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Sarasota real estate market at highest level since 2005

Property sales in May 2010 in the Sarasota market once again hit the highest total since 2005 and median sale prices continued the steady pace observed in recent months.

The 766 sales were the highest for the year, topping the April 2010 total of 757, and were the highest total since December 2005, and 51.3 percent higher than the May 2009 total of 506 sales.

Pending sales were once again strong, hitting 857, but were slower than April 2010. The March and April pending sales figures both topped 1,000, and reflected a last minute rush to beat the federal homebuyer tax credit deadline.
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High-end homes: is the tide turning?

HORSHAM, Penn. – Aug. 14, 2009 – High-end homes appear to be selling better than analysts thought.

Toll Brothers (TOL), the nation’s largest luxury homebuilder, on Aug. 12 announced its first year-over-year increase in signed home contracts since 2005, suggesting that first-time buyers might not be alone in driving improving U.S. home sales.

The Horsham [Pa.]-based builder said that signed contracts in the quarter ended July 31 – though still low by historic standards – rose 3 percent, to 837, compared with the same period a year ago. But revenues fell 42 percent in the quarter, to $461.3 million. The company also said it has been able to reduce buyer incentives in several markets as demand and contract cancellations improve.

“Mood has changed”

No other major builder has matched Toll Brothers’ 3 percent increase in contracts signed, though a few reported a 2 percent improvement in the most recent quarter, said Barclays Capital analyst Megan McGrath in New York. The average quarterly decline in new home contracts for major public builders was about 14 percent, she said.

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MIAMI – Aug. 4, 2009 – Jose Garcia looks over the contract for his Gables Estates home with Realtor Audrey Ross, who deals with the ultra-luxury housing market. The price of Garcia’s home: Just under $20 million.

Elite Realty. “Now, we’re getting five, six, 10 families coming through. I’m really praying and keeping my fingers crossed this is a permanent thing.”

Confidence seems to be returning, as well as a rising tide of money from outside the country, positive signs for both the high-end housing market, and the real estate market in general. Demand fed by foreign money has always been a critical piece of the real estate puzzle in South Florida.

“We’re on our way out of the worst (of the economic downturn)” said Manny Mesa, a Doral-based trial lawyer who is hunting for a bigger home for his wife and four children.

On Thursday, he toured the digs of former Miami Heat point guard Tim Hardaway. Hardaway is asking $3.9 million for the five-bedroom, five-bath home on almost two acres in the Pinecrest area. It boasts a six-foot coral rock wall for privacy and a closet the size of a very large bedroom.

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WASHINGTON – Aug. 4, 2009 – Pending home sales are up for the fifth consecutive month, the first time in six years for such a streak, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in June, rose 3.6 percent to 94.6 from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May; and it’s 6.7 percent above June 2008 when it was 88.7. The last time there were five consecutive monthly gains was July 2003.

“Historically low mortgage interest rates, affordable home prices and large selection are encouraging buyers who’ve been on the sidelines,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “Activity has been consistently much stronger for lower priced homes. Because it may take as long as two months to close on a home after signing a contract, first-time buyers must act fairly soon to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit because they must close on the sale by Nov. 30.”

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ORLANDO, Fla. – Aug. 3, 2009 – Even as Americans suffer rising unemployment, foreclosure rates in three states hit hardest by the housing bust – California, Arizona and Florida – stabilized in June, offering hope that the worst of the real estate crisis is over, according to The Associated Press’ monthly analysis of economic stress in more than 3,100 U.S. counties.

The latest results of AP’s Economic Stress Index show foreclosure and bankruptcy rates held steady from May in some states. Yet mounting unemployment is hampering an economic recovery in some regions, especially the Southeast and industrial Midwest.

The AP calculates a score from 1 to 100 based on each county’s unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. The higher the score, the higher the economic stress. The average county’s Stress score rose to 10.6 in June, up from 10 in May, mainly because of rising unemployment.

In June 2008, the average county’s Stress score was 6.7. The pain was lower then because the economy was still expanding. In fact, the second quarter of 2008 was the last time the economy grew.

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WASHINGTON – Aug. 3, 2009 – It was – note the past tense – the worst housing recession anyone but survivors of the Great Depression can remember.

From the frenzied peak of the real estate boom in 2005-2006 to the recession’s trough earlier this year, home resales fell 38 percent and sales of new homes tumbled 76 percent. Construction of homes and apartments skidded 79 percent. And for the first time in more than four decades of record keeping, home prices posted consecutive annual declines.

A staggering $4 trillion in home equity was wiped out, and millions of Americans lost their homes through foreclosure.

Now take a deep breath and exhale. The worst is over.

By every measure, except foreclosures, the housing market has stabilized and many areas are recovering, according to a spate of data released in the past two weeks. Nationwide, home resales in June are up 9 percent from January, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Sales of new homes have climbed 17 percent during the same period. And construction, while still anemic, has risen almost 20 percent since the beginning of the year.

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(I’m representing more Real Estate Investors than ever due to the depreciating prices in our market.. Sarasota, & much of Florida, traditionally has made for rough rental investments due to expensive prices & contrasting low rent rates.. With correcting values, investors are re-entering the market & buying homes that earn them 10% a year on their capital investment.. Purchasing a home below market value, & finding a tenant to pay market value for rent is a common package in our current market & something Shirley International Realty Inc. offers to anyone looking to make money off of Real Estate. Read on about the experiences from other Real Estate Professionals & Investors uncovering opportunities Post-”The Bust”..

Bright side of housing bust

OCALA, Fla. – Nov. 26, 2008 – Ron Boatright had more business than he could handle during the housing boom.

His Ocala drywall business employed as many as 60 people in the home construction heyday. Back then, it looked like there would be good times for a long time.

“It was wide open. I was in The Villages for 12 years working and the most we did was 16 (homes) a week. That’s a lot,” Boatright said.

Fast forward three years and Boatright’s thriving drywall business is anything but. That’s because with almost no new homes being built, there’s little need for drywallers and Boatright’s telephone, which once rang off the hook, went silent.

“Now we’re lucky if we do one home a week,” Boatright said. “And I think it’s going to get worse.”

But the 50-year-old Boatright also saw a new housing niche and a way he and his family could cash in on it. He saw hundreds of homes for sale with sticker prices significantly less than what their owners had paid for them just a few years ago.

So Boatright took his savings and looked for homes costing about $50,000 or less. He found one this year, bought it for $50,000 and put his family and in-laws to work restoring it. Three years ago the home cost $110,000.

Boatright put in about $8,000 worth of repairs, tacked on another $2,000 for a Realtor to list the house for $70,000 and sell it. Within two weeks he had a potential buyer. The only problem was the buyers didn’t qualify for a bank loan.

So Boatright decided to hold the mortgage for five years. By doing that, he made some extra money and ensured the sale went through. At 8 percent interest, Boatright is planning to make an extra $10,000 in interest in addition to proceeds from the sale of the house.

Now Boatright said he’s accepting buyers that many banks would probably reject, and he accepts a smaller down payment than most financial institutions. He is in the process of buying his fourth investment house this year.

“If I can find somebody with halfway decent credit and a steady job, I can get them in the (house),” Boatright said.

Even though he’s charging higher interest, Boatright said he’s offering homes that buyers can afford, something most banks didn’t do before with sub-prime mortgages.

Dawn Rickabough, a broker and mortgage consultant in California, said that in today’s tough housing market, offering homes at lower cost and owner financing gives sellers an edge.

“Depending on the area, it can be critical and the difference between making a sale and not,” said Rickabough, who lectures on holding mortgages.

Although there are no statistics readily available about how many homes are sold through owner financing, Rickabough said an informal study she commissioned showed that in 2006, about one in every 400 properties sold had some form of owner financing.

That jumped to one in every 50 this year, and Rickabough predicts the number will only grow during the next few years.

Rickabough said that while the market has been a tough road for sellers these past couple of years, there is a niche and people like Boatright are filling it.

“I think he’s got a good system going there,” she said. “(He’s) getting a decent return on his money and doing better than the stock market. I think it’s a fabulous strategy.”

But buying a home cheap, fixing it and selling it by holding the mortgage isn’t for everybody.

Rickabough said sellers need to understand the risks and whether they can afford to keep the property if the buyers stop making payments.

Sellers need a reliable source of equity to buy properties, and set the buyers’ payments according to the risk. Sellers should also make sure they have all the financial documents in order, such as proof of buyers’ income, tax returns and credit history, in case the seller wants to sell the mortgage one day to another investor.

Michael Malkasian, president of the Web site FSBO.com (For Sale by Owner) said that during the past couple of years he is seeing about double the number of people buying inexpensive homes, repairing them and then selling them through owner financing or renting them in hopes the market will improve later.

“In a market like today, sellers are forced to come up with more creative ways to get their properties sold and owner financing is one of the oldest ways,” he said.

The market in Ocala is tough, but one in which Boatright can flourish, with more than 6,000 properties listed for sale.

And with sales stagnant, Boatright is working in an environment in which investors can buy homes at a fraction of what they sold for just a few years ago.

Single-family home sales in the third quarter of this year were down 10 percent in the Ocala area compared to the same period in 2007, according to a study released Tuesday by the Florida Association of Realtors. The median sales price dropped 16 percent. During the same period from 2006 to 2007, Ocala single-home sales dropped 53 percent and sales prices dropped 6 percent.

Sales in Gainesville weren’t much better. The number of home sales in the Gainesville area dropped 33 percent during the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007. Median sales prices dropped 11 percent. During the same period last year, home sales dropped 10 percent from 2006 and 2007 and prices fell 4 percent.

Bert Meadows, president elect of the Marion County Association of Realtors, said there is money to be made in the housing market if investors buy cheap, make modest repairs and offer owner financing. Boatright said he plans to continue buying and selling homes because he doesn’t see the demand for drywall work picking up soon.

Flipping houses and offering mortgages has kept some of his family members and in-laws off the unemployment line.

“And I just see it getting worse,” he said. “So I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Copyright © 2008 Ocala Star-Banner, Fla., Fred Hiers. All rights reserved. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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Foreclosure reprieve gives hope to families

TAMPA, Fla. – Dec. 1, 2008 – Tiffany Edwards thought she was running out of time to persuade her lender to work out a new loan so her growing family could stay in their Tampa home.

She had been out of work for more than a year, and her husband’s income wasn’t enough to cover all the family’s bills. She found a job a few weeks ago, but her lender was already set to foreclose on the house – likely before Christmas.

With a 3-year old daughter and a baby on the way, Edwards panicked. Then came last week’s announcement that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the nation’s two largest providers of mortgages – will postpone foreclosures until early January. In the meantime, they will try to work out loan modifications so more homeowners can keep their homes.

“What a stress relief,” Edwards said. “Now I have hope we’re going to be able to work something out.”

The Edwardses are one of about 16,000 families nationwide who are eligible for the help. The foreclosure suspension is exactly the kind of action some economists and industry leaders say is needed as the foreclosure crisis weighs down the entire economy. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is contemplating a way to get lenders to agree to a moratorium on foreclosures until after the holidays.

There were cheers when Fannie and Freddie agreed to hold off on some foreclosures. But now that the dust is settling, many wonder how significant the action will really be.

That’s because after Jan. 9, the people helped by the reprieve could still lose their homes. Even if all those people work out new loans, they still represent a small percentage of the more than 2 million homes that are expected to be lost in foreclosure before late 2009.

“This is great, it really is,” said Debbi Colon, a Catholic Charities foreclosure counselor who has worked with the Edwards family. “But it’s just a first step.”

After the announcement last week, her phone rang all day and night from clients wondering if they qualified for the reprieve, Colon said. Most don’t, she said, because their loans are held by private companies.

That’s the downside of the plan, Colon said. Only homeowners with loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are eligible. Together, the two companies own only about 20 percent of the nation’s delinquent loans.

Of the loans that Fannie and Freddie own, not all of them are eligible for the reprieve. Homeowners must be still living in the home and must be at least three months behind on their payments.

For those who are lucky enough to get a second chance at a loan modification, Fannie and Freddie’s new program could be a big help. It calls for mortgage payments – including taxes and insurance – to total no more than 38 percent of homeowners’ pretax monthly income.

Officials for the Center for Responsible Lending said they are encouraged by Fannie and Freddie’s holiday reprieve, but know it’s not a solution.

“This is a solid step in the right direction,” said Ginna Green, spokeswoman for the center. “But we must also aim for solutions – like streamlined modifications – that keep families in their homes for the long term as well as the short term.”

Even so, Edwards and her family say they are thankful for the extra time in their home. No matter how long that ends up being.

Copyright © 2008 Tampa Tribune, Fla., Shannon Behnken. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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There is a big “push” for Sarasota to play host to the Boston Red Sox Spring Training as early as next spring.. Below is an article written by the Sarasota Association of Realtors that goes over the details & gives you a link to the petition that will be presented to local officials encouraging this move.. Read on..

SAR Policy Position Regarding the Boston Red Sox
The Sarasota Association of Realtors® is strongly in favor of moving forward to attract the Boston Red Sox to Sarasota for their spring training operations. This represents a significant opportunity to rally our economy, improve the quality of life, enhance our reputation for youth baseball, bolster civic pride and expand our horizons for community development and economic diversity.
 
Sarasota has a long history of spring training baseball, dating to 1924 when Payne Park became the home for the New York Giants, followed by the Boston Red Sox. The recently completed study by Convention, Sports & Leisure (CSL) documents a $46 million dollar impact on our area economy; almost double the impact of the Cincinnati Reds. Capitalizing on this opportunity is good public policy and will have long-term positive impacts on our economy and our community.
 
The Red Sox are unique. They have sold out every spring training game in Florida for the past five years and maintain a waiting list for tickets. 65% of their attendees will come from outside Sarasota County. Their reputation for civic contributions, national and international exposure and direct connections to the New England market top off this superb opportunity.
 
We urge all parties to work together to bring the Red Sox to Sarasota.
 
To add your name to an online petition supporting efforts to bring the Red Sox to Sarasota please click HERE.

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My Listings are now exposed in front of 35,000 Realtors from Orlando to Port Charlotte.. Mid-Florida MLS, corporate headerquarters in Orlando, is a Giant Multiple Listing Service Website that has now replaced our local Sarasota MLS System.. Members of the new System are, Manatee, Tampa, Hillsboro, Greater Tampa, Sarasota, Venice, Port Charlotte, Englewood, & Port Charlotte, among other smaller noteworthy assocations.. 13 Total Assocations make up this new Multiple Listing Service, so over 35,000 Realtors have Confidential Previewing Capabilities to all of my Listings.. This is great News for My Flat Fee & Full-Service Sellers.. Read on about Sarasota’s new membership to Mid-Florida MLS (Multiple Listing Service..)

“In 1995, six Central Florida REALTOR® Associations pooled their resources and joined forces to form the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service. By doing so, they unified the Central Florida real estate market and made it easier for REALTORS® from across the service area to cooperate with one another. Four years later, the West Volusia Association of REALTORS® joined MFRMLS, and in 2003 the Greater Tampa Association of REALTORS® came on board. Now, five Southwest Florida Associations have joined MFRMLS, making our MLS one of the largest and strongest multiple listing services in the country.

MFRMLS is a member-run organization, owned entirely by our shareholder member Associations. Each Association has representatives that WHO serve on the Board of Directors. The number of representatives from your Association is proportional to your Association’s size, and every Association has at least two, ensuring everyone has a fair voice in the leadership of the MLS.

The daily operations of MFRMLS are conducted from our headquarters in Orlando, FL. MFRMLS Vice President Joel Cohen has led the MLS through significant growth in the past several years. “We are ready to grow again,” Cohen says. “We have assembled an extraordinary team of management, administrative, and support staff that are prepared to pave the way for a smooth transition, and we look forward to providing a service that exceeds the expectations of our new member Associations.”

The staff of your local Association also plays an important role in running MFRMLS: they serve as your local MFRMLS Service Center personnel. We are currently giving them the tools they need to support the resources of MFRMLS.”

Why Did We Merge All These Assocations into One Giant System?? Read on to Find Out..

“Alan Mitchell, 2007 President of the Punta Gorda – Port Charlotte – North Port Association of REALTORS® said, “We had worked for years to create a Data Sharing Alliance among the Associations in Southwest Florida, but we knew it was just a first step. We were impressed with the professionalism and outlook of MFRMLS, and sharing a common MLS with our neighboring associations to the north will be a tremendous benefit for our members.”

Louise Bacher, 2007 President of the Englewood Area Board of REALTORS® says, “As an individual Association, we could not offer our members all the software benefits that Mid-Florida will because of its size.” Louise also notes that joining MFRMLS will give her sellers more exposure and introduce Englewood to larger markets.

Joe Hembree, 2007 President of the Sarasota Association of REALTORS® says “Forward-thinking REALTOR® Associations nationwide are looking at consolidation of MLS systems. . .the consolidation effort strengthens our technology platform, improves our data exchange, and makes life much easier for our members.”

May Aston, 2007 President of the Manatee Association of REALTORS®, is excited about joining MFRMLS. “It is something that our members have wanted for many years,” she says, “and it will provide us with many services that would be difficult or expensive to obtain on our own.”

Laura Kopple, 2007 President of the Venice Area Board of REALTORS® says that becoming a part of MFRMLS eliminates the need for Venice Area REALTORS® to be members of more than one MLS. “It will unify the local market and provide greater exposure for listings in Venice,” Laura said.

Jack Vahey, the current MFRMLS Immediate Past President said, “We appreciate the trust and confidence the Presidents of the new Associations have placed in MFRMLS, and we are looking forward to our new partnership.”

The current subscribers of MFRMLS have a lot to gain from the resources and leadership provided by your association. We are glad to have you aboard.”

Currently, the MFRMLS member associations include the Bartow Board of REALTORS®, East Polk County Association of REALTORS®, Greater Lake County Association of REALTORS®, Greater Tampa Association of REALTORS®, Lakeland Association of REALTORS®, Orlando Regional REALTOR® Association, Osceola County Association of REALTORS®, and West Volusia Association of REALTORS®. The new member associations include Englewood Area Board of REALTORS®, Manatee Association of REALTORS®, Punta Gorda – Port Charlotte – North Port Association of REALTORS®, Sarasota Association of REALTORS®, and Venice Area Board of REALTORS®.

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