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Your REALTOR:
Bob Firth 877-541-2733
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YOUR FLORIDA ESTATE AGENT
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Copyright © 2009 Realty Times
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Vital Information For
First-Time Buyers
The first-time homebuyer Federal tax credit for $8000, record-low interest rates, and nationwide median home prices dropping to the lowest point in five years, makes this an enticing time to consider buying a home. By the way, that tax incentive isn't truly just for first-time buyers -- it's defined as those not having owned a home in the last three years. Research and knowing your options are critical. Check with your tax accountant for more details. It’s increasingly likely that Congress will extend and expand the popular home buyer tax credit, which will expire at the end of this month.
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According to an article in August in the Raleigh News & Observer, 10.8 percent of buyers are motivated to buy due to Federal and state tax incentives. So far only 1.14 million buyers have filed
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Relieving the Stress of Packing
Packing can be stressful time for every member of the family. To ensure that your move goes as smoothly as possible, try the following tips!
Pack a "Red Box"
Since one in five American families moves every year, that means 22 million families may be searching for their TV remote controls!
One of the pitfalls of packing for a move is you can't always anticipate what you'll need when you arrive at your new home, and movers typically list only the obvious such as dishes, glasses, bedding, etc. The miscellaneous items you need in the first few hours invariably wind up on the bottom of a random box.
To start, you may want to create your own "red box" as some moving companies ("Removers") do in Great Britain. This is the last box loaded and the first one off the truck. The one universal item in the red box is the tea kettle (perhaps this would be the coffee maker in the U.S.). This is also the place
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Making Your Home Age Appropriate Creates Appeal
All of us have something in common with our homes. Sure, style, design, and location are at the top of the list, but how about age? As we age, buyers, especially the baby boomer generation, are looking to transform their homes into a place that they can stay in for as long as possible or they're hoping to find one that's already equipped for them to age-in-place.
So how old your home and you are, are reason to give some thought to if your home needs age-appropriate adaptation in order for you to be most comfortable. And, in doing so, you may actually make your home more valuable to a wider audience of buyers, should you ever sell it.
According to the National Homebuilders Association, making a home suitable for the golden years is economicaly sound. The baby boomer generation (77 million people) makes up 28 percent of the U.S. population. Assisted living for this generation can cost more than $60-thousand per year, not counting moving expenses.
That's pretty pricey. So, if you've taken some steps to make your home an age-in-place sanctuary, then make sure you highlight those renovations if you ever
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Local Market Conditions
Homes sales were up over 22% over October ’08.
Of course, what is driving this sales increase is the adjustment in our home prices. The average homes sale price dropped 12% over prior year with an average price per square foot of $88. Behind the numbers are some interesting facts. The prices have been driven down by the bank owned and short sale properties, which accounted for 47% of the sales with an average of $62 per square foot. This is 30% lower than the overall average price per square foot. If you take this into account, this means that the price of the regular inventory is even or up slightly over prior year. What is down is the regular inventory. We just don’t have the selection of homes we had 6 to 8 months ago, especially homes in excellent shape.
As we go into this year’s selling season inventories are nearly the lowest in years. We have 1038 for sale but 197 of those homes are short or bank owned properties. I feel that we would have had even more sales had we had available inventory of well priced homes that were not distressed. The current pricing of homes is creating a paradox of sorts. People are willing to buy homes now that they are lower priced but many of the lower priced homes are either short sales or bank owned, while they would prefer to buy normal homes.
As always most people would like to buy a home that is in move-in ready condition. They also don’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with a bank or pain of a short sale. The homes that are both priced right and in move in condition are fewer and farther between. This is an opportunity for a seller, especially if your house is a little dated. If there are fewer current, move-in ready homes people might now consider your home but you still have to be priced right because the pricing is being set by the short and bank sales. Buyers need to look closer at these homes because the “perfect” homes are no longer around, except at higher prices.
So with the increased demand why aren’t prices starting to go back up? Now that short and bank owned (REO) homes are becoming a higher percentage of the overall sales, banks are requiring these homes to be used as comparable properties. The appraisers are also using the sales of the last 6 months as comparables. Since they have no history of prices turning around they are keeping the appraisals low. I have had a few transactions lately where the buyer and seller have agreed on a price only to have the lenders not go along with the agreed upon price. This has required either the lender to require additional down payment to cover the value change or the price to be adjusted to match the appraisal.
This will start to change. Pricing will make the turn but it will happen slowly. The REO sales will keep prices in check but people will still want the perfect move-in ready homes but if no one is willing to sell them at the lower price people will have to pay more to get them. These folks need to look at the inventory that does need a little improvement but “has good bones” as I call it. These homes can be excellent value and often most of the work is purely cosmetic.
If you are a buyer now is the time. We have already started to have the available inventory diminish. I feel artificial forces (the banks) are holding prices down not market conditions. This won’t last. If you want more proof of this we are starting to see builders come back into the market place. As an example DR Horton just purchased the remaining lots in both the Pennington Place and Stillwater neighborhoods. They are aggressively starting to build in these two gated communities with a good mix of single family and villa styled maintenance free homes priced between $150K and $200K. If you would like more information on these homes please let me know. With the shrinking availability of nicer homes we will start to see more builders start up again, especially with the greatly reduced lot prices.
Now for the sales results for October 2009 as reported in the My Florida Regional MLS for the Cape Haze Peninsula. High end homes have again stalled with no million dollar homes selling in October. We had 2 sales in the half to million dollar range, both were waterfront. 4 home sold in the $400K to $500K range, 2 were in Boca Royale and the other 2 were on Manasota Key. We had 4 homes sell in the $300’s and 4 more homes sold in the $300K to $250K market, 2 of them had water access. There were 11 homes between $250K and $200K, 5 were in the Rotonda Circle, 2 were on boatable water. In the $200K to $150K market there were 10 homes sold, 6 had pools. Over a quarter of the sales came in the $150K to $100K range with 24 sales, 10 of them with pools. 30 homes sold below $100K with 5 of those under $50K.
Last month we had 5 mobile homes sell. 2 were double wide selling for $87K & $75K and 3 were singlewide homes selling between $40K & $37.5K. All were bought with cash, 3 were in different parks, the other 2 were on mobile lots off of Placida Road.
For a list of last month's home sales click on the following links
For a summary:
For a list of last month's home sales
There were 66 parcels of land sold in October. The price leader this month was a $600K beachfront lot on Palm Island. The biggest news was 16 golf course lots that sold in Rotonda for $20K each owned by Pinemoor Golf Inc. This sale tells me people may be getting in the building mood again or they just made a very smart investment. We had 4 additional lots to the golf course block sold inside the Rotonda circle and 10 lots in what I like to call outer Rotonda. In South Gulf Cove we had 5 waterfront sales between $90K for a sailboat lot to $28K, plus 12 non water lots ranging from $9K to $4K. Otherwise we had 10 lots sell between $20K and $10K and 29 lots sell for less that $10K, 8 of those for $5K or less.
For a list of the lots that sold last month.
If you own lots in Charlotte County you might want to check to see what their new Scrub Jay status is. Charlotte County has a site to check this out.
18 condos sold last month, double the prior month. The price leader was a beachfront 3/2 on Manasota Key in Barefoot Beach for $509K. Next were 2 units in Redfish Key that sold at $450K for a 3/2.5 & $379K for a 2/2. We had 2 more bay side Manasota Key units sell, one in Tamarind for $300K & the other in Sandpiper Key for $240K with the large patio Oak Forest had 2 units sell at $180K & $162.5K. Other complexes that had multiple sales were Alhambra at Lake Martin with 2 that sold for basically $160K & $150K.
For a list of the condo's that sold last month.
With our recent rating of “#1 neighborhood to retire” our "little secret" of West Charlotte County including Englewood, Rotonda, Gulf Cove, Palm Island, Manasota Key and Boca Grande is out. This can cause prices to go up. Now is a great opportunity to take advantage of a soft market. The savvy buyer can find quite a value with all the homes on the market. Now is your chance to buy a reasonably priced home in Florida. With all the "boomers" retiring over the next few years, Florida will still be the place to be. Take advantage of this pause in the market.
NEW! Local Market Conditions
Daily News and Advice
Read about the events shaping the Real Estate market today, find current interest rates, or browse the extensive library of advice and how-to articles written by some of the top experts in Real Estate. Updated each weekday.
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Bob Firth 877-541-2733, ABR,SERS,e-PRO,IRES,Broker/Associate
E-mail: bob@bobfirth.com
Web: http://www.bobfirth.com
941-375-3723
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RE/MAX Allaince Group
877-541-2733
2230 South McCall Road
Englewood, FL 34224
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Equal Housing Opportunity
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