Is Miami-Dade Housing Sale Boom All Hype?

Educated and informed consumers know that the mixed-message bag of information on nutrition is to be taken with ... a grain of salt (pun intended). Seems like each day brings a new finding about what is and isn't good for us. Well, move over nutrition and make room for Miami-Dade's housing market where the constant flow of news about whether it's on the road to recovery or not is frankly confusing and headache-inducing.

In a recent Miami Herald article the headline read "Home-Sale surge a sign of recovery," with a subhead indicating that sales rose 17 percent in March while prices continued on a downward spiral.

It's obvious sales will spike when prices are cheaper; after all, as consumers we know to buy when things are on sale, right? Interesting, too, that the supposed "recovery" comes on the cusp of a looming deadline for a federal tax credit. See, if first-time buyers close by June 30 they're eligible for an $8,000 credit, and repeat buyers who meet the deadline can earn $6,500. That's a nice chunk of change.