Florida home prices increased an average of 84 percent during the last boom, but wages have not kept pace. As a result, Florida workers in key occupations can no longer afford to buy into the housing market according to eFinanceDirectory.com, a real estate news site.

They recently analysed the earnings of workers in some of Florida’s key occupations and calculated the workers’ ability to afford a median priced home or fair market rent on a two-bedroom apartment.

The analysis included four major metropolitan areas, as well as five occupations that play a key role in the Florida workforce: fire fighters, police officers, nurses, receptionists, and wait staff.

The results showed that not only was it impossible for workers earning the average income for their field and location to reasonably afford a median priced home, it was also difficult for workers in the majority of the occupations to afford rent on a 2-bedroom apartment.

For example, in Miami, where the median priced home is $375,000, it would be virtually impossible for workers in the five occupations to qualify for a mortgage loan without some form of assistance. The Miami fire fighter, who on average earns more than the workers in the other four occupations ($65,312), would need to earn twice as much to be able to reasonably afford the median priced home.

In the same area, a receptionist earning the average income ($20,925) would need to work an unmanageable 72-hour working week to afford the fair market rent on a two-bedroom Miami apartment.

Similar problems were found in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Jacksonville, the other three Florida metropolitan areas included in the analysis.

Recent property re-sale figures show a drop in resale housing prices in the Catalan Capital city Barcelona, for the first time since 2001. Research into the second quarter of 2007, conducted by Spanish property information portal Idealista, revealed that the price of property in Barcelona city and it’s surrounding municipalities have dropped by an average of 1.3%.

The results placed the average price per square meter of property in Barcelona at 4,285 euros (£2901) compared to 4,888 euros (£3309) as shown in the same report for the first quarter of this year.

While prices fell in all areas covered by the survey, the Les Corts district showed the most dramatic drop of 3.2%. Four other districts in the city showed a drop in excess of one percent, those being Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Sant Martí and Horta Guinardó. The most exclusive area of the city, Sarrià- Sant Gervasi, reported the lowest fall at a figure of 0.2%.

After ten years of rapid but steady growth, property prices in Barcelona are now lower than they were at the beginning of the year.

An estimated 1 million Brits now live in Spain – and there are signs that the expatriates are integrating at last into the Spanish way of life according to a report from the timesonline. Graham Forster came to Spain partly in search of the sun. The pretty Andalusian village where he has settled is a 40-minute drive from the coast – or would have been had I been able to find the winding road to it on my map. The 49-year-old Liverpudlian watchmaker found a perfect place to settle in Álora, a whitewashed village in the shadow of an ancient hilltop castle. “I wanted the Spanish lifestyle, rather than Little England in the sun,” he explains, taking a rest from fixing clocks in the afternoon heat.

Five years ago, he moved here with his family. After four years of lessons and considerable help from his neighbours, Forster felt that his Spanish was good enough to open his own shop, which serves Brits and Spaniards in equal measure. “This is it now,” he says decisively. “We’re staying here for good.”

Álora is one of dozens of remote Spanish villages where Britons have settled in recent years. Far removed from the British enclaves on the coast, many of these latest settlers are becoming involved with their adopted villages to an extent their predecessors never dreamt of.

“I think the traditional image of the retired Brit coming to live in the sun is diminishing,” says Bruce McIntyre, the British consul in Málaga. “The normal person who used to come here and live on their state pension can’t now afford to do so.”

Instead, he sees younger people moving over with their families, often entrepreneurial types with successful businesses in the UK.

The UK Foreign Office works under the assumption that more than 1 million Britons are living most or all of the year in Spain – a huge number in a country of 45 million people. In dozens of towns and villages across the sunny south and west of the country, Britons now outnumber Spanish residents by a wide margin.

The latest official figures reveal that 315,000 Britons are registered with their local Spanish authority, giving them the right to vote in local elections. That figure is rising by 15 to 20 per cent a year. For the first time, Spanish politicians are starting to court the British vote in local elections. In places such as Majorca and Alicante province, Britons are themselves being elected as local officials; one town has even had a British deputy mayor.

Australia has unveiled details of a new citizenship test for immigrants. They will be asked questions about history, institutions and culture - as well as committing to Australian social values focusing on “mateship”.

Twenty sample questions were unveiled by the federal government yesterday which included “what is the floral emblem of Australia?” and “who is the Queen’s representative in Australia?” (the answers are: the wattle, and the governor-general).

However, some of the real questions would have even Australians reaching for the encyclopedia, such as naming the country’s first prime minister (Edmund Barton) and the year when the separate colonies formed a federated nation (1901).

The new citizenship test is expected to be introduced later this year.

The tough test is a far cry from the days when Australia was desperate for migrants and offered Britons the “£10 Pom” deal.

The draft document also lays out values to be taught to new settlers, including compassion, freedom of speech and a respect for Australia’s British heritage.

The test, and laws to ensure that migrants must live in Australia for four years, instead of three, before becoming eligible for citizenship, are in part a response to riots between Muslim and non-Muslim youths in Sydney in 2005.

The federal government wants to promote tolerance, religious freedom, “mateship” and “a fair go” in a country in which one in four of the population of 21 million was born overseas.

The immigration minister, Kevin Andrews, said the new rules would help new citizens integrate into Australian society. The tests will require applicants to correctly answer at least 12 out of 20 questions.

Applicants who fail the test will be allowed to re-sit the examination.

Quotable Value has released July’s figures for New Zealand’s housing market. The average price of a house in New Zealand has risen to £136,665 ($381,298) from June’s £135,724 ($378,672). New Zealand’s average house prices are not directly comparable with the UK’s because, unlike the UK, the average home in New Zealand is a detached bungalow.

QV spokesperson Blue Hancock said:

“QV is reporting a continued increase in property values across the country, however, the trends differ within cities and between regions. Prices in the main urban areas appear to be stabilising while some provincial cities continue to experience strong growth.”

House Prices in New Zealand
Three Months Ending July 2007

* Assumed exchange rate is £1 = NZ$2.79