South Florida Boasts Nation's Best — and Worst — Housing Markets: Bloomberg Businessweek

Just 50 miles apart, the highs and lows of the housing market are evident in Weston and Homestead

We may not be number one on the football field -- or even number 30 -- but according to Businessweek, South Florida does boast a city that's tops in the nation for largest gains in home values.

It also boasts the worst.

The City of Weston is the top-performing housing market since President Obama took office, according to a Bloomberg survey that says the luxe Broward community has seen a 15.1 percent increast in home values from February 2009 to August 2011.

Of course, those numbers are in stark contrast to the rest of Florida, where according to Bloomberg home values have plummetted 52.3 percent statewide since 2006 and foreclosures, unemployment, and excessive inventory still grasp recovery by the ankles.

And just 50 miles south of Weston, the Miami-Dade city of Homestead buckles under the survey's worst-performing housing market, having seen values nosedive 48.8 percent since February 2009.

But in Weston, of course, homeowners are smiling -- as are real estate agents.

"Weston was one of the last communities to fall and one of the first to recover," Ines Garcia, an agent for EWM Realtors in Weston, told Businessweek. “It’s like driving into a gated community: the landscaping, the manicuring all around the city."

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