Fixed-Rates Stable, Posting Little Change From Last Week's Figures

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.06 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending April 29, 2010, down slightly from last week when it averaged 5.07 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.78 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Tampa-St. Pete ranked 26th in nation in foreclosures

Foreclosure rates are starting to drop for some of the worst-hit housing markets, but not in Florida, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. The Greater Tampa area, which includes St. Petersburg and Clearwater, had a 17 percent increase in foreclosures in the first quarter compared with the year before, and a 22 percent jump from the fourth quarter of last year, to stay ahead of the national average. However, its foreclosure rate of 1 in every 69 homes was behind nine other Florida markets, including Lakeland (one in every 57 homes) and Sarasota-Bradenton (one in every 69 homes). That’s different from Las Vegas, the nation’s worst foreclosure market, where one in every 28 homes faced foreclosure despite a 19 percent drop from the pervious year. Eight of the top 10 markets ranked by number of foreclosure experienced drops but not Orlando-Kissimmee, which ranked No. 10 with a 17 percent increase. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, ranked third in the nation, had a nearly 26 percent decrease in foreclosures compared to the first quarter of 2009.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Service Members Get Extra Year for Tax Credit

Members of the U.S. military, foreign service and intelligence communities have another year to purchase a home and claim the home buyer tax credit. Any service member who is or has been on extended duty for 90 days or more between Jan. 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010, has until April 30, 2011, to sign a sales contract and until June 30, 2011, to close on the property. Both the $8,000 first-time and the $6,500 repeat home buyer tax credits are included in the extension. The rule that requires buyers to repay the credit if they move out of their home within three years has also been waived for qualified service members if they receive government orders to move.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

U.S. home prices increase

For the first time since the end of 2006, home prices nationally posted an increase. In some areas such as Tampa Bay, however, February prices reached new recessionary lows. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday squeezed out a 0.6 percent gain. But that was half the increase analysts had expected. On a more cautionary note, 11 of the 20 cities tracked by the index showed declines from February last year. One of them was the Tampa Bay area, where prices dropped after months of stabilization, a sign perhaps, of how deeply mired Florida is in the mortgage crisis. But a new quarterly economic forecast for the state shows economic improvement this year, although Floridians should expect double digit unemployment rates during the next two years. Prices in the Tampa-Clearwater-St. Petersburg metropolitan area fell 6 percent compared with February 2009, and 1.2 percent from January to February. The index showed prices in Tampa and five other cities - Charlotte, Las Vegas, New York, Portland and Seattle - reached recent new lows in February. Las Vegas saw the largest annual drop at almost 15 percent. San Francisco posted the biggest gain, at about 12 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Tampa home prices find new low since boom

Tampa is among six metropolitan areas that have reached new lows in home prices in February since the housing boom peak, according to a new report from Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Home prices in Tampa dropped 6 percent in February compared with the year before and 1.2 percent since January. That was the largest year-over-year drop of all the 20 cities tracked by S&P for the study. Seattle, which has had a price appreciation of more than 43 percent since January 2000, had an annual drop of 5.6 percent, followed by Detroit with a 5.4 percent fall. Detroit wasn’t among the newest lows for the cities surveyed, but Seattle was, joining Tampa; Charlotte, N.C.; Las Vegas; New York and Portland. Both Charlotte and Cleveland have had seven consecutive months of negative monthly returns. However, Tampa, Atlanta, Boston, Denver and New York are not far behind with six consecutive months of negative prints, Standard & Poor’s said. Tampa home prices are still more than 36 percent better than they were in January 2000, however, that appreciation is behind the 20-city average of 44 percent. Atlanta is just 5.7 percent bigger than it was the year before, while Cleveland is about even to home prices from the beginning of 2000.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Fannie Mae sweetens offer to avoid foreclosure

Struggling borrowers who give up their homes through a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" or a short sale will be able to obtain a new Fannie Mae loan in two years. Currently, these owners must wait at least four years. The new policy, which takes effect in July, is designed to make foreclosure alternatives more attractive. The policy applies only to Fannie Mae's willingness to approve a mortgage, however. Homeowners' credit scores will still take a hit following a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure. To qualify for a mortgage after the two year wait, Fannie Mae says borrowers must make a 20 percent down payment; but those who lost a job or have other extenuating circumstances will be able to make a 10 percent down payment.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Florida again No. 1 in mortgage fraud

Among the 50 states, Florida once again is the mother of mortgage fraud. Soaring rates in the state, specifically of appraisal fraud and misrepresentation, guaranteed Florida retained the No. 1 ranking in 2009 for the fourth year in a row. An annual ranking unveiled Monday by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute found that, given the volume of residential mortgages it originates, Florida had close to three times the expected amount of reported loan fraud and misrepresentation. That made Florida No. 1 by a comfortable margin in the country, ahead of the next closest states New York, California, Arizona and Michigan.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Value of home appraisal process in question

A year ago, the nation's housing industry adopted new rules aimed at preventing the kind of appraisal-related fraud that helped drive home prices to ridiculous — and unsustainable — heights. Now, many Tampa Bay real estate agents say the appraisal rules are a good idea gone bad, delaying and threatening sales as the market struggles to recover. During the boom, mortgage brokers and others whose fees were tied to loan production sometimes worked with appraisers to set home values. To prevent collusion, the 2009 Home Valuation Code of Conduct bars loan originators from directly selecting appraisers. As a result, most appraisers are now hired through so-called appraisal management companies. Critics complain that the companies sometimes hire inexperienced appraisers who know little about an area. The problem can be acute in older neighborhoods, like Woodlawn or Tampa's Palma Ceia, where there is a greater mix of housing than in cookie-cutter subdivisions.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Bill to deregulate property insurance market appears dead

A push to let Florida property insurance companies aggressively raise rates with unregulated policies appears unlikely this legislative session, a victim of Gov. Charlie Crist's threatened veto. The bill would let insurance companies raise rates up to 10 percent on a statewide average with a cap at a 20 percent hike. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation under McCarty currently has authority to reject rate requests that are deemed excessive. But insurance companies contend the freedom is needed because present rates are artificially low.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

March Tampa Area Home Sales Up 21%, Prices Down 3%

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA reported a total of 2,782 homes sold in March compared to 2,782 homes a year ago for a 21 percent increase. The existing home median sales price was $131,400; a year ago, it was $135,800 for a 3 percent decrease. In the year-to-year comparison for the existing condo market, a total of 991 units sold in the MSA last month, up 92% from a year ago when 515 condos sold. The market’s existing condo median price was $95,000; a year ago, it was $109,100 for a 13 percent decrease.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Long-Term Mortgage Rates Mostly Unchanged from Last Week

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.07 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending April 22, 2010, unchanged from last week when it averaged 5.07 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.80 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

US home sales expected to rise in March

Home sales are expected to rise 5.2 percent in March, reversing three months of declines, as government incentives juiced the housing market and kicked off what's expected to be a strong spring selling season. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters forecast the National Association of Realtors will say sales of previously occupied homes rose last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million, up from 5.02 million in February. That was the weakest month since last July.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Decline in Pinellas property values will be steeper than expected, appraiser says

Some local governments will be facing tighter budgets than expected if the county property appraiser's forecast of double-digit drops in land values across most of Pinellas holds true. Mid-Pinellas could see some of the steepest declines: Pinellas Park is estimated to see a 14.4 percent drop in real estate values. Kenneth City, a 14 percent decrease. Largo, a 13 percent reduction. St. Petersburg, a 12.8 percent contraction. Seminole and Clearwater are also predicted to see double-digit drops of 11.6 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively. But those are more in line with the expected countywide decline of 11 to 11.2 percent. Even many of the beach communities, which usually manage to avoid drastic drops in property values, could see double-digit decreases. St. Pete Beach, for example, is predicted to see a 10.2 percent decline.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Foreclosure bill rouses rally

Lawyers and consumer advocates plan a rally in Tallahassee on Wednesday to protest a controversial bill that would speed up foreclosures in Florida. The legislative bill would allow lenders to foreclose on homeowners without approval from a judge in as little as 90 days. It appears to have stalled, but the group said it wants to send a message to legislators. House Bill 1523 would allow lenders to skip legal proceedings unless the borrower requests the foreclosure go through the courts. Florida law requires a lender to file a foreclosure lawsuit and have the foreclosure granted by a judge. There are nearly 500,000 pending foreclosure cases in Florida, among the worst in the nation. Because of the backlog, foreclosures can take months or years. Critics say the bill significantly shortens the foreclosure process, making it more difficult for troubled borrowers to save their houses. They say the bill would not help the backlog of foreclosures because it applies only to new cases. Supporters say it would help judges and be good for neighbors weary of long-vacant houses in their community.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Florida's jobless rate hits record, Tampa fares better

Florida's jobless rate hit a record high for the third month in a row as unemployment rates slightly improved locally. Florida's rate edged up to 12.3 percent in March. The Tampa Bay area's rate improved in March, although it remained higher than the state rate. The seasonally adjusted rate represents more than 1.3 million jobless workers in Florida, according to a report released Friday by Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation. Despite the statewide record high, each of the four counties grouped in the Tampa Bay area posted reduced unemployment rates in March. But the agency cautioned against reading too much into local improvements since the numbers aren't seasonally adjusted. The Tampa Bay area, which includes Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando counties, had a March unemployment rate of 12.7 percent. That's down from 13.2 percent in February, but up from 10.1 percent from March 2009. County data are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

HUD's Good Faith Estimate Form sparks confusion

For anyone buying a home this spring, beware: There could be some kinks with the paperwork. In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development rolled out sweeping changes to the Good Faith Estimate, a key consumer-protection document. The agency has given the real estate industry four months to change over to the new form, and the questions and complaints are widespread. "Borrowers are looking at this form and saying, 'This doesn't make any sense for us, why can't we have something that's more simple?'" said Pava Leyrer, president of Heritage National Mortgage in Grandville, Mich. One of her clients, Chad Veldkamp, wasn't even sure how much money he needed to complete the deal until he sat down to sign the final documents.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Multifamily units drive home construction

Housing construction posted a better-than-expected performance in March, rising to the highest level in 16 months. The gain was due solely to multifamily homes, which account for less than 20 percent of the market. The Commerce Department report Friday said construction of single-family homes, the most important segment of the market, fell 0.9 percent to an annual rate of 531,000 units. But permits for single-family construction, a gauge of future activity, were up. The increase in housing starts tempered news this week from RealtyTrac Inc. that a record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of the year. The low selling prices of those foreclosed homes have put builders at a disadvantage, held back hiring in the construction industry and helped restrain the broader economic recovery.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Mortgage Rates Ease a Bit This Week

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.07 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending April 15, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 5.21 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.82 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Bankruptcy filings in Tampa jump 21 percent in first quarter

Bankruptcy filings in the Tampa/Fort Myers division jumped nearly 21 percent in the first quarter, a pace that would smash last year's record. Filings in the Middle District of Florida, which includes the Tampa office, are also up about 21 percent. The 16,149 cases filed in the Middle District, which also includes Orlando and Jacksonville, make it the second-busiest bankruptcy court in the country behind California's Central District. According to preliminary numbers, March was one of the Middle District's busiest months on record, trailing only the two months in 2005 in which filers were racing to beat the bankruptcy law changes. And, if projections are right, it hasn't peaked yet.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Fed: Low rates likely through 2010

Interest rates are likely to remain low into 2011, Federal Reserve policymakers hinted this week in at least two presentations. These indications came one week after the Fed shut down its program to buy mortgage-backed securities, which had kept rates at or near record lows in recent months. In a speech Thursday, Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said, “The relatively modest pace of recovery, the continued high rate of unemployment, subdued inflation trends, and well-anchored inflation expectations together suggest that the need for highly accommodative monetary policies will not diminish soon.” Likewise, Donald Kohn, Fed vice chairman in a speech in San Francisco, said the Fed would raise rates, “in due course,” but he also noted that low rates “help offset the lingering restraining effects on economic activity and prices.” So far, rates have risen modestly, but analysts speculate they will likely become much more volatile down the road.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Realtors optimistic: Housing recovery is near

It’s still taking more than 200 days to sell a home, but inventory in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties has shrunk to just eight months, hinting that a recovery could be just a few months away. There were 2,990 homes sales in the three counties in March, up 32 percent from February and 34 percent from 2009, according to a new report from Home Encounter LLC of Tampa. Homes sold at an average price of $94 per square foot, down slightly from a year ago, but up more than 3 percent from February. Listings are down significantly from a year ago, dropping more than 22 percent to 24,040, shrinking inventory from 14 months to just eight. Listing prices are falling as well, however, dropping more than 10 percent from $154 to $138 a square foot. Distressed homes continue to plague the market, keeping home prices almost steady between $90 and $100 per square foot since January 2009, Murphy said. Nearly 42 percent of all sales in March were distressed, selling for an average of 71 percent of non-distressed prices.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Owners Who Refinanced May Owe IRS

People who cashed out refinances, or had part of their mortgage debt forgiven when they sold their homes through short sales, will probably owe the IRS a big payback. In 2007, Congress passed the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Act, but that doesn’t let everyone off the hook. Here are exceptions to the rule: Anyone who did a cash-out refinance and spent the money on something not housing related, then got in trouble and lost their home to a foreclosure or short sale, will owe the IRS as if the money from the refinance were earned income. The IRS will forgive tax liability only on money from home-equity loans that was spent to improve the property. Anyone who lost a vacation home or investment property to foreclosure or short sale will owe Uncle Sam. Multi-million dollar homes — lost or sold — are always subject to tax.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Home prices on Suncoast continue fall

Suncoast house prices improved in January but still saw some of the steepest declines in the nation, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Metro Area Home Price Index. Home prices in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, which included Pasco County, fell 7.4 percent, compared with the same month last year. The only other area to fare worse was Las Vegas, where prices fell 17.4 percent. The area's decline tied with Detroit. Even so, the Suncoast saw improvement. Prices fell 0.5 percent from December to January - slightly better than the 0.6 percent drop from November to December. The monthly declines have shown signs of stabilization since last summer and have even slightly increased several months. The year-to-year declines are better too. December's year-to-year drop was 11 percent, compared with January's 7.4 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

First Chinese drywall suit award: $2.6 million

Consumer advocates hailed a ruling Thursday in Louisiana federal court that awarded $2.6 million to seven Virginia families who bought homes built with Chinese drywall. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon handed down the first award in a Chinese drywall lawsuit. He awarded property damages, personal property damages, and an amount for loss of use and enjoyment. The case is considered a bellwether for numerous federal class action lawsuits consolidated in New Orleans. It also provides guidance for hundreds of other cases awaiting trial in state circuit courts. The ruling lends legal weight to a recent federal policy decision that the only safe method of dealing with Chinese drywall is to gut a house’s interior of all drywall, wiring and plumbing. From 2004 to 2006, when the building boom and hurricane repairs created a domestic shortage, 500 million pounds of drywall were imported – and 60 percent of the drywall came through Florida ports.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Bond Yields Push 30-Year Mortgage Rates to Highest Level in Eight Months

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.21 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending April 8, 2010, up from last week when it averaged 5.08 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.87 percent. This is the highest the 30-year FRM has been since the week ending August 13, 2009 when it averaged 5.29 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Water's Edge condo tower in Clearwater on brink of sale

A California investment company that specializes in underpriced apartments has contracted to buy one of Clearwater's tallest and ritziest residential properties: the bankrupt Water's Edge condominium tower. Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard confirmed the buyer of the 25-story downtown building is Concierge Asset Management of San Francisco, founded by a bargain-hunting tycoon named Maxwell Drever. Opus South Corp. completed Water's Edge in 2008, filed for bankruptcy in spring 2009 and ceded the tower to Wachovia Bank at foreclosure auction last fall. Wachovia, which held an $82 million mortgage on the building, successfully bid $30.6 million for the property. It's safe to say Concierge's offer is somewhere between $30.6 million to $82 million. The 153-unit Water's Edge rests on a bluff near Clearwater City Hall, across the Intracoastal Waterway from the beach. Opus claimed it had sold 60 percent of its units, but most prospective owners bailed from contracts that averaged $750,000. The building remains largely unoccupied save for a few unit owners.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Nearly 17 percent of Tampa homeowners three months behind on mortgage

Nearly 17 percent of Tampa Bay homeowners haven't paid their mortgages for at least three months. The February report by First American CoreLogic shows mortgage delinquencies rising steadily for more than a year. From February 2009 to February 2010, delinquencies increased from 10.84 percent to 16.96 percent of all residential mortgages, making mincemeat of such government anti-foreclosure measures as Making Home Affordable. Florida's 90-day delinquency rate was even worse at 19.39 percent. The U.S. rate was 8.78 percent. Unusually high unemployment, combined with stiff housing depreciation, has pushed more homeowners into default.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Homebuyers scramble as mortgage rates jump

The era of record-low mortgage rates is over. The average rate on a 30-year loan has jumped from about 5 percent to more than 5.3 percent in just the past week. As mortgages get more expensive, more would-be homeowners are priced out of the market — a threat to the fragile recovery in the housing market. And if you wanted to refinance at a super-low rate, you may have missed your chance. Mortgages under 4 percent are still available, but only for loans that reset in five or seven years, probably to higher rates. Rates are going up because of the improving economy and the end of a government push to make mortgages cheaper. For people putting their homes on the market this spring, rising rates may actually be a good thing. Buyers are racing to complete their purchases and lock in something decent before rates go even higher.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Deadline nears for homebuyer tax credit

There is a potential to save thousands of dollars but time is running out. If you're thinking of taking advantage of the government's homebuyer tax credits you must have a contract to purchase a home by the end of this month. First time homebuyers can get a credit of up to $8,000. This has pushed about 900,000 additional buyers into the market, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, a trade group. The additional stimulation has helped stabilize home prices, he added. "It is laying the foundation for more normal housing market conditions," Yun said, "and helping assure that we have a sustainable economic recovery as homeowners don't see further destruction of their wealth." The government also offered a tax credit to long-time residents who buy a new principal residence — no credits for vacation homes. They're eligible for a credit of up to $6,500.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Fannie Survey Finds Home Owners Are Skeptical

The housing crisis has changed how Americans view homeownership, according to a survey of public attitudes by Fannie Mae. The number of people who view homeownership as a safe investment declined from 83 percent in 2003 to 70 percent in 2009. In addition:

* 48 percent of those surveyed said banks should foreclose on people who don’t pay their mortgages. 53 percent blamed borrowers – instead of banks – for taking out bigger loans than they could afford.

* 15 percent of respondents said it is acceptable for borrowers who are underwater to walk away.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Government offers incentives to ease short sale process

The government launched a new effort Monday to speed up the time-consuming, often-frustrating process of selling your home if you owe more than it's worth. The Obama administration will give $3,000 for moving expenses to homeowners who complete such a sale - known as a short sale - or agree to turn over the deed of the property to the lender. It's designed for homeowners who are in financial trouble but don't qualify for the administration's $75 billion mortgage modification program. Owners will still lose their homes, but a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure doesn't hurt a borrower's credit score for as much time as a foreclosure. For lenders, a home usually fetches more money in a short sale than a foreclosure, and the bank avoids expensive legal bills, cleanup fees and maintenance costs that follow a foreclosure. Along with the financial incentives, the new government program makes another key change. Mortgage companies will have to set their minimum bid before the house is listed for sale. If the offer is above that, the lender must accept it.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Pending Home Sales Show Healthy Gain

Pending home sales rose in February, potentially signaling a second surge of home sales in response to the home buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in February, rose 8.2 percent to 97.6 from a downwardly revised 90.2 in January, and remains 17.3 percent above February 2009 when it was 83.2. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which usually occur with a lag time of one or two months. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the improvement is another hopeful sign. “The rise in buyer contact activity may signal the early stages of a second surge of home sales this spring. The healthy gain hints home prices are continuing to flatten,” he says. “We need a second surge to meaningfully draw down inventory and definitively stabilize home values.”

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Recession sends gloom into upscale Brightwaters neighborhood

Brightwaters Boulevard is one of Tampa Bay's most prestigious addresses. Curving the length of Snell Isle in St. Petersburg, it is home to doctors and developers, CEOs and high-profile lawyers. It is a street that exudes an air of gracious living. But like thousands of other American streets, it has felt the sting of a troubled economy and real estate market. At the north end of Brightwaters sits a 6,000-square-foot bayfront mansion that is in foreclosure. The owner, a prominent eye doctor, is trying to sell it for $3 million. At the south end of Brightwaters is the storied Perry Snell home, built in the 1920s and now on sale for $18 million. Its current residents, owners of a defunct computer training school, are in financial distress after spending millions on renovations. In between are 25 more homes for sale — one in every seven, or 14 percent of the 196 properties with a Brightwaters address. Those are numbers you might expect to find in the bland subdivisions that sprang up in Hillsborough or Pasco counties during the boom, not in one of the region's oldest and most affluent neighborhoods.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Bellview Biltmore catches a break as appeal period expires

A chain-link fence surrounds the 113-year-old resort, shuttered nearly a year. Plans to restore the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa were unveiled 2 1/2 years ago, but legal challenges stalled the project. Monday, the hotel got a break. The appeal period on the latest court challenge expired, basically clearing the way for the development team to jump in where they left off. "All of the pieces have to be put back together," said Martin Smith, a project consultant and hotel managing director. The historic hotel was supposed to open in January 2012. Now, the timetable is unclear.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

Thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall should be gutted, according to new guidelines released Friday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The guidelines say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall need to be removed. "We want families to tear it all out and rebuild the interior of their homes, and they need to start this to get their lives started all over again," said Inez Tenenbaum, chairwoman of the commission, the federal agency charged with making sure consumer products are safe. About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall, which was imported in large quantities during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Freddie Mac eases rules for Fla. condo loans

Freddie Mac moved to buoy the battered Florida condo market, waiving lending rules that made it harder to buy and sell units in many condo buildings. Freddie Mac said today it will back mortgages on units in financially troubled condo developments as long as the seller's loan is already owned or securitized by the mortgage finance company. The announcement is a reversal by Freddie Mac, which had been rejecting mortgages in condos with low occupancy and high delinquency rates for condo association fees. Florida's once-burgeoning condo market has been hit hard by foreclosures, falling prices and high inventory caused by overbuilding. Condo prices have fallen by half since 2006 in parts of the state.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email

Long-Term Mortgage Rates at Second Highest Level This Year

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.08 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending April 1, 2010, up from last week when it averaged 4.99 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.78 percent.

Click here to enter the Tampa Realtors MLS (updated daily)
Register to receive an email every morning of today's new listings
Visit my website or contact me by email