Deja Vu!

I was thinking over the weekend about how real estate seems to have a cycle every 20 years more or less. In 1972, when I was but 9 years old, I remember my family was building a home off Crystal Lake Road in Lutz. The Builder was Burton Builders, one of Tampa’s finest and largest [...]

In Defense of Real Estate

Keep in mind, that from 2000 to 2006, the market value of houses in Tampa Bay was up 138%. A $400,000 house purchased in 2000 was worth $952,000 in 2006. Now that the market has declined 20% since 2007, that poor homeowner is ONLY up $361,600 without factoring in the huge tax writeoff he or [...]

SOS and the NAR

Today, the NAR (National Association of Realtors) said that home sales in February were surprisingly brisk and that inventories were in decline. Since I operate in the real world, I suspect that “trend” will turn out to be temporary. I guess they are rightfully trying to spin anything they can into a positive in this market. [...]

“EASY MONEY” Loans

Lenders are shooting themself in the foot again. Industry wide, they are creating a problem that they seem oblivious to. The fact that the “tightening of the belt” on lending standards will not help this real estate crisis.
The lenders will continue to acquire properties via foreclosures from bad loans they put out. Rather than [...]

American “Sheep”

One thing that still amazes me is how everyone follows one another in America. It does not matter what the subject, I will use politics and real estate in this example. In 2005-2006, everyone was on that “flip” bandwagon. The lines for release of new home communities would start weeks in advance from those wanting [...]

Take Advantage

Say you purchased your home 5-10 years ago. How can you benefit from all of the real estate rise and fall. As of today, interest rates are VERY LOW! Why is everyone not refinancing those 30 year notes into 15 year notes! The amount of interest you pay between a 15 year and a 30 [...]

Property Taxes in Florida

Today in the Tampa Tribune, I read a new proposal by the State that would increase the sales tax by .01 in 2009 and would decrease property taxes by 25%. This new tax would replace the school portion of the property tax. I still say this is not enough. Again, it helps all homeowners, but [...]

State of Real Estate / Short Sales

While getting up at 5:00 A.M. everyday and sometimes working until the wee hours of the morning with my staff, I wonder out loud “what is the loss mitigation world possibly thinking?” We work, we obtain offers on those homes, I keep seeing report after report on how slow the market is nationally, and Florida [...]

Florida Market

Welcome to my first of many weekly (or more) thoughts of the current Florida realty market. First of all, we are an a cycle. I remember the savings and loan scandals of the late 80’s and early 90’s. Everyone thought that was the end of the world. Look what happened to real estate values since [...]