South Florida Speculators Outbid Average Homebuyers

You'd think that now would be the time to pick up a bargain home in South Florida. After all, there are more than 96,000 foreclosures to choose from, and that's just from the first six months of 2010, according to the Miami Herald: "Distressed properties are still dominating the market, with more than half of all homes and condos sold last month at some stage in the foreclosure process."

Floridians with modest nest eggs who were priced out of home ownership during the boom should be able to get their hands on a sweet little slice of subdivision now that prices have plummeted. Right?

Not exactly. It turns out that investors are opening their purse strings, too, beating regular buyers to the punch.