derek Kravitz and Martin Crutsinger for The Associated Press indicated that construction has recently jumped by 14.6 percent; although, single family homes declined by 1%.  Over all; the jump is the highest in 20 months. Builders broke ground on an adjusted rate of 596K units.

The article went on to state that the building industry is coming off the worst two years since 1959.  To gauge we can look at the fact that in a healthy economy builders have about 1 million starts per year. Therefore, over all the housing market is still struggling.

The majority of the jump was due to many apartment starts. I believe that this is a strong indicator of how much demand there is in the market for rental property housing.  As more owners lose their homes to foreclosure we will a further increase in the demand for rental housing.

At South Florida Brokers we have experienced many cash investors re-entering the market in search of condo units and multi-family units with good rental potential.  In out rental division we have seen an increase in rentals rates this year as well as a strong tendency of tenants to renew their current lease versus looking elsewhere.