Homeowners Are Cautiously Optimistic about Florida's Real Estate Market; Survey Suggests Florida Homeowners Not Overly Concerned About Slowing Market.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund:

--Three out of five Florida homeowners believe that the value of their homes will increase in the next 12 months.

--Seventy-one percent of Floridians cite "affordability" as the biggest obstacle to homeownership in the state - an 18 percent increase from last year.

--Being hit by a hurricane tops the list of real estate concerns for Florida homeowners.

A new survey finds that 58 percent of Florida homeowners think the value of their homes in their community will continue to rise over the next 12 months, despite indications that the state's unprecedented five-year housing boom is waning.

The annual survey, commissioned by Florida-based Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund's Consumer Education Campaign, polled more than 1,000 homeowners throughout the state between May and June 2006. Detailed results can be found at www.fundhomeinfo.com.

The survey also suggests that despite affordability continuing to be the biggest obstacle to purchasing a home (71 percent), homeowners are cautious about the state's housing market: across Florida homeowner's views are split about whether now is a good or bad time to buy Florida real estate (42 percent for both).

Hurricanes were still on the mind of homeowners, however, with nearly half of all respondents (47 percent) saying they were concerned about being hit by a storm. Sixteen percent of homeowners cite the impact of a housing bubble as their biggest concern, even fewer cite rising mortgage interest rates (13 percent), depreciating home values (5 percent), or becoming the victim of real estate fraud (1 percent) as their biggest real estate concern in Florida.

"As the Florida real estate market continues to soften it is reassuring to see Florida homeowners generally optimistic about the next 12 months," said Charles J. Kovaleski, president and CEO of Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund. "Surprisingly, the survey illustrates that Florida homeowners do not rank being the victim of real estate fraud as a higher concern, especially since Florida was recently named the top state in the nation for mortgage fraud. However, we are pleased to see that homeowners are increasingly turning to real estate attorneys to protect their real estate interests, which is significant given that understanding real estate laws is cited as most the confusing part of the home-buying process."

Summary of key findings:

Obstacles to homeownership

Seventy-one percent of Floridians cite "affordability" as the biggest obstacle to homeownership in the state, as compared to the complexity of the real estate process, assembling a qualified real estate team, and the loan process. This is an 18 percent increase when compared to results from a similar survey conducted in 2005.

--Homeowners in Ft. Myers-Naples and Miami-Dade (both 83 percent) are even more likely to say "affordability" is a big obstacle.

--With nearly a 30 percent increase from 2005, the Tampa area saw the biggest increase in percent stating "affordability" as the biggest obstacle to homeownership compared to other regions of the state.

Plans for buying a home in Florida

Floridians are split in their views about whether now is a good or a bad time to buy Florida real estate (each 42 percent), but residents in select regions like Orlando (43 percent), Sarasota County (53 percent) and West Palm Beach (49 percent) are slightly more likely to believe that now is a good time to buy a home than regions such as Broward County (39 percent), Miami-Dade (34 percent) and Tampa (42 percent).

The majority of homeowners in Florida (78 percent) are not planning on purchasing a house or condo in the next two years.

Most confusing part of purchasing a home

Among Florida homeowners, 41 percent find understanding real estate laws as the most confusing part of purchasing a home. In fact, one third of owners of Florida real estate find understanding real estate law extremely or very confusing.

Other aspects of the process of buying Florida real estate that are seen as confusing by a sizeable percentage of Florida homeowners include understanding the closing process/paperwork involved (24 percent say extremely/very confusing).

How real estate attorneys help the most

In ranking the value real estate attorneys provide, Florida homeowners consider real estate attorneys most valuable in preventing legal problems (37 percent), followed by reviewing a contract (28 percent), protecting the home buyer's interest (23 percent) and lastly, issuing title insurance (3 percent).

About half of owners of Florida real estate have consulted with a real estate attorney in the past (48 percent).

Residents in South Florida consult real estate attorneys more frequently, compared to residents in other parts of the state. For example, 67 percent of residents in Miami-Dade County, 61 percent in Broward and 60 percent of residents in West Palm Beach say that they have consulted real estate attorneys, compared to 37 percent of residents in Tampa and 44 percent in Orlando.

About The Fund Consumer Education Campaign

Launched in 2001, The Fund's Consumer Education Campaign was designed to educate Florida real estate consumers on the home buying and selling process. The Education Campaign includes an informational Web site in English (www.FundHomeInfo.com) and Spanish (www.InforHogar.com) and toll-free numbers in English (1-866-FUND HOME) and Spanish (1-800-688-7599) with operators offering assistance.

About The Fund:

Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund, Inc., Florida's leading title insurance underwriter and title information provider, is in business to preserve and facilitate the real estate practices of its members in their protection of the public. For more information, visit www.thefund.com.

Methodology

This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund, Inc. among 1,089 homeowners across Florida and focused on markets such as Broward, Fort Myers-Naples, Miami-Dade County, Orlando, Sarasota County, Tampa and West Palm Beach (aged 18 and over) between May 30 and June 6, 2006. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. With a pure probability sample of 1,089 adults one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 4 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.