People may travel to Florida to soak up the sun, but several Florida cities are home to the coolest housing markets in the U.S.
That’s according to Cotality, a national real estate analytics firm. Cotality analysts looked at year-over-year prices and found that the Cape Coral housing market has the second-fastest dropping prices, behind only Champaign, Illinois. Cape Coral saw a 7.1% drop in annual home prices according to the report that was recently published.
Overall, seven out of the 10 “coolest” markets are in Florida.
Behind Cape Coral, the next five fastest cooling markets were also all in the Sunshine State. That includes, in order, Naples, Punta Gorda, Sebring, North Port and Brownsville. Sebastian rounded out the top 10.
Cotality analysts compared the top 100 largest housing markets in the country to develop its list. The analysis said that while prices are dropping in Florida, the ability to pay mortgages is being tested.
“Amid falling prices, there has been a rise in serious mortgage delinquencies in some states like Florida, a state where a large proportion of markets are experiencing ebbing prices. These lower prices reduce the amount of equity that homeowners can tap into even as escrow costs climb,” the report said.
“People are paying an average of 45% more in escrow costs compared with five years ago, and that is pushing up monthly payments past the point of affordability. The increasing cost of owning a home has in part led to properties spending longer on the market and deals being more difficult to close despite for-sale inventory growing.”
No Florida markets were listed among the top 10 “hottest” markets. Muskegon, Michigan, led that group with a 14.1% increase in property prices in the past year. Dalton, Georgia, was the only Southeastern area to make the top 10 in up-and-coming markets, with an 8.9% jump in housing prices year over year.