Out-of-Towners Covet Florida Real Estate, Locals Scratch Heads

The grass is always greener on the other side – even if said yard is located in one of the states hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis.

A new report by listings company Trulia Inc. reveals that one in three home searches cross state lines, and seven out of 10 of the most popular real estate markets perused by out-of-towners are in Florida.

The study looked at listing search data between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 that compared incoming property searches from out-of-towners against the number of outgoing searches by locals. The results were narrowed to include only listing views from at least 100 miles away from a property.

Florida Dominates Most-Desired-Properties List

In the most popular market for out-of-towners, the metro area of Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla., there were nearly nine times more inbound searches than outbound. This may be surprising to locals, who are intimately more familiar with the area's housing woes. One in every 205 homes in Palm Bay received a foreclosure filing in Dec. 2011, according to RealtyTrac Inc. -- more than triple the national rate of 1 in 634 foreclosure filings.