Florida Homes Realty

10 Top Reasons Why It’s a Great Time to Buy Real Estate

2007-11-08T11:12:00.001-05:00

A recent article just came out about how “now is the time to buy real estate”. Given the fact that we have over 16,000 homes on the market in Orange County alone is overwhelming, to say the least. Word by the some of the media is, don’t buy now, prices are still going down. Well, it’s all a matter of opinion… You and I both know that no one has a crystal ball. This is definitely a buyers market and there are some very good buys out there.
#1 Regardless of the price range a buyer desires, there are plenty of houses from which to choose. Lots of options on the market today.
#2 Yay! No bidding wars. In 2005 we had multiple offers on a single home. This feeding frenzy that we experienced back then was horrible. The good news; there is no competitive bidding in this buyer’s market.
#3 You can make an offer. A few short years ago when you made an offer, the only question was how high above the asking price could the buyer reach in hopes of being the best offer on the table. Today this is not the case. Most sellers are grateful to get a fair price for their home.
#4 Patience is tolerated. In the hot seller’s market that existed everything was a big rush, rush. Today a buyer can take their time. Look at several homes and think about their decision for a few hours. Offer to purchase a home that they are “really happy” with. Not buying one out of desperation for fear they will not find another.
#5 This one is really crazy. In the not so distant past, buyers had to play games just to get into a new home. I remember several times I went to the model center at 5am in the morning for my out of state or out of country buyers and stood in line just to make sure my buyers had a chance at the lottery to build a new home. At one model center, there were homebuyer’s who slept on lounge chairs in front of the sales center doors at the model to ensure they were first in line. It was a crazy time and now builders have thousands of specs ready for anywhere from immediate to a few months down the road occupancy. Oh, did I mention how negotiable they will be on those specs!
#6 In this market even, due diligence is welcomed. A buyer is encouraged to obtain a home & termite inspection (which by the way we have always encouraged our buyer’s to order inspections. Back in 2005, many buyers waived these contingencies in order to gain an advantage with multiple offers.
#7 After a home inspection has been completed, the buyer submits a repair request to the seller. In the past a seller might insist the home be sold as is. And, in some cases you will find that today, but there are few back up buyers waiting.
#8 It was estimated that one third of all the sales in 2005 were to investors. Mortgage fraud became commonplace. We still have investors, especially on the foreclosure side, but the mortgage fraud has decreased dramatically.
#9 Location, location, location. How many times have you heard this. Well, it’s very true! Today many buyer’s can find homes closer to work and in areas that they are attracted to. In 2005, favorite communities were almost impossible to get into.
#10 Last, but certainly not least! Real financing is available… The “wink - wink” zero down, no doc, adjustable, sub-prime loans are gone. Fixed rates are back and FHA financing, first time homeowner bond programs, special loans for teachers, and police officers are back in business. Hip-hip-hooray! It’s a great time to buy real estate!!!
Source: Broker Agent News

Tampa Real Estate
Orlando Homes for Sale

Revised Property Tax Relief Proposal for Florida

2007-11-08T11:09:00.000-05:00

Recent email from the president of the National Association of Realtors, Nancy Riley

For over a year now you have been advocating for property tax reform that is comprehensive and not just a simple tax cut. Your message has been clearly delivered to the legislature that reform needs to address all property types - not just Homestead property owners.

This afternoon The Florida House of Representatives released a revised property tax relief proposal that will be considered on Monday. This plan includes provisions advocated by both Republicans and Democrats in the House.

In addition to Portability which is being embraced by the Governor, Senate and House, this new House proposal includes a five percent assessment cap on Commercial and non-homestead property. This is intended to provide the predictability and stability that non-homestead property owners have been advocating for.

The House is also advocating a new homestead exemption that, instead of doubling the current $25,000 exemption, would guarantee a minimum Save Our Homes exemption of 40% of the county median home value. House leaders believe this will provide relief to not only new buyers but those who have purchased in recent years.

Again, we expect the House to begin consideration of this proposal on Monday. Both the House and Senate plans that are being considered maintain the current Save Our Homes structure and provide for portability of Save Our Homes.

Attached is a side-by-side that gives more detail on the current Senate and House proposals.

Here is a complete list of the issues being proposed in the House plan today:

Instead of doubling the homestead exemption, this exemption is tied to the county’s median home value and will target relief to all homestead property owners (not just first time buyers). Again, the exemption would be 40% of area median.

Save Our Homes-like cap on non-homestead and commercial property to help restore fairness, equity and predictability to our property tax system by capping any increase at 5%. This will help businesses who have faced outrageous tax increases and owners of second homes (Snowbirds).

Portability - homeowners may transfer their Save Our Homes benefits to a new homestead anywhere in Florida within 2 years of leaving their former homestead.

Creates a new Tangible Personal Property Exemption of $25,000

Limits the authority of local governments to increase property taxes

Provides for limitations on assessed values of properties used for affordable housing

Provides an assessment growth limitation for all non-homestead properties in Florida by 5%

Creates more flexibility for the Legislature to limit assessments for working waterfront properties

Election of all county property appraisers

New Office Space Is On The Rise in Tampa

2007-09-13T13:22:00.000-05:00

New Office Space Is On The Rise
By DAVE SIMANOFF, The Tampa Tribune
Published: September 11, 2007

TAMPA - The office development famine is over. But the feast might be hard to digest.
Commercial developers plan to build nearly 5 million square feet of new office space in Hillsborough County over several years, most of it in the West Shore Business District. The building boom comes after several years of relative inactivity, when few new buildings debuted despite a healthy local economy and growing job market.
The office developers are hoping to capitalize on the pent-up demand for new office space in the Tampa Bay area - and, naturally, the higher rental rates that have been spurred by a surge in demand.
Looking over the myriad projects, two questions emerge: Are there too many projects, and are they being planned too late?
Five million square feet represents a lot of office space - about four-fifths of all the office space in downtown Tampa. If all the office space proposed right now were built, the buildings would compete for tenants at a time when the growth in the population is expected to slow, and when employers are expected to add fewer new workers than they have in the past.
There's no question that Hillsborough County needs new office space. Local tenants need room to expand, and the county needs vacant space to accommodate companies that might wish to relocate from other parts of the country, according to Larry Richey, senior managing director of commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Richey said he wouldn't be concerned about the roster of planned office projects if the pace of job creation in the Tampa Bay area was expected to remain constant.
'The reality is, I'm not sure we can count on that level of job growth going forward,' he said. 'In office space, demand is tied to job creation.'
Richey is right to be concerned about employment growth. Per Gunnar Berglund, a senior economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pa., predicts the work force in the Tampa Bay area will continue to grow, but at a much slower rate than a few years ago.
For example, Moody's Economy.com reports that the work force in the Tampa Bay area is expected to grow just 1.2 percent this year, 1.5 percent next year, and 1.7 percent in 2009. In comparison, the work force grew 4.5 percent just three years ago.
Moody's Economy.com says the Tampa Bay area is ranked 175th out of 389 metropolitan areas for job growth from 2006 to 2011.
Why the slowdown in employment growth? Berglund blames the downturn in the residential real estate market, and its effects on consumer spending and in the financial services industry. He said things likely won't improve until the end of 2008.
Developers said they're not seeing signs that they'll be hindered by a slowdown in employment growth.
Larry Wilson, southeast division president for Koll Development, said he's seeing 'a lot of interest' in his firm's Intellicenter of Tampa, a two-building, 350,000-square-foot complex at Tampa Telecom Park in Temple Terrace.
Koll, which is based in Dallas, has broken ground on the first building, which will have 200,000 square feet. It should be ready in August 2008.
Wilson, who is based in Charlotte, said population and job growth demographics remain attractive in the Tampa Bay area, and that new buildings usually continue to attract tenants even when market conditions are slow.
'I do not necessarily think that we are late,' he said.
Bob Abberger, managing partner for Florida at Trammell Crow Co., also didn't appear worried about the employment trend.
For one thing, he said, many proposed real estate developments do not materialize. For another, he believes his planned Prime Meridian Center, a 450,000-square-foot building in the Channel District of downtown Tampa, can compete against the competition by offering suburban-style amenities in an urban setting.
'It's positioned to be the best of class,' he said.
Prime Meridian Center should be complete by the end of 2009.
Richey, of Cushman & Wakefield, said it's very possible that Hillsborough County ends up dealing with much less than 5 million square feet of new office space.
Developers don't always build every project they announce. When a project involves multiple buildings, sometimes the developer will complete one building and wait until the market is ready before proceeding on a new one, he said.
If developers end up building too much office space, the market will eventually correct itself, Richey said.
'There's one thing that's always certain when it comes to commercial real estate, and it's that development is cyclical,' he said. 'We don't know when, but the pendulum will shift back the other way.'

Florida State Wants Deeper Insurance Rate Cuts

2007-08-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

BRADENTON, Fla. – Aug. 16, 2007 – The state has been busy turning down rate increases requested by insurance companies, but now even rate decreases are being rejected as not creating enough relief for consumers.Recently, three property insurance carriers proposed lowering their rates. But the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation on Tuesday said the reductions aren’t good enough.“Governor Crist and the Legislature made some courageous decisions during the January special session,” Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Tuesday in an issued statement, referring to legislation that ordered insurance carriers to lower rates. “We will not allow companies to file incomplete or inadequate rate reductions affecting the policyholders of this state.”The companies denied rate requests were Cypress Property & Casualty, which proposed a 5.4 percent decrease in rates; First Floridian Auto and Home, which proposed lowering rates by 8.3 percent; and Travelers Indemnity Company of America, which also proposed an 8.3 percent average rate cut.Companies have until Sept. 30 to submit their final reduced rate filings mandated by the law.Florida Farm Bureau was recently denied a 26 percent rate increase by the Office of Insurance Regulation.But denying decreases is a switch.However, it doesn’t surprise state Rep. Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton.“It doesn’t surprise me that they’re (Office of Insurance Regulation) wanting more,” Reagan said. “I see the governor trying to hold their feet to the fire and get lower premiums.”Tom Zutell, a spokesman for the Office of Insurance Regulation, said the companies’ rates were denied after review from the regulatory agency’s actuaries.Under the new law, companies have access to cheaper reinsurance – or insurance for insurance companies – through the Florida Hurricane Catastrophic Fund. In turn, companies are supposed to pass reinsurance savings on to consumers.“On these three particular ones,” Zutell said, “the actuary said that it appears from their reinsurance contracts that they realized a lot more savings in reinsurance than they passed on to the consumer.”Immediately after the special session in January, lawmakers said consumers could anticipate as much as 24 percent savings on homeowners insurance premiums. The recent rates that have been proposed from various companies awaiting public hearings have been more in the range of 12 percent to 15 percent, Zutell said.Hollywood-based Coral Insurance recently filed for a 9.7 percent rate decrease after taking advantage of cheaper reinsurance from the state CAT fund. The company operates in 12 counties, mostly in the southern part of the state.State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said the denial of the rate requests was a sign McCarty was getting tough on insurers.“I believe that’s absolutely the way he has to be now,” Galvano said. “What we believed during the session and what the reality is now has not matched. Until the Office of Insurance Regulation holds the insurance industry’s feet to the fire with regard to passing on the savings to consumers, it’s not going to happen.”Copyright © 2007 The Bradenton Herald, Fla., Brian Neill. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

No1 Spot to buy a home? Try Tampa Bay!

2007-07-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

From James Thorman St.Pete Times July 25
The online edition of Forbes magazine, with help from business prognosticator Moody's Economy.com, touts the Tampa Bay area as the No. 1 place in the country to buy a house.
Come again? Aren't we supposed to be in the throes of housing agony?
Hear them out: Because of our area's overall strong, growing economy and comparably modest housing prices, Forbes calls Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater a prime bounce-back market.
It predicts our area will experience what it calls a V-shaped recovery, where a market experiences a free fall, but rebounds strongly once it hits bottom.
Other regions will chart U-shaped or L-shaped courses. U-shaped recoveries are those in which prices fall slowly and recover gradually. Think Boston and Sacramento.
The L-shaped phenomenon is when prices plummet but remain mostly in a trough owing to underlying economic problems in the city. Think Detroit.
"While the Tampa market has yet to bottom out, the silver lining for buyers is that it is a highly resilient market," the article says.
"Most of the fallout in Tampa can be attributed to its high investor share, which is correctable given the good economic and job-growth projections."
To get on Forbes' top 10 list, a region needed an oversupply of real estate with plenty of sellers keen to strike a bargain. That's not all, though. Forbes also sought areas where prices wouldn't fall cataclysmically, so that buyers wouldn't be booking a fare on a sinking ship.
Based on Moody's figures, Tampa Bay home prices should bottom out in the first quarter of 2008, once the region burns off excess inventory from speculators who went hog wild in 2005.
Fast Facts:

Forbes' top 10
1. Tampa
2. Minneapolis
3. Miami
4. Kansas City
5. Chicago
6. Phoenix
7. San Diego
8. Milwaukee
9. New York City
10. Atlanta
[Last modified July 24, 2007, 23:42:23]

Crist signs bill to curtail mortgage fraud

2007-06-21T16:59:00.000-05:00

Tallahassee, Fla. – June 20, 2007 – In 2005, Florida ranked No. 1 in mortgage fraud, over two times higher than the national average. But the rules will change Oct. 1, 2007, which a new law – signed yesterday by Gov. Charlie Crist – tightens lending rules. “The new law makes the mortgage lending process more transparent,” says Trey Goldman, FAR legislative counsel. “It also impacts buyers, sellers and real estate licensees who may be trying to commit mortgage fraud.”A person – including real estate licensees – commits real property fraud if he or she knowingly lies, misrepresents or omits material information that the lender or another party in the transaction would rely on in the mortgage lending process. The legislation is based on laws adopted in Georgia and other states.The new law, S.B. 1824, mandates the following: • Mortgage brokers and lenders must give borrowers detailed disclosures for loans, including variable rate loans (ARMs). • Borrowers must be told how much a lender pays a mortgage broker, and it must be in writing.• Good faith estimates must be signed and dated by the borrower, and disclose the “recipient of all fees charged.” The law allows the fees to be disclosed in generic terms.• If a loan’s terms change, the borrower must be notified no later than three business days before closing. The mortgage licensee must be able to prove that the notice was provided and that the borrower accepted the new terms. • The Florida Office of Financial Regulation may take an enforcement action against mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders who violate the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) or the federal Truth-in-Lending Act. © 2007 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

Pinellas County Seeks Upscale Tourists

2007-06-10T16:28:00.001-05:00

Tampa Real Estate
Orlando Homes for Sale

By TED JACKOVICS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2007

ST. PETE BEACH - When Frank Grieco recently planned a getaway to celebrate his wife's birthday, he had one goal: He wanted an upscale holiday.

'I thought about flying to Bermuda or Puerto Rico,' said Grieco, who retired from the publishing industry in New York and moved to Sarasota. 'I shopped around all over the Internet.

'We ended up driving 40 miles north to spend a couple days at the Don CeSar on St. Pete Beach, which we'd heard about but where we'd never stayed.'

Grieco represents the emerging face of Pinellas County's mainstay tourism industry. He's affluent, he shops for travel over the Internet, and his perspective for planning trips extends worldwide.

Pinellas County has begun to note an increase in interest from upscale travelers, both those on leisure and business trips. The median household income of U.S. visitors in March was $120,260, 6 percent higher than a year ago, while European visitor household income rose 16 percent to $116,235, data by tourism consultant Walter Klages showed.

The trend has been prompted largely by lnternet sites showing more arts, cultural, sports and environmental recreation available throughout the Tampa Bay area. It has been fueled by cheap air fares and one of the best exchange rates in recent times for international visitors.

High-end hotels and resorts in Pinellas have responded, spurring more than $100 million to upgrade facilities, expand services and add new properties that cater to affluent, would-be world travelers. The Don CeSar Beach Resort and Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg plan new, full-service spas, and the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa has completed a facilitywide upgrade.

Although the Vinoy, Don CeSar and TradeWinds Island Grand Resort on St. Pete Beach enjoy AAA four-diamond ratings, Clearwater Beach anticipates its first four-diamond (or higher) resort hotel in August with the opening of the Sandpearl Resort.

The visitors trend also is contributing to upscale development in business districts in Clearwater Beach and St. Petersburg. A corner of Safety Harbor's downtown has taken on a tony look in the past year.

Behind the scenes, tourism officials are targeting a worldwide market because the same factors that attract visitors to Pinellas work in favor of other Florida destinations and beyond.

'Ask a hotelier here where the competition is, and you will get the answer that it is anywhere with sun and sand,' said D.T. Minich, executive director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

'However, competition has changed dramatically. In Europe which accounted for 16.9 percent of Pinellas's 5.5 million visitors in 2006, you see ads for Dubai everywhere. The Seychelles Islands and Maldives in the Indian Ocean are getting more and more Europeans.'

Plus the Caribbean is outspending the United States for tourism marketing, he said.

In cities such as Montreal, billboards beckon visitors with vacation packages to Cuba. Canada provided almost 340,000 Pinellas visitors last year. Minich isn't concerned about Cuba, yet.

'They have a totally different product from what we offer,' he said. 'Cuba offers all-inclusive stays, with guests not leaving the resorts. We did a focus group in Lee County where he previously worked as tourism director talking to Canadians who visited Cuba, and they primarily talked about the inconsistency in the product.'

The good news for Pinellas and other U.S. destinations is that the weak dollar is providing Europeans an almost 2-1 ratio for U.S. dollars.

Gaining upscale visitors should bolster restaurants, shops and cultural attractions, tourism officials agreed.

'These are the people who spend the money,' said Beth Coleman, president and chief executive of the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce. 'When affluent people come here, they don't want basic hotel services. They want the facilities of a resort, the spas, all the amenities they can take advantage of, like the new dinner cruise on Clearwater Beach.'

Coleman agreed that marketing Pinellas has become more competitive. 'With the Internet, you can look for the deals, look for places that are a little different.' she said.

Meeting Upscale Demand

The Don CeSar's $10 million project to add an 11,000 square-foot spa with a rooftop garden overlooking the Gulf of Mexico stems from realizing its current spa is not big enough to meet visitor expectations, general manager John Marks said.

However, Marks is confident continued upgrading of the lavish, landmark resort will play into attracting additional upscale visitors.

The Vinoy, the Don CeSar's highly regarded counterpart in downtown St. Petersburg, can't boast a beachfront setting, but the resort overlooks the city's marina and has a handful of downtown museums nearby. It's also near upscale shops along Beach Drive and multiple entertainment options along the Central Avenue corridor.

The Vinoy also is planning a $10 million to $15 million investment in a 10,000- to 12,000 square-foot spa, general manager Russ Bond said.

'For the Vinoy to stay competitive, we definitely need to embellish our amenities,' Bond said.

Those enhancements are directed toward the business-meeting segment that favors the downtown location and visitors drawn by the hotel's history, architecture and furnishings.

The popularity of spa treatments, including a transition from an older demographic as recent as 10 to 15 years ago to fitness-oriented patrons today, plays directly into the strengths of the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa, another Pinellas landmark.

The Olympia Development Group, which bought the 60-year-old resort on the western bank of Old Tampa Bay in 2004, spent upwards of $10 million to renovate all 175 guest rooms and has just completed a new spa sanctuary.

'There's been a change in what people are looking for,' said Kathy Gaye, the spa's vice president of marketing and public relations. 'It's important to bring back the spa to its period of grandeur but we need to offer upscale amenities.'

Gaye said Safety Harbor's downtown is coming along. She hopes more restaurants will emerge along with the modern retail complex Olympia built across the street.

Beyond Safety Harbor, the Pinellas areas undergoing the most obvious transformation these days to meet the upscale trend are Clearwater Beach and downtown Clearwater.

Clearwater Beach is in the midst of creating Beach Walk from the traffic circle south. Beach Walk is slated to be a corridor of hotel, retail, entertainment and restaurant businesses billed as the 'future of tourism in Clearwater.'

Mandalay Avenue heading north for several blocks also has been transformed in recent years to a distinctly more upscale flavor. The new anchor will be the splashy Sandpearl Resort on the site of the former Clearwater Beach Hotel. The $80 million resort will feature a 253-unit hotel with an additional 50 suites and 117 condominium units.

Beyond Upscale

The trend toward upscale does not mean Pinellas has no room for its mainstay visitors, the families and bargain hunters from the Unites States and abroad.

'We were down at a hotel on St. Pete Beach where the prices we saw were $400 a night,' said Tina Nickerson, owner of the 17-unit Great Heron Inn on Indian Rocks Beach, one of the few remaining mom-and-pop beachfront motels that survived the condominium- and land-conversion craze of recent years.

'You get a lot for that, of course, but there still are people who cannot afford it.'

Nickerson is investing $90,000 into renovations for the Great Heron, from air conditioning to stairway banisters.

The move to more upscale development has affected Nickerson directly through her annual property taxes, which rose from $34,000 a year ago to $57,000 this year. But a loyal group of annual visitors, many of whom renew year after year from Europe, has enabled her to keep prices this summer as low as $120 a day through Sept. 6 for a Gulf-front room.

Grieco found an Internet special at the Don CeSar for $225 a night. Nightly prices there can surpass $500.

'This is working out well,' Grieco said, pausing from taking pictures of the resort's pink towers. 'We did not go through the hassle of going through an airport, and we have discovered a first-class hotel. We don't know much about shopping and restaurants on Gulf Boulevard, but we will check it out.'

Florida To Build 3 Special Needs Hurricane Shelters

2007-06-10T16:23:00.000-05:00

By JIM ELLIS, The Associated Press

Published: June 10, 2007

ORLANDO - Gov. Charlie Crist announced Saturday that three special needs hurricane shelters will be constructed in Florida and he will create a commission for people with disabilities and appoint a coordinator to oversee operations.

The state-owned shelters, to be run by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, will be located in Gainesville, Marianna and Fort Myers, Crist said. He made the announcement in Orlando during a three-day convention for people with disabilities.

'This is common sense and it's the right thing to do,' Crist said. 'These facilities will be equipped to handle the unique needs of persons with disabilities in the event of storms.'

The shelters will be self-sufficient, with electric generators, independent water sources and food service. Each site will contain several buildings. The total capacity of all three shelters will be 7,000 people.

Crist did not say when construction would start or the cost of the shelters. Hurricane season began June 1.

Crist said he also plans to sign an executive order this month creating a commission of experts and advocates to research and analyze legislation, policies and other state issues that affect people with disabilities.

The Governor's Commission on Disabilities will take effect in July and will replace the Working Group on the Americans with Disabilities, enacted under Gov. Jeb Bush, which expires next month.

'I look forward to our providing a forum for disability advocates to come together and explore creative solutions to meet the needs of persons with disabilities and their caregivers,' said Jane Johnson, executive director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, in a statement.

The commission will hold regional summits across the state and focus on maximizing the independence of Floridians with disabilities, with an emphasis on employment, transportation, education and independent living.

A statewide disabilities coordinator, to be established by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the Division of Emergency Management, will focus on the needs of persons with disabilities before and after hurricanes and other major weather events, Crist said.

'It is important for Florida to have an emergency-management professional looking out for the unique disaster-related needs of persons with disabilities,' Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in a statement.

The coordinator will ensure that the agency and local service providers have continuity of operations plans to be implemented during a threat of imminent disaster.

'Persons with disabilities deserve to fully integrate into our communities in every way possible,' Crist said.

ATTENTION: UK Buyers!

2007-04-18T09:45:00.000-05:00

Tampa Real Estate
Orlando Homes for Sale

Today April, 18, 2007, 1.oo UK pound equals 2.00602 for the first time in years according to web sites specializing in currency exchange. This is a great time for Florida Homes Realty to show UK clients properties saving them thousands of dollars. Not only does the pound have great value, builders and sellers are negotiating their properties for some of the best prices in years...........It doesn't get much better than this. Check out www.tampahomes-info.com and www.floridahomes-info.com.

Allstate seeks 14% rollback: Request falls short of state estimates

2007-03-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

Tampa Real Estate
Orlando Homes for Sale

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 13, 2007 – Allstate Floridian Insurance Co., the state’s third-largest home insurer, wants to cut its property insurance rates by an average of 14 percent statewide. But Allstate Floridian’s proposed premium cuts are far less than the estimated reduction of 24 percent Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said recently that the state’s property insurers should be able to shave rates.
Allstate Floridian will have to justify why the decrease it plans – and the proposed 13 percent decrease by its subsidiary, Allstate Floridian Indemnity Co. – is lower than the state’s estimate. Company spokesman Adam Shores said Monday the figures are based on Allstate Floridian’s risk exposure, and “given the state of the overall [insurance] market, we feel that this is the appropriate rate which will help us move forward.”
County estimates of Allstate Floridian’s rate decrease weren’t available Monday. With its rate request filed, Allstate Floridian – the state’s third-largest insurance company – is now free to proceed with plans to drop 106,000 home and condo customers and offer them coverage with a new insurer, Ormond Beach-based Royal Palm Insurance Co.
Allstate Floridian is the second of the state’s five largest insurance companies to cut its rates based on Florida’s new insurance law. Nationwide Insurance Co. of Florida, the state’s fourth-largest insurer, last week requested a statewide average decrease of 4.6 percent on its premiums. Under the new law, all of the state’s property insurers have until Thursday to submit rate reduction plans to insurance regulators.
The company was temporarily prohibited from shedding policies under a Jan. 31 emergency order from Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet. But now that Allstate Floridian has asked to lower its rates, it is free to conduct business as usual, and that includes not renewing customers’ policies.
Shores said any customers who already have received notices from the company that their policies won’t be renewed would be issued new letters, telling them they have 100 days until their policies expire. He wasn’t sure Monday when those letters would start hitting customers’ mailboxes.
If approved by the state, the revised Allstate Floridian rates will show up in policies issued on or after June 1. The Office of Insurance Regulation is still reviewing Allstate Floridian’s request, department spokesman Bob Lotane said. Since neither Allstate Floridian nor Nationwide’s requests match the state’s estimated savings, the companies will have to show why they’re different.
“Are these numbers going to stand up to review? We don’t know that,” Lotane said.
Gov. Charlie Crist also wasn’t worried that the companies’ savings didn’t match state estimates. Of Allstate Floridian’s proposed 14 percent cut, Crist said, “When was that ever heard of?”
“It’s a new day. It may not be 20 percent or 15 percent, but a 14 percent reduction? ... I’m delighted. I’m not going to complain about rates going down.”
Copyright © 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Kathy Bushouse; with Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel, contributing. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

2007-03-09T13:54:00.000-05:00

FAST FACTS....

ORLANDO currently ranks 9th in the nation in terms of office space under construction. The region is 3rd nationally in terms of growth in inventory over the past five years, boasting an increase of 7.87 million square feet of office space (a 13% increase). And, Cushman and Wakefield, have projected that Orlando will be the top market in the nation in commercial real estate market performance for the next two years.

Source: Metro Orlando EDC

Tampa Real Estate
Orlando Homes for Sale

Three new Florida Web sites make government more accessible

2007-03-06T18:08:00.000-05:00

Tampa Real Estate
Orlando Homes for Sale

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 6, 2007 – Three new Florida Web sites attempt to make state government more accessible, understandable and responsive to insurance problems.
Insurance: www.fldfs.com/ica Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink joined Florida’s new Insurance Consumer Advocate Bob Milligan on Monday to unveil a new Web site designed to educate Floridians about their vision for the position, as well as provide contact information for consumers with insurance-related questions:
“As I stated during the campaign, I want the Insurance Consumer Advocate to become a household name in Florida,” said Sink. “One of the first steps in strengthening the Insurance Consumer Advocate is educating Floridians about this position and how it serves the people.”
Open government: www.flgov.com/og_homeThe Open Government Web site features a video clip from Gov. Crist’s inaugural speech, in which he announced the office’s establishment. It includes information about Florida’s open government and public record laws for consumers, and links to other organizations that provide public record resources. Visitors can also access the Attorney General’s Open Government Mediation Program and the First Amendment Foundation.
The Office of Open Government Web site also lists state agency contacts charged with ensuring public record and Sunshine law compliance. Agency heads selected these contacts to serve as liaisons to the Office of Open Government. Consumers may also e-mail the Office of Open Government directly from the Web site.
Plain language initiative: www.flgov.com/pl_homeGov. Crist wants state documents and publications to be easier to read and understand. To accomplish that, the Plain Language Web site explains the purpose of this initiative and answers commonly asked questions, with examples of before-and-after documents edited to make the language easily understood. Floridians may request a translation of a state government document either online or by fax, and should receive a response within seven days.
Crist also told state agencies to review their communication strategies and then establish new standards and guidelines. As a result, the people of Florida should find future state publications and products easier to use. The Executive Order calls for agency reviews to be completed and procedures to be in place by April 2, 2007.

New Law Should Give Home Insurance Savings

2007-03-02T20:33:00.000-05:00

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New law should give home insurance savings up to 50 percent
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 2, 2007 – Homeowners could see average property insurance savings ranging from around 10 percent in the Panhandle to more than half in South Florida because of a new law meant to lower rates, state insurance regulators said Thursday.
After two years of extensive hurricane damage, Floridians have seen their property insurance rates double and triple.
That led the Legislature to pass a sweeping new law in January that seeks in large part to give insurance companies more access to cheaper backup coverage, with the savings to be passed on to customers.
Insurance companies must make filings using the lower rates for new policies beginning June 1. For others, the savings will be seen when policies are renewed after June 1.
Actual discounts will vary fairly drastically, depending on a variety of factors including what is covered, where the home is, and how much coverage the resident has.
But the Office of Insurance Regulation said Thursday that some Miami-area households could see savings of about 53 percent off their homeowners policy.
Most companies can expect to cut more than 40 percent on average off the cost of the hurricane portion of customer’s premiums. The percentage of the drop from the overall premium will be a little lower, but the hurricane or wind damage portion of most policies accounts for much of the rate.
The average savings are lower in general in north Florida, where hurricane coverage is cheaper, and the highest in South Florida, particularly in the Miami area, where premiums are more expensive.
Copyright © 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel, David Royse. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

Will green roofs be the next hot trend?

2007-02-26T15:27:00.000-05:00

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NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. – Feb. 26, 2007 – If the term “green roof” evokes an image of a few potted plants arranged tastefully on the top of a building, then the time seems ripe to rethink that definition. Green roofs may be the next hot trend to cool down the urban landscape and lower the cost of controlling temperatures in the average suburban home.
Green roofs are generally categorized by one of two forms. Extensive green roofs, also known as eco-roofs or low-profile roofs, are made with a few thin layers of soil, are lightweight, relatively less expensive, and require very little maintenance. Extensive green roofs are the correct choice, the experts say, when the primary desire is for an ecological cover with limited human access.
Intensive or high-profile green roofs, on the other hand, look like traditional roof gardens because a much wider variety of plant material is usually included. They have soil depths ranging from 8 to 12 inches, with growth that can extend upward of 15 feet. They can include such architectural features as waterfalls, ponds and gazebos. Their construction and maintenance is much more costly.
New to the U.S.
Tristan Roberts, an executive with BuildingGreen in Brattleboro, Vt., says that while interest in green roofs within the U.S. has only taken root in the past decade, green roofs as a phenomenon have a long history.
“They go back for hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” he says, “as sod houses in this country and as living roofs in Europe. The modern equivalent has been around for quite a few decades and is much more prevalent in Europe, particularly Germany.”
BuildingGreen, which bills itself as an independent operation dedicated to distributing information to building-industry professionals and policymakers, sees green roofs as one way to improve the environmental performance and reduce the adverse impacts of traditional buildings.
Bill Retzlaff, chairman of environmental sciences at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and coordinator of the research co-operative Green Roof Environmental Evaluation Network, or G.R.E.E.N., says the green-roof industry in the U.S. is very new. “While Europeans have been doing them for a long time, our climate is different, so there’s not much useful data on their performance here.”
The G.R.E.E.N. co-operative was established two years ago to evaluate green-roof technology in the Midwest, says Retzlaff. In addition to the university, members include several commercial suppliers and Greenroofs.com, an international resource and online information portal for the green-roof industry.
“Our longest-running project has been on the ground since September 2005,” says Retzlaff. “We now have seven specific green-roof projects at our field site. We’re evaluating storm-water runoff and temperatures, comparing those results with the results we get with a flat membrane roof.”
While green roofs don’t necessarily require a lot of care, it’s a misconception to suppose that they will just take care of themselves. G.R.E.E.N. researchers are working with systems that don’t require a lot of maintenance, but there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance green roof.
“You must water them for the first 10 weeks or so,” Retzlaff says. “They have to get established, just like any other garden. And at minimum, you need to add some plants, fertilize and weed a couple of times a year.”
Before establishing a green roof, consumers need to have some sense of what they want from it beyond the vague notion that they’re good for the environment.
“Everything from roof materials to plant varieties has to be picked for the issue you want to address – storm-water retention, more green space or thermal control,” says Retzlaff. “Every green roof provides some of each of these things, but to decide you want a green roof because it’s a good thing is not enough.”
Benefits of lofty gardens
For example, Retzlaff cites a green roof in St. Louis on the seventh floor of a children’s hospital that has a pond and large walkways.
“It costs $200,000 a year to maintain,” he says. “But the benefit is that when those children go through those double-glass doors leading to the green roof, they can forget everything inside.”
Retzlaff says Ford Motor Co. has a 10-acre extensive green roof in Dearborn, Mich., that remains the largest in the U.S. “It has a 2-inch depth, so they have to irrigate it. They catch storm water in retention ponds and irrigate with that.”
In Chicago, the mayor is interested in lowering the urban center’s heat-island effects that drive up temperatures. “He has been told by various research facilities that if about 65 percent of downtown buildings had green roofs, that would lower the heat by about 10 degrees,” says Retzlaff. “So the city issues grants to offset the costs of installation and will fast-track building permits if a green roof is included.”
Retzlaff expects G.R.E.E.N. to become a resource for would-be green-roofers around the country. “Eventually people will be able to contact us to find out exactly what growing medium and plants are best for their climate and purpose.”
BuildingGreen’s Roberts says he sees more incentives – and so more green roofs – for commercial buildings than homes right now, but there are several benefits that could make them appealing to homeowners. They include increased insulation and the fact that the additional garden materials make a roof more durable.
“For homeowners, a green roof on a low slope or flat roof can extend the life of that roof many years by shielding it from rain water and ultraviolet sun rays, which degrade roofing materials,” says Roberts. Green roofs also filter out some air pollutants, he adds.
Green roof solutions
In addition to collecting storm water, reducing urban heat and acting as insulation to cool down a building or home’s occupants, green roofs are seen by advocates as opportunities to increase food production, beautify cities and provide sound insulation by absorbing, reflecting or deflecting noise by machinery, planes and traffic.
For the average homeowner concerned with rising energy costs, it’s likely the insulation qualities of green roofs would prove most appealing.
Dennis Yanez, national marketing manager for Chicago’s American Hydrotech, says his company offers waterproofing and all the components for garden-roof assembly, including Styrofoam, soil and plants. American Hydrotech also offers a single-source warranty, which Yanez says is unique in the industry. Clients are primarily architects and developers.
“We have not done a lot in the consumer market,” Yanez says. “We do have some homes that have our systems in them, but they’re all higher-end, in the 7,000- to 10,000-square-foot range.”
That’s because a homeowner who wants a green roof, Yanez says, would have to start by hiring an engineer or architect to design it. He estimates the price of building a green roof from “the high teens to the low $20s” per square foot.
Greenroofs.com estimates costs at $9 to $25 per square foot for extensive green roofs and $25 to $40 or more for the intensive variety.
“We’ve seen they have a growing appeal,” Yanez says. “In general, sustainability and green building has taken off in the past five or six years. Putting together buildings that disrupt the environment as little as possible is becoming a real concern.”
© 2007 Bankrate.com, Bankrate Inc. All rights reserved.

Related Topics: Development, Environment

Questions, comments or suggestions on this article? Have a news tip? Send a letter to the editor to: Newseditor@floridarealtors.org.

U.S. Market A World Favorite

2007-02-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

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MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Feb. 19, 2007 – Foreign investors prefer America's real estate market most in the whole world, University of Wisconsin-Madison research shows. The U.S. was the top choice of 63 percent of respondents in a 2007 survey of Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate members by the UW-Madison Center for Real Estate. But association members, whose global holdings total $601 billion, are eyeing India as a close second for plunking their money into, researchers found. A third hotspot: China.
"Our members are taking advantage of some of the opportunities inherent in emerging markets," association chairman Mark Preston said in the group's January/February newsletter.
Preston called the findings of his group's 15th annual attitude survey "the most global viewpoint our members have ever expressed."
UW Madison professor Francois Ortalo-Magne, who authored the survey report, said the global investors he polled are largely involved in office and retail property deals, not housing.
"But apartments are becoming more in favor. Last year, they ranked multifamily (housing) fifth in interest and this year, it's up to number two," Ortalo-Magne said. "But there are a number of very wealthy people who are active in housing markets all over the world."
Other research findings:
• Germans are the biggest investors in U.S. properties, lately joined by Austrians and Middle Easterners.
• Favorite cities: London, New York City (retaking U.S. primacy for the first time since Sept. 11), Paris, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo.
• Most investment portfolios are heavily weighted with holdings in the U.S, western Europe and the United Kingdom.

Insurance companies exempt from U.S. antitrust regulations

2007-02-16T15:41:00.000-05:00

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WASHINGTON – Feb. 16, 2007 – True or false: U.S. antitrust laws apply to Realtors but not the insurance industry. Answer: True. Federal oversight does not apply to insurers’ anti-competitive conduct, such as price-fixing, agreements not to pay and market allocations.
But yesterday, the U.S. House and Senate introduced bills to change that status, led by Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who lost a home in Hurricane Katrina, turning him into a stalwart critic of insurance industry policies. Lott also remains embroiled in a lawsuit against State Farm over hurricane damage.
“After Hurricane Katrina we learned a lot of lessons,” says Lott, noting that he found out “to my absolute horror that the insurance industry is not covered by the antitrust laws. … This is wrong and the Senate, in a bipartisan way, should, and I believe will, correct it.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) joined Lott in introducing the bill. In the House, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.), Rep. Bobby Jinda (R-La.), Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and others introduced a similar bill. Taylor, who also lost a home to Hurricane Katrina, says, “The insurance industry is the only industry exempt from the laws intended to protect consumers.”
The bill has strong support among other influential lawmakers too, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) In a statement, Reid echoed the thoughts of many lawmakers: “If insurers around the country are operating in an honest and appropriate way, they should not object to being answerable under the same federal antitrust laws as virtually all other businesses.”
The bills, called the Insurance Industry Competition Act of 2007, would empower the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to oversee some insurance industry operations, though individual states would continue to regulate the industry.
The insurance industry opposes bill, pushing for a global look at the way individual states operate rather than a change in federal oversight. “The problem is hurricanes, not insurance companies,” says Dennis Kelly, a spokesman for the American Insurance Association.
Lawmakers have harsh words for the insurance industry, however. Taylor calls State Farm’s recent announcement to pull out of Louisiana a “marketing gimmick.” He says the company is “winking at its competitors” and that they’ll probably start writing policies again in a few months – but at much higher rates.
“I personally believe that the Big Three insurers said, ‘Let’s don’t pay claims’ after Katrina,’” Taylor says. “It’s wrong. Unfortunately, it’s legal. But it ought to be illegal.”
Source: McClatchy Newspapers, Maria Recio

Florida Officials call for multi-state insurance catastrophe fund.

2007-02-14T17:20:00.000-05:00

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Feb. 14, 2007 – Frustrated by inaction in Washington, Florida officials this week are asking other states to join them in setting up an insurance catastrophe fund.If established, a multi-state fund would bail out regions hit by cataclysmic disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding and even terrorism.But unlike a national fund - which Congress has balked at creating - it wouldn’t rely on the financial backing of the federal government. Only interested states would participate.“We hear so much about the hurricanes in Florida, but we know there’s potential for a $400 billion loss in California due to an earthquake, and a $250 billion massacre if an earthquake strikes along the New Madrid fault (in the Midwest),” Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Tuesday.McCarty and Florida’s chief financial officer, Alex Sink, head to Atlanta this week to host a meeting on multi-state catastrophe funds during a National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ conference. Sink said she was in favor of creating a regional fund that would help coastal states.“Hurricanes will not wait for the federal government to get a national catastrophe fund up and running,” said Sink, a Democrat. “It’s up to the coastal states to work together to ensure citizens have access to affordable hurricane insurance.”Aides to McCarty say the effort to start up multi-state funds was not a sign they were giving up on the idea of a national catastrophe fund. They say both are desirable.“If another state gets hit with a Katrina-like hurricane, there’s a limit to what the (insurance) industry can pay, a limit to what any state can handle, and (federal) taxpayers are going to pay the rest,” said Bob Lotane, a spokesman for McCarty’s office. “We believe pre-funding for a storm is going to be cheaper for everyone.”The lobbying effort comes as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and legislative leaders begin pushing for a federal response to the catastrophe risk. Crist, a Republican, plans to lobby his peers on a national catastrophe fund during the National Governors Association meeting in Washington this month, while the speaker of the state’s House of Representatives, Marco Rubio, and state Senate President Ken Pruitt, both also Republicans, are organizing a federal/state summit with the catastrophe fund issue at the top of the agenda.State Sen. Steve Geller is urging Florida officials to pressure presidential candidates seeking early support in the state to commit to backing a national catastrophe fund. Geller is skeptical that states can agree on details to put multi-state catastrophe funds into action.“I don’t object to what (McCarty) is trying,” Geller said. “ It’s noble but unattainable. I just think there’s a little desperation in that we can’t get this (national catastrophe fund), so let’s get that (multi-state compact) instead.”

Commercial Real Estate Booms Worldwide

2007-02-12T18:22:00.000-05:00

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NEW YORK – Feb. 12, 2007 – Worldwide investment in commercial real estate rose by 33 percent last year to a record $645 billion, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc., a real estate adviser and research company.
About $256 billion, or almost 40 percent of all commercial real estate deals last year, were transactions in North America. That compares with $295 billion, or almost 46 percent, in Europe; and $94 billion, or almost 15 percent, in Asia.
Foreign investment in European and Asian commercial real estate continues to grow. Non-domestic investors account for 48 percent of European real estate deals last year, up from 40 percent the previous year. Foreign investment in Asia increased to 32 percent last year from 28 percent.
In the United States, foreign investment has declined to 5.4 percent, down from 10.2 percent the previous year, primarily because of the decline in the value of the dollar.
Source: The Wall Street Journal Asia, Sara Seddon Kilbinger (02/07/07)

Emergency Insurance Ruling Looks to be Retroactive

2007-02-08T18:39:00.000-05:00

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Emergency insurance ruling looks to be retroactive
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Feb. 8, 2007 – An emergency rule issued last week that freezes homeowner insurance rates and prevents policy cancellations or non-renewals through May 1 looks be to retroactive, halting previously announced plans by some insurers to pare the number of policies on their books.
Most immediately affected is Allstate Floridian, which had announced in early January that it would begin non-renewing 106,000 policies by April 1.
Late Wednesday, the Office of Insurance Regulation issued letters clarifying the emergency rule that was signed by Gov. Charlie Crist and approved by the Florida Cabinet.
The OIR letters state no rate hikes, policy cancellations or non-renewals are allowed during the 90-day period ending May 1. Actions announced before the rule and effective during the freeze period, like Allstate’s, are also barred.
The letters also say insurers aren’t allowed to issue new cancellations or non-renewals until they make new rates taking into consideration how much they will lower rates after buying lower-cost reinsurance from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. The lower-cost reinsurance was made available through a massive insurance reform bill passed by the state Legislature during a special session last month.
One company, American Strategic Insurance in St. Petersburg, has gone ahead with this filing. It will lower its hurricane base rates “a uniform 20 percent,” resulting in a statewide average drop of 11.5 percent. That’s because the company saved $27.4 million on its reinsurance expense after it bought its coverage from the catastrophe fund for the coming hurricane season.
In its filing, the firm said if regulators expand the catastrophe fund by an additional $4 billion, its savings would grow to $31.5 million and allow for an additional 1.8 percent cut in its rates.
American Strategic has 151,000 policies in Florida. It wants to implement the rate cut as soon as March 1. “We are getting inundated with phone calls from policyholders asking when their rates will be reduced,” said Kevin Milkey, American Strategic’s executive vice president in the filing.
Allstate, in the meantime, is wrestling with the impact of the emergency rule.
Ryan Priest, an Allstate spokesman, said the firm is still trying to figure out the full meaning of the rule and OIR’s clarifications.
“We fully intend to fully comply with the rule signed by the governor and OIR,” said Priest.
The company had no immediate answer on what will happen to policyholders like Irving and Willa Ingwer, who received a non-renewal notice on their condo policy effective April 1. The couple is wondering whether Allstate will have to renew their policy for another year.
“We’re trying to figure out what it means for these policies,” added Priest.
The new insurance law also nips Allstate’s non-renewal plans in another way. It doesn’t allow policy cancellations or non-renewals during the hurricane season. This provision hampers Allstate’s most recent slate of non-renewals as the 120,000 policy non-renewals it began in November. Those non-renewals were announced by the company last May.
Allstate has arranged for Royal Palm Insurance, a newly formed company, to offer its policyholders new coverage as the policies came up for non-renewals.
In another insurance development, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against Citizens Property Insurance, alleging the state-run insurer failed to properly adjust claims for window damage from Hurricane Wilma.
The suit claims that Citizens ignored building code provisions that require damaged or destroyed windows be replaced by impact-resistant windows or regular windows and hurricane shutters.
Paul Berger, the Boca Raton attorney who filed the lawsuit, said Citizens’ policyholders in Miami-Dade and Broward counties were underpaid because the company only paid to replace their damaged windows with simple glass. These homeowners are now at risk should another major storm strike South Florida, he added.
Rocky Scott, Citizens’ spokesman, said the company couldn’t comment on the lawsuit because it still hasn’t been served.
© 2007 Miami Herald, Beatrice E. Garcia.

Survey Finds that Condo Buyers want Lifestyle as much as Real Estate

2007-02-08T18:35:00.000-05:00

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Survey finds that condo buyers want lifestyle as much as real estate
ORLANDO, Fla. – Feb. 8, 2007 – Nearly half of all condo buyers choose their new home without considering any other style of housing, according to a new survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The survey found that a majority of condo buyers want a lifestyle as much as a home.
With lifestyle and affordability the top factors driving condo sales, most industry experts expect the condo market – which had reached nearly half of all multifamily starts in 2005 – to stabilize at a healthy and sustainable 30 percent of the approximately 350,000 multifamily units produced annually.
According to the survey, two groups of condo buyers drive the condo market: young, well-paid professional singles or couples who want to own their first home close to urban amenities; and older households who want to remain in the suburbs but shed the maintenance burden of a house. Both groups expect their condos to appreciate in value.
“The core buyers for our product are single, without children, who want a lifestyle that allows them to enjoy the amenities inherent in a downtown environment,” says Judd Bobilin, executive vice president and chief development officer of the Atlanta-based Novare Group, which currently has more than 5,000 condo units in development.
Bobilin noted that buyer traffic at his properties is comparable to the traffic the company saw in 2004, with sales continuing to average about five units per month. He also noted that the number of out-of-state purchasers at his properties has dropped to about 20 percent or less, an indication that buyers – not speculators – are currently driving today’s sales.
Bobilin’s customers, like the participants in the NAHB survey, identified price and location as the top two factors in their decision to buy a particular property, followed by size, desirable neighborhood and investment potential.
“This is the first research study that probes the question of where condo buyers buy, why they buy there, and what amenities they look for to complement their new lifestyle choice,” says Gopal Ahluwalia, NAHB’s staff vice president for research.
For the survey, NAHB used a random sample of 1,008 households that had purchased condos in the past, balanced among the four geographical regions of the country, representing the low, middle and high ends of the market.
© 2007 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

FHA

2007-02-01T18:13:00.000-05:00

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A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house in
Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild. He was told the loan would be
granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of property
being offered as collateral. The title to the property dated back to
1803, which took the Lawyer three months to track down.

After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following
reply:

(Actual letter excerpt) "Upon review of your letter adjoining your
client's loan application, we note that the request is supported by an
Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have
prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have
only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803.
Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the
title back to its origin."

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:

(Actual letter excerpt) "Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156
has been received. I note that you wish to have title extended further
than the 194 years covered by the present application. I was unaware that
any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the
property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S.,
from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application.

For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land
prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by
Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of Spain
by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named
Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the Privilege of seeking a new
route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella.

The good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about
titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the
Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus ' expedition. Now the
Pope, as I sure you may know, is the emissary of God, and God, it is
commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to
presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana. God,
therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to
before the beginning of time, the world as we know it AND the FHA. I hope
you find God's original claim to be satisfactory. Now, may we have our
damn loan?"

He got the loan.

2007-01-29T18:27:00.000-05:00

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The Grove Shopping Venue Approved

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jan, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - The Grove at Wesley Chapel, one of three large shopping venues planned for this growing community, cleared its last hurdle Thursday.

Construction on the plaza near Interstate 75 and County Road 54 could start early next month, said developer Bill Krahe, president of Pittsburgh-based Echo Real Estate Development.

"The building permits are waiting to be picked up pending this approval," Krahe said after his project cleared the county's Development Review Committee.

The Grove will sit between Oakley Boulevard and I-75 on an old orange grove formerly owned by the Oakley family. The land for the project lies north of the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Echo already has cleared land along C.R. 54 for its main entrance, a northern extension of Gateway Boulevard. The developer also plans to extend Dayflower Drive east from its intersection with Old Pasco Road to tie into Oakley Boulevard.

DRC members, led by County Administrator John Gallagher, approved a list of changes to the county's deal with Echo that reflect alterations to the plaza plans.

The chief change shrinks the shopping center by about 12 percent to 736,500 square feet of retail space. The mix of tenants, which includes Dick's Sporting Goods and Best Buy, stays the same.

Echo made that change in square footage so Cobb Theatres could enlarge the 16-screen multiplex it plans to build at the northern end of Echo's property.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Cobb is adding 900 seats to create a VIP theater in which patrons can watch movies while they dine and drink, Krahe said.

Formal groundbreaking on The Grove is set for Feb. 12, he said, and the first collection of stores could open by October.

Thursday's approval gives The Grove a leg up on its competition in the race for Wesley Chapel's shopping dollars.

As for the plaza's competitors:

•Cypress Creek Town Center, straddling State Road 56 west of I-75, won a reprieve Monday when environmentalists dropped a lawsuit aimed at blocking the project's development permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Swiftmud will consider the project Tuesday.

•The Shops at Wiregrass remains bogged down with the rest of Wiregrass Ranch over concerns the city-sized Porter family development will cripple the road network shared by south-central Pasco and northeast Hillsborough counties. Pasco commissioners will meet with the developers next month.

Top Ten Cities to Live In (Business 2.0)

2007-01-25T17:06:00.000-05:00

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4. Lakeland, FL

59%	Projected gain in home prices (5-year)*
	Median home price 2006: $178,000 2011: $282,000
	Population 2006: 551,000 2011: 599,000
	Per capita income 2006: $30,200 2011: $39,100
*Metro region statistics

Aside from the panhandle and Vero Beach, few places in Florida scream out "buy now" like Lakeland. A house goes for a fifth less than the national median of $227,500, and Lakeland is just 30 minutes from Tampa, a juggernaut of 2.7 million people that's projected to add almost 210,000 more residents over the next five years.

Lakeland is the Greenfield - actually, orange and yellow, because of the surrounding citrus groves - that developers are divvying up to house many of those newcomers.

Meritage Homes, one of the fastest-growing U.S. builders, plans to build more than 1,300 homes in the area by 2008. "All the big national and regional builders have moved into town," says Larry Comegys, Meritage regional president. "Lakeland has become major." It also sits along I-4, where the density of development is beginning to mirror the Dulles corridor in Virginia.

CAUTION: Prices tend to top out more quickly in areas like Lakeland that are largely populated by semiskilled service workers.

1. Panama City, FL. 2. Vero Beach, FL. 3. Bridgeport, CT. 5.Mc.Allen, TX. 6. San Luis Obispo, CA. 7. Wilmington, NC. 8. Manchester, NH. 9. Fort Collins, CO. 10. Atlanta, GA

2007-01-24T19:46:00.001-05:00

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International real estate investors seek greater risk in U.S.

WASHINGTON – Jan. 24, 2007 – Global real estate investors say their U.S. real estate investment strategies for 2007 and beyond will include properties traditionally considered to have higher risk according to the results of the 15th Annual AFIRE Survey released by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (www.AFIRE.org). Survey respondents say that “value-added” real estate is expected to comprise 25 percent of their portfolio in 2007, up from 19 percent in 2006. The survey reflects the buying preferences of members of the association who collectively own $601 billion of real estate globally, including $184 billion in the U.S.

“The findings reflect investors’ desire to invest in U.S. real estate despite macro uncertainties and competition from U.S. institutional investors,” added FranAois Ortalo-Magne, Robert E. Wangard Chair in Real Estate, The Center for Real Estate, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Consequently, they are showing a greater willingness to consider diversification strategies into secondary markets, outside of the core property types, and with creative financing and ownership structures.”

New measures to place new capital

Members say that new measures to place new capital in the U.S. market over the next five years will draw on:

• off-market transactions

• the development of joint ventures

• the execution of a broader focus and geographic diversification

Thirty percent of respondents said they would explore new property types as part of their U.S. investment strategy. These include:

• infrastructure

• resorts

• senior housing

• storage

• student housing

• research and science projects

• the acquisition of real estate companies

Big Apple bobs to top

For the first time since 2001, when it shared the number one spot with Washington, DC, New York has emerged as foreign investors’ top U.S. city for their investment dollars. This year, Washington drops from first place into second. Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle follow, in order, to round out the top five. San Diego fell from No. 5 last year to No. 9 in the latest survey.

Changes in U.S. property type preferences

1. Office buildings (unchanged from 2005)

2. Multi-family (missing first place by a fraction of a point)

3. Hotels (down from number two in 2005)

4. Industrial (unchanged from 2005)

5. Retail (down from number three in 2005)

Investment levels to increase

Globally, this year’s survey indicates a median investment of $500 million by respondents in cross-border real estate investments in 2007, including $250 million in the U.S. In 2006, the median investment was $400 million globally with $200 million targeted to the U.S. “It is significant that for the second year in a row, the portion of the investment targeted to the U.S. has remained consistent,” says Fetgatter.

Global shifts

“The results of this year’s survey manifest the most global viewpoint our members have ever expressed,” said Mark Preston, chief executive, UK and Ireland, Grosvenor, and AFIRE’s newly elected chairman. “The U.S. still remains the strongest and safest conduit for cross-border real estate dollars, by a substantial margin -- 63 percent. But it is clear that our members are taking advantage of some of the opportunities inherent in emerging markets.”

Other results

• While the USA remains the preferred global country for foreign investors’ real estate dollars, only 23 percent of respondents say it has the best potential for capital appreciation, down from 44.4 percent in 2005 and 53.8 percent in 2004.

• India emerges as the country having the second highest potential for real estate capital appreciation, up from sixth place in 2005. Eighteen percent of survey respondents say real estate in India provides the second best opportunity for capital appreciation. The U.S. has always held the No. 1 spot, but this is the narrowest margin (5 percent) between first and second place in the survey’s history. With 15 percent of survey respondents’ votes, real estate in China continues to rank third.

• Among top Asian countries for investors’ dollars, Japan and China remain in the first and second slots. India moves into third from fifth while Singapore falls from third to fourth place to tie with Hong Kong.

• While London remains the top global city for cross-border real estate investment, New York regains the No. 2 two spot, rising from third place in 2005 and fourth place in both 2004 and 2003. Washington, DC, which has held the No. 1 or No. 2 spot globally since 2002, falls into fourth place. Paris climbs from fourth place to third, and Tokyo maintains the fifth spot.

• In terms of global appeal, the survey shows significant upward movement for Munich, moving from number 21 in 2005 to seven this year; and Stockholm moves from 29 to eight.

• Among Eastern European countries, Romania appears for the first time among the top five targets for investors’ dollars. The top three Eastern European countries remain the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Survey respondents targeting Eastern Europe for real estate investment have allocated an average of $340 million to the region.

• Respondents say they expect Australians to be the top foreign competitors for U.S. real estate, displacing Germany, which held the number one spot since 1999.

Portfolio compositions: global and U.S.

Not surprisingly, both globally and in the U.S., office buildings are the mainstay of respondents’ portfolios.

• Respondents hold a slightly higher percentage of office buildings in the U.S. (56 percent to 50 percent) than they do globally.

• They hold a slightly higher percentage of retail globally than they do in the U.S. (22 percent to 18 percent).

• Both globally and in the U.S., respondents say multi-family comprises 12 percent of their portfolio.

The Center for Real Estate, University of Wisconsin, conducted the survey of AFIRE members.

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