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CNN Live At Daybreak

Despite Slowing Economy, Real Estate Market Is Booming

Aired June 26, 2001 - 07:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if you're looking to buy or sell a house, CNN's John Zarrella reports on what's keeping the real estate market booming.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bill and Kerry Ackerman just bought their first home.

KERRY ACKERMAN, HOME BUYER: Well, even if the hole were down here.

ZARRELLA: The Ackermans started looking just as the housing market in South Florida began to sizzle. In less than a year, prices on previously-owned homes have gone up 10 to 12 percent according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

Houses are going on the market and coming off the market the same day.

BILL ACKERMAN, HOME BUYER: We just kept looking. We could not find anything. Kerry finally got lucky with this house. They put it up on the market. The first day, they had 11 people come and look at the house, and we put an offer in the next morning, and fortunately we got it. But it's tough out there.

ZARRELLA: For the Ackermans, the low interest rates made the difference in their ability to buy the house they wanted. That's not surprising -- the unexpected May numbers nationwide showed a nearly 3 percent rise in the sale of existing homes, driven for the most part, the National Association of Realtors says, by mortgage rates.

South Florida is not the only boom market. San Francisco and Boston have been surprisingly strong as well, given both cities are heavy with high tech workers.

LAWRENCE YUN, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS: This year with the Nasdaq crash and the layoff of the high tech workers, we would have anticipated some slowdown in the home price appreciation in those areas, but still there's the momentum of the home prices going up, so it has not really slowed down, which was actually a little surprising.

ZARRELLA: Real estate agents say that while interest rates are driving the market, buyers who waited for rates to decline haven't necessarily come out ahead.

RHONDA WAXMAN, REALTOR: In waiting for the interest rates to go down, they've lost because the property appreciated so much. There's no doubt in my mind that that happened.

ZARRELLA: Economists say the housing market has also benefited from the stock market woes, as investors looking for safer homes for their money put it in property. So some of the cash that's come off Wall Street has ended up on Main Street.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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