Is South Florida Heading Into an Economic Recovery?

After I was able to get past all of the Anthony Weiner headlines this week, I saw three about current economic conditions in South Florida. Individually I might have ignored them – but three in one week caught my eye:

1.      Florida unemployment claims down

"Florida is one of nine states that saw initial unemployment claims drop by more than 1,000 last week. The state had 1,240 fewer claims filed last week than in the week before. The Department of Labor attributes that to fewer layoffs in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, retail and the service sector."

South Florida Business Journal 

 2.      South Florida residential resale market shrinking

"There are less than 50,000 residential properties on the resale market in the tri-county South Florida region… As of June 13, there are 22,200 single-family houses and 27,700 condos and townhouses actively available for purchase in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties… In November 2008, after the U.S. financial meltdown, there were nearly 108,000 residences for resale in South Florida, with 46,600 single-family houses and 60,900 condos and townhouses available. South Florida’s residential resale market has been moving slowly toward the under-50,000-property threshold for more than 30 months."

South Florida Business Journal

3.      South Florida foreclosure filings down in May

"In May, South Florida’s three counties combined to produce more than 6,600 foreclosures. Miami-Dade County had 2,768 new foreclosures, a drop of more than 60 percent, year-over-year… RealtyTrac noted the inventory of properties in foreclosure has declined during the past six months, but “foreclosure processing delays continue to mask the true face of the foreclosure situation, although there were some clues in the May numbers of what lies behind that mask,” Saccacio said. “First, activity spiked in May for various stages of the foreclosure process in some states, a pattern that has occurred in several states over the past few months. This pattern provides evidence that lenders are somewhat unevenly pushing batches of bad loans through foreclosure as they overhaul their paperwork and documentation procedures and as they determine that some local markets are able to absorb more foreclosure inventory.”"

South Florida Business Journal

We know it’s still going to be a long recovery, but these are encouraging signs in my opinion. What do you think?