Article: In South Florida, Most People Who Bought Homes During Boom Are Underwater

Yesterday's Miami Herald published an article on a recent report by real estate website Zillow.com, which documents the struggles many Florida homeowners are facing as they find that they now owe more than their properties are worth - a situation that the paper terms being "underwater".

The excessive boom period, particularly from 2005 to 2007, means many bought at incredibly high prices. Now property prices have been tumbling to such an extent that homeowners have seen the value of their homes plunge severly. The article states that those that bought during these boom years may experience prices falling by 50% in Dade county, and 41% in Broward. (These are median price figures.) Meanwhile, an astonishingly high 88% of those who bought in 2006 are "underwater".

No doubt a situation like this will unfortunately cause even more homeowners to fall into foreclosure.

Article: In South Florida, most people who bought homes during boom are underwater (Miami Herald, 6th May 2009)