Florida Mortgage Rates Help Keep Homes Sales Brisk

Florida mortgage rates stayed low through the spring. Together with a strong jobs market and a growing economy, these low Florida mortgage rates helped allow for a 27% increase in the sales of single-family Florida homes in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market in May.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal reported today that 5,482 Florida homes sold in May 2005. This is a substantial increase over the 4,330 single-family homes that were sold in May of 2004.

David Scott, a professor of finance at the University of Central Florida, was quoted as saying that the current Florida mortgage rates are part of "a once-in-a-lifetime low interest rate environment." Rather than speaking doom and gloom about a housing bubble, he referred to more of an "interest rate bubble," created by extremely low Florida mortgage rates.