Florida Home Prices Go Up!

December 28, 2004 - BY GREGG FIELDS
gfields@herald.com

Home prices are soaring throughout South Florida, leading experts to wonder whether the boom is too much of a good thing.

''It does create the issue of attracting companies and jobs here,'' said Miami economist Tony Villamil. Much of the vitality of the Florida housing market, he said, comes from affluent retirees and foreign investors from Latin America and the Caribbean. Florida, for instance, now has more Puerto Ricans than live in metropolitan San Juan.

EXPENSIVE PLACE

But for those who live and work full time in Florida, housing makes the area ''a high-cost location,'' he said.

Frank Kowalski, a Miami Realtor and president-elect of the Florida Association of Realtors, echoed Villamil's sentiments.

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