Question: What are the chances that prices on land in the Florida Panhandle will fall? There's obviously been a decrease in demand in real estate lately.  Toll Brothers, St.Joe, etc have seen drops in orders, and people actually backing out of contracts.  I'm looking to buy a single lot in Walton County to build on later down the road.  Prices have jumped to outrageous levels, and in my opinion, more than demand warrants over the last few years.  Any chance there will be a decrease into a more reasonable range in the next year or so?

Answer: I think that the housing market across the USA is overpriced and that prices will have to go down soon.  I think that the prime rate is going to go up to try to stem inflation  and that will decrease the demand on housing.  You also have the high fuel costs and people may not want to be buying new houses because of the costs of transportation.  On the other side, if the panhandle is anything like here, in Texas, there are fewer housing starts taking place here because most of the contractors are in New Orleans to help reconstruct the city there.  That causes there to be higher demand and fewer new homes being produced.
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