Known as one of the world’s most affluent communities, Palm Beach includes stunning mansions, three blocks of glamorous shops on Worth Avenue that draw diplomats, celebrities, foreign royals and the world’s wealthiest people, and a fabulous beach aside the Atlantic Ocean. Spanish Revival buildings house most of the 250 businesses on Worth Avenue, with stucco walls, hewn coral facades, pecky cypress in the ceilings, red barrel-tile roofs and cerise bougainvillea vines dripping over arcaded walkways. In the 1920’s, architect Addison Mizner set the trend which continues today with distinctive Moorish-Mediterranean style architecture.

"For people who have been waiting to time their home purchase close to market bottom, it's time to start shopping," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist.  Bidding wars have returned as buyers compete for a shrinking supply of homes.  Inventories of single-family homes in Palm Beach and Broward counties have fallen in the past year by 38% and 48%, respectively, local Realtor boards say.  (From loansafe.org.)


The Sun-Sentinel interviewed a dozen builders, buyers, analysts, real estate agents and other local housing observers and they agreed that the region has reached a housing floor, despite concern that another wave of bank-owned homes will hit the market.


With prices back to levels last seen in 2002, demand is strong again, particularly from foreign investors and others willing to pay cash.