Housing market gaining real strength

    Things Really looking up in the housing market.

· Florida unemployment drops to lowest level in four years. Florida's unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent last month, below the national rate of 7.9 percent and plunging to its lowest point since October 2008.

· Defying national trend, Floridians' confidence up. The latest numbers from the University of Florida’s consumer-confidence index showed a small gain, even as a national barometer recorded renewed worry among consumers who have been facing higher gas prices, higher deductions from their paychecks and seemingly endless headlines about cutbacks from Washington.

 

· Good news for residential real estate. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite index released March 26 showed January home prices posting their largest year-over-year increase since the summer of 2006. The index, which tracks single-family home prices in 20 large cities, improved 8.1% with all 20 cities posting year-over-year price gains.

· Housing Starts rose slightly in February. Nationally, starts are coming in above expectations and up 28 percent since this time last year. Both Single-Family Housing Starts and Building Permits also increased, reaching their highest levels since June 2008