Florida has a unique market with thirty per cent of dwellings owned by foreigners and a third of these owned by Brits, writes Tony Booth.

This outward influence cushions the effects of falling property values and partially isolates the region from America's other economic problems.

The question for holiday home and rental investors is ... has the lowest part of the curve been reached or can we expect property prices to fall even further before recovery begins?

It has been a bad twelve months for investors who already own property in Florida and, it seems, things may yet get even worse.

Proof of turbulent times across the pond comes from banking group HSBC, which operates a huge number of mortgages throughout USA. It has already announced its bad debt provisions are 20 per cent higher than expected, because the volume of lenders in default of mortgage payments has soared. Last year alone saw seventeen consecutive interest-rate hikes.