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Archive for the 'North Pinellas County' Category

A visit to the Tarpon Springs farmer’s market

If you’ve spent any time reading this blog you know that I love farmer’s markets, and there’s plenthy of them around North Pinellas County.  I’ve been meaning to get up to the market in Tarpon Springs — in fact, I have driven up there only to find that my visits were on off weekends when the market wasn’t operating.

Anyway, today we headed up there and got there on the right weekend.  Everything was in full swing, and we made good use of it.

There was a cheese booth, operated by a business called the Cheese Lodge in Elfers, Fla., and we bought some absolutely great brie, which we sampled as soon as we got home. Too bad, they don’t have a website.

We also bought a couple of kielbasa sandwiches, which we ate while we watched the beginning of the Rays-Yankees game on TV once we got back home.

We also stumbled across a Palm Harbor bakery which we didn’t know about.  Sweet Caroline’s had a booth at the farmer’s market, and the food on display was really eye-catching.  We bought two apple turnovers and a thick, crumbly chocolate cookie with powered sugar on top, and we took them home and ate them after those keilbasa sandwiches.

Sweet Caroline’s is in a strip mall at 3347 Tampa Rd, Palm Harbor, a few doors down from the Surf & Turf Market. Definitely worth a try!

Tags: farmer's market, Tarpon Springs

Tampa Bay ranks last when it comes to public transit

Tampa Bay scores again; Forbes Magazine took a look at the 60 major metro areas in the country and then rated their rapid transit systems. Tampa Bay made the list — in last place.

That should come as only a mild surprise to anyone who has had to drive to work on either side of Tampa Bay. Traffic here is a nightmare, and there are few alternatives to driving your own car to work. We do have a bus system, but there is no rapid transit system, no subway, no passenger rail.

A great light rail system opened a few months ago in Phoenix. So far, it's been very popular with local residents.

Many of our major roadways started life as sleepy two-lanes.  US19N, the major north-south road that runs the length of Pinellas County, was once a rural two-lane road that passed through miles of orange groves, at least in the northern part of the county where I live. Someone recently told me that he remembered when there was just a flashing light at the intersection of 19 and Tampa Road, a busy major intersection today that serves six lanes of US19 and four of Tampa Road. 

If you want to cross the bay between Pinellas (Where St. Petersburg is located) and Hillsborough (Tampa), you have four choices: The Gandy bridge; the Howard Franklin Bridge; the Courtney Campbell Causeway; and Hillsborough Avenue, the only land route, located at the northern tip of Tampa Bay. If you attempt this crossing in rush hour, be prepared to sit.

If you’ve read this blog before, you know I am a fan of light rail, and we might — just might — have such a system in our sights.

A month or two ago, President Obama came to town and announced that the federal government would fund the majority share of a high-speed rail line between Tampa Bay and Orlando. That’s nice, because it would eliminate the drive on I-4, a really difficult bit of Interstate between those two cities.

But the real value of such a line would be the possibility of a light rail system at this end of it. The high-speed line could connect to a light-rail system that would circumnavigate Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties and provide an alternative to the automobile.

We have something called the Tampa Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (TBARTA), which would like to build that system. Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, who serves on the TBARTA board, spoke at St. Petersburg College recently about rapid transit in Tampa Bay, and said such a system is necessary both for current residents and to respond to companies that may consider locating facilities in Tampa Bay. 

All that said, I do have a bone or two to pick with Forbes about this ranking.  We used to live in Washington, DC,  and it would be hard to imagine a worse commuting city than that. before we lived in Florida we lived in Maine, and that meant the occasional drive to the biggest metro center in that neck of the woods, Boston. If you’ve never driven in Boston at rush hour, it is a breathtaking experience. Still, both those cities have good subway systems and buses that run frequently.

I think it is fair to say that Palm Harbor real estate, Dunedin real estate, or Pinellas County real estate in general would be more attractive if it was served by an efficient light rail system

Owner financing on this great Tarpon Springs townhouse

I don’t make a habit of putting my listings on my blog (they are on my website at www.bethfrederick.com) but this is such a gorgeous townhouse that I thought I would share it with you.

Almost new (build in 2006 by Lennar Homes), this home has some dandy finishing touches (crown molding throughout, granite countertops), and there is plenty of room to stretch out in its 2,301 square feet of living space.

Many two-story town homes are concrete block construction on the first floor and wood construction on the second floor. Not this one, though — it is concrete block construction throughout.

And this may be the most attractive and compelling feature of all — the sellers are interested in providing owner financing — just 10 percent down and a very attractive interest rate, and a term of up to 30 years.

Selling price: $237,400. Give me a call and we’ll go take a look! See more at http://www.bethfrederick.com/Nav.aspx/Page=/ListNow/Default.aspx , and click on the picture.

Tags: owner financing, Tarpon Springs, town house

Real estate and Palm Harbor: Is this the best market for buyers ever?

If I were to ask you to describe your income, would you use words like “reliable,” “dependable,” or “steady?”  Do you think there’s a very good chance that your job (or your business) will be around in a year, or two, or five?

If you took out some sort of loan tomorrow, would you worry about your ability to pay it back because of future income issues? Or would you be confident that your job would remain in place over the long term?

Some people have jobs that pay really well, but which probably won’t be around for long periods.  I’ll give you an example: I have a relative who is working right now as an electrical contractor in Iraq. He’s making REALLY good money, but he doesn’t expect (or want) the job to last forever. After a year or so, he’s going to want to shake the sand out of his jeans, come back to the States, and resume a more normal life.

My relative’s big but short-term income puts him in a great position to pay off debt and accumulate cash. However, it does NOT make him a great candidate for a 30-year mortgage or a five-year car loan.

But YOU, on the other hand, might be sitting on a bigger asset than you realize, if you have a steady and dependable job or other source of income.

Why? Because this may be the best time in the past, oh, 75 years or so, to buy a house.

Which brings me to my second question:

Do you know what the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices is? Okay, I’ll tell you – it is a monthly report that measures the residential housing market. It tracks home values in 20 metro markets in the U.S.

And the Case-Shiller report for October, released just this week, shows a couple of things: 1. Home values in October were flat, and 2. in spite of that, home values during 2009 have generally been in slow but steady recovery mode.

Case-Shiller reports that home values have fallen a full 30% since their peak in 2005. That drop has been stunning – nothing like it has been seen since the Depression, and perhaps even earlier than that. For people who need or want a new home, it is an opportunity of stunning proportions.

And there is even more good news; interest rates have dropped, too, If you wanted a 30-year fixed rate mortgage three years ago, it would have likely cost you around 6.4 percent. Apply for that same mortgage today, and you’ll pay more like 5 percent.

What that means is that median home prices are now about where they were in the mid-1990s, a time when just about every agrees was a really great time to buy. What makes the current conditions even more attractive than then, however, is the difference in mortgage rates – something like 5 percent now, more like 9 percent back then.   

The Wall Street JOURNAL recently did some numbers-crunching, and came up with this conclusion: Buy an average home now, finance it with a 5 percent 30-year mortgage, and the cost comes out to be around 19 times today’s average weekly earnings. Conditions haven’t been that favorable for homebuyers since the 1970s, according to the JOURNAL.

Still not good enough for you? Okay, fine – then throw in the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit, which is scheduled to run through the spring season.

Which brings us back to my original question: How would you characterize your income? Would you describe it as “reliable,” “dependable,” or “steady?”

If it is, and you can feel pretty good about relying on your income over the long term, this is probably the best time to buy a home that has come along during your entire lifetime, and probably your parents’ lifetime, and maybe even your grandparents’ lifetime as well.

The real question is the reliability of your income. These are uncertain economic times, and no one needs additional uncertainty in times like these. Unstable or unreliable income down the road could result in a foreclosure, no matter how attractive the selling price of the home is now.

But if income unreliability is not a major concern, unprecedented real estate opportunities await you.

Tags: pinellas, real estate and clearwater, real estate and palm harbor

Environmentally-friendly Sweetbay Market opens in Tarpon Springs

SweetBay's new LEED-certified supermarket in Tarpon Springs

Sweetbay Supermarkets has opened a new store in Tarpon Springs, on South Pinellas Ave. (Alt. 19) just a short distance south of the Tarpon Springs downtown area.

What makes this more than just a grocery store opening is that this store is LEED-certified, meaning it is environmentally and energy sensitive in a number of different ways. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a designation of the U.S. Green Building Council, and the LEED designation makes note of the store’s energy efficiency and sustainable development practices.
 
We saw all sorts of different examples of those sustainable practices during our visit on Saturday, everything from special reserved parking spots for energy-efficient cars (and car pool cars) to reusable shopping bags.

Some of the features we did NOT see were the store’s low-flow toilets and plumbing fixtures, the use of reclaimed water for toilets,  and free air for people who ride their bikes to the store.

The store also offers all kinds of special food displays, as well. One thing that really caught our eye was a major display in the produce section devoted solely to all kinds of fresh peppers. We saw peppers we had never seen before, and we were very taken by the eye appeal of so many of the displays.

Here’s how SweetBay describes the mission of its new market (as printed on a sign inside the store): “We thought why not create a store that is as committed to the planet as much as it is to delivering freshness to the people, a store that is environmentally-friendly and committed to conserving energy and water. A store that wastes less and recycles more, a store that puts planet, people and product first. So we did.”

If you get a chance, you should take a tour of the new SweetBay store. It may offer some insights into the way grocery stores will look in the future.

New homeowner tax credit may mean tax windfall for builders

Last week, the Congress extended the first time homeowner tax credit. But what wasn’t so obvious about that legislation is that it provides some really big tax breaks for home building companies.

Big builders like Lennar and Pulte could end up with hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds from the U.S. Treasury on taxes they paid as far back as five years, according to the Wall Street Journal. Those refunds are designed to help the companies cope with the big losses they have experienced in the past two years or so.

The tax break will apply to large companies of all kinds. But it may be of particular benefit to the country’s biggest home builders, because they have experienced some really hefty losses as the economy has tanked over the past couple of years.

Some critics say they home builders don’t really need that much help because they have been selling off assets, such as land and unsold inventory, and bargain prices and then hoarding the proceeds. One source estimates that the 10 largest home building companies are sitting on average of $1.2 billion in cash each, quite a lot more than the $616 million cash average they had just a couple of years ago.

Pulte Homes says it may receive more than $450 million in tax refunds; Lennar Homes may get refunds of as much as $300 million.

One benefit to the tax refund news: stock prices for Lennar and other builders went up last week as the legislation was announced.

Tags: home builders, tax credit

Looking to buy in Pinellas County? The tax credit is nearing an end

     What’s going to happen to the first time homebuyer tax credit?
     The tax credit, which was introduced back in February as part of the Obama Administration’s stimulus package, gives an income tax credit of up to $8,000 to all first time home buyers. The trouble is, the tax credit runs out at the end of November.
     The Congress is thinking about extending the credit, and some members would like to see it expanded to apply to all home buyers, not just first-timers. But other members say that making the credit last longer – and apply to more people – would be a budget-buster. They say any new tax credit version should be offset by tax increases, or at least some spending cuts.
     Some observers say they think there’s a pretty good chance that the tax credit will be extended, but they are not so optimistic that it will be enlarged to include new categories of home buyers. 
     Under the current rules, the tax credit applies to individuals making more than $75,000 per year, or couples making no more than a combined $150,000 per year. Some members of Congress say they would like to double those limits so more homebuyers would qualify. That’s a nice idea and would stimulate more home purchases, but it would cost an estimated $16.7 billion. 
     Meanwhile, I can tell you that buyers are increasing their home shopping activities, trying to get sales done before the current programs ends. I know that because I have been busy showing property.

New IRS form lets loan officers see your IRS income info — twice

     Are you going to be applying for a mortgage anytime soon?  Here’s something you need to know:
     Your loan officer may ask you to sign IRS Form 4506-T. If you do, you will authorize the loan officer to get IRS electronic transcripts of your federal income tax filings.
     This may not seem like anything terribly new — the IRS has been giving lenders tax-return info for years. In the past, however, that information wasn’t requested until settlement, and it usually was requested only in the case of people who were self-employed.
     What’s changed is that Fannie Mae is working harder to spot fraudulent claims of income, and to limit losses from bad loans. So… Fannie Mae now wants lenders to get two sets of electronic IRS transcripts for all borrowers, no matter what their sources of income are.
     One copy is pulled at the time of the application, while the other gets requested before the closing.
     All of this seems to be a response to the old “stated income” or “no-doc” loans, in which borrowers were asked to simply say what their incomes were without providing any evidence. Some people inflated their incomes, and a percentage of those loans went bad when the market deflated.
     Because of all that, Fannie Mae (and other lenders) are tightening up their requirements, and IRS Form  4506-T is one of the consequences. Lenders now want to verify those income claims — not once, but twice.
     Remember, you need to take this form seriously when the loan officer puts it in front of you. Make sure that the information you provide is accurate, and make sure the years you specify are the years you actually want the loan officer to see.
     You are going to see a request for a Form 4506-T request twice during the mortgage loan application process, so be ready for that, too.
     If you would like to see a copy of the form before the loan officer actually presents it to you, you can get one on the IRS Web site, which is http://www.irs.gov

In Pinellas County we import our pumpkins

First, the bad news: pumpkins don’t grow very well in Florida.

 Heat, sandy soil, rainy summer seasons, fungal and insect problems make it tough to grow pumpkins and other gourds.

But here’s the good news: Big trucks bring pumpkins to Florida from other places!

And if you go to a place that sells pumpkins, it looks for all the world like a farm stand that just brought a bunch of pumpkins in from the fields.

I wanted to buy a pumpkin this weekend amd I saw in the newspaper that the East Lake United Methodist Church was going to be selling pumpkins once again this year, just as they have done in past Octobers. So I drove over there around mid-day.

Sure enough, it looked like a real farmer’s pumpkin patch.

I bought a nice medium-sized pumpkin, and I’m thinking about going back in a few days and buying a few gourds to use in decorating the house.

Tags: holidays

Some new rules will change the mortgage process

 Getting ready to buy a new home? The federal government has come up with a new set of rules that may have an impact on your mortgage. The new rules, from the Federal Reserve, go into effect at the end of this month.
Here are the high points:
– Lenders must provide you a mortgage cost disclosure within three business days of the date you apply for the mortgage. If they don’t you can walk away from the deal.
– Lenders can’t collect fees until you get that aforementioned cost disclosure statement. The only exception is a reasonable fee for checking your credit. It has been fairly common for lenders to ask for money up-front to cover appraisals, credit checks and other fees. No more.
– Once the lender provides the mortgage cost disclosure, there must be a seven-day waiting period before the closing.
– The appraisal must be delivered by the lender to the borrower at least three business days before the loan closing. Borrowers have always had a right to see the appraisal, but they often didn’t know they had that right, and they often didn’t request it because they didn’t know they were entitled to it. Now, the closing can’t happen until you’ve received it.
– If the annual percentage rate of the loan goes up more than one-eighth of one percent between the time you get the early cost disclosure and the closing, the lender must re-disclose all the costs and provide an additional seven days for you to consider the deal.
It is all meant to make the mortgage transaction more transparent and give borrowers more confidence about the deal they are signing.