Realtors hopeful for a better 2010

OKALOOSA ISLAND — To say recent years have been a challenge for the local and national real estate market is more than a mere understatement, but there are expectations for improvement this year.

ERA American Realty of Northwest Florida held its annual celebration Monday morning at the Ramada Plaza Beach Resort. The program’s keynote speaker was Charlie Young, president and CEO of ERA Franchise Systems, the parent company of the ERA branches nationwide.

Young discussed the struggles his industry faced in 2009 and looked ahead to what economists for the National Association of Realtors and Fannie Mae are saying about this year.

“I think the best thing about 2009 is it’s over, at least from a business perspective,” Young said.

Home sales were down about 2 percent last year from 2008’s numbers; however, the prices of homes sold in the country fell 12 percent during the same period.

Florida had even more fluctuations last year. Young said the state was impacted more than most of the country by the decreasing home values. While the number of homes sold in Florida actually increased slightly last year, the value of the homes sold decreased 16.5 percent in 2009.

Young said the real estate market did start to turn around in August and there have been consistent increases each month since.

Young told the ERA crowd Monday that economists from both NAR and Fannie Mae were projecting some improvements to the real estate market this year, but they differed on how much things would improve.

NAR was more optimistic with its projection, saying home sales would increase 13.6 percent this year and home prices would go up about 3.6 percent. While Fannie Mae projected a 10.6 percent increase in the number of home sales this year, it projected a slight decrease in the home prices.

“It is still a rather fragile economy we’re working with,” Young said.