A statewide survey of real-estate experts released Monday showed that appraisers, brokers and other professionals are decidedly more pessimistic than they were earlier this year.

The second-quarter survey by the University of Florida’s Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies reversed a slightly positive trend noted in the center’s first-quarter outlook.

Wayne Archer, the center’s director, said “the mood has grown more somber since January,” with few signs of improvement in Florida’s real-estate markets overall, though the basics of rental property seem to remain healthy.

Archer said higher property-insurance rates, anxiety about property taxes and the implications of a meltdown in subprime mortgages may have contributed to the bleaker outlook during the quarter.

In terms of the residential sector, the 306 specialists who responded to the survey — including the university’s 140-member real-estate advisory board — continued to be concerned about housing, particularly the state’s condominium markets.

They judged the condo markets to be in “notably more stressed condition,” with prices for condos and single-family homes expected to trail the rate of inflation in coming months — though they don’t expect them to decline outright.

“The outlook for condo development remains poor, and weakening,” the report concluded. For apartments, the survey respondents generally offered a mixed outlook, with stable occupancy rates and with rents keeping pace with inflation — except for rents at condos converted to apartments.

Another report out Monday showed that confidence among U.S. home builders fell this month to its lowest level since February 1991, as interest rates climbed and mortgage delinquencies surged.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of sentiment declined to 28 in June from 30 in May, the Washington-based builders’ association said. Readings below 50 mean most respondents view conditions as poor.

Production home builders are losing money as they cut prices to stem a slide in sales amid stricter standards imposed by lenders for buyers seeking mortgages. Builders have scaled back projects to work off existing inventories — a sign that housing construction will weigh on U.S. growth for the rest of the year, economists say.

Source:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-realestate1907jun19,0,4012758.story