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Archive for the 'Palm Harbor' Category

What’s the outlook for first-time homebuyers in the Pinellas County real estate market?

One bright spot in the recent residential real estate market has been the opportunities that first-time homebuyers have been able to enjoy. Falling home prices have made it possible for a lot of first-time homebuyers to finally enjoy the benefits of home ownership.

The Obama Administration’s first-time home buyer tax credit (remember that?) contributed to the opportunity, and quite a few people who had never owned a home before were able to buy. In the second quarter of 2010, 46 percent of homebuyers were first-timers.

So what’s happened?

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: first time home buyers, mortgages, Pinellas County real estate

Five ways to recognize the perfect Pinellas County house

     My last posting was about five steps you can take to make sure you get that home that you really want.  But that got me to thinking – how will you know the perfect house when you find it?

     You may know just by the feeling that it gives you when you walk through it. But it may be a little more complicated than that.  The perfect house needs to measure up in a number of ways if it is really going to make you happy and fulfill your needs.

      So, since the last post was “Five Ways to Make Sure You Get the House you Really Want,” here are “Five Ways to Know the Perfect House When You See It”:

1. IS IT PRICED RIGHT? There are lots of great houses out there that would probably make you happy, but not too may that can make you happy AND fit into your budget. If you set a price limit when started your home search, try to stay within that budget. You won’t be happy if your mortgage payments eat up too much of your income.
2.  IS IT IN THE RIGHT PLACE? There’s nothing more important than location when you are looking for a new home. Is the house near your work, near your kids’ favored schools, near the places where you like to shop or go out to eat? The greatest house in the world won’t make you happy if its far away from everything and everyone you care about.
3.  DOES IT HAVE WHAT YOU WANT? If you love to cook, you won’t be happy with a little galley kitchen. If you love to work on your classic car, you’ll need plenty of garage space. If you love to swim, you’ll need a pool. Don’t fall in love with a house that doesn’t have what you really want.
4.  IS IT BIG ENOUGH? Does it have enough bedrooms, or a big enough family room, or enough storage space? You won’t be happy if you are cramped. (By the same token, you may want to ask, “Is it small enough?” If you live alone or your kids have left the nest, you may rattle around in even the most beautiful 3,000 square foot house).
5.  IS IT IN GOOD SHAPE? The first house we owned was an architectural masterpiece that was on the National Register of Historic Places. But it was huge, and it needed virtually everything. We worked on it for 10 years and never got it finished. A more efficient home in excellent condition might have made a lot more sense for us.

When you’re looking for a house, follow your heart – but don’t let your heart overrule your head.

Tags: home, home search, pinellas county, real estate

Five ways to make sure you get that Palm Harbor house you really want

A real estate client of mine recently had a very disappointing experience – she made an offer on a home in Pinellas County she really wanted, only to lose out to another, higher offer.

Of course, it wasn’t the first time that one of my clients was disappointed when a competing offer prevailed. But it did get me to thinking – how can you avoid the disappointment of losing out to another offer from some other home buyer when you find that one-in-a-million home that you just have to have?

So here are five ways to make sure that your offer is the one that the seller chooses:

1. TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT: If you’re shopping for a bargain, go ahead a lowball your offer to your heart’s content. But if you find the perfect property and you have your heart set on it, make an offer that the seller can’t refuse. You’ll pay a premium price, but chances are you’ll get what you really want, and in a few short years the price you paid won’t matter to you.
2. OFFER A SIGNIFICANT DOWN PAYMENT: A big down payment signals financial strength. That may communicate to the seller that financing won’t be a big problem for you, and the deal is likely to go through.
3. PAY CASH: If a big down payment signals financial strength, a cash offer completely eliminates any questions about financing. Of course, not everyone can pay cash for a house. But if you can do it, a cash offer may help you get what you want. And you can always finance the property later.
4.  OFFER PLENTY OF EARNEST MONEY: Putting a big pile of cash up front as earnest money says, “I am a serious buyer.” Making an offer that’s backed up by a small amount of earnest money conveys a number of messages, none of them very good. A seller may see a small amount of earnest money as a lack of seriousness on the part of the buyer, or a lack of financial soundness. Now isn’t the time to look cheap.
5. AVOID CONTINGENCIES: Asking the seller to make repairs, upgrade systems or throw in that dandy bedroom set are all factors that can make the deal less palatable to the seller. If you really, really want that house, don’t muddy the waters.

If all you want is the deal of the century, pay no attention to these suggestions. But if you really, really want that one special house, make your offer irresistible.

Tags: home, Palm Harbor, real estate

July home index leaves little to smile about

Every month, real estate people, financing professionals, homebuilders and many others wait with great anticipation for release of the monthly Case-Schiller home price index from Standard & Poor. 

 The index keeps track, on a month-by-month basis, of home prices across the country.

The most recent index report was released this week. And while everyone was hoping for a healthy uptick in home sales, what they got instead was more of the same.

Home prices in May (measured in 20 major cities) were down 4.5 percent from the same month a year ago. When compared to the previous month of this year, April, home prices were virtually unchanged.

 So what we have is a market that continues to sort of limp along at the same slow pace. No big drops to indicate additional troubles in the area of home prices; but no indications of additional market recovery, either.

Taken market-by-market, prices were up a bit in nine cities, and down a bit in 11 others. Unfortunately for those of us in this part of the country, homes prices were down 1.5 percent in Tampa Bay.

Why aren’t we seeing more recovery after such a long period of market weakness? Here’s a few possible reasons:

• The battle in Washington over raising the debt ceiling, and the inability of lawmakers to come up with some sort of strategy or plan – any plan – doesn’t do anything to inspire confidence.
• Because so many problems result from lax lending standards, the current lending standards are much tighter than before, and that keeps some buyers (even qualified buyers) out of the market.
• High unemployment rates (9.2 percent nationally) means thousands of people don’t have the incomes necessary for home purchases.
• The bad economy prevents the formation of new households. People forming new households are people in need of new housing.

 I posted a story a few days ago about the increase in cancelled real estate sales contracts. There are a number of reasons for cancelled contracts (tighter credit standards, tougher appraisals, general nervousness in the market), but whatever the reason, fewer executed contracts obviously means fewer sales.

Were you hoping for a little more optimism in this month’s Case-Schiller home price index? Okay, here are a couple of bright spots: 

• The inventory of homes for sale was 164,000 units, a little more than a six-month supply. That’s the lowest that home inventories have been in a long time. Once we fight through all this stagnant inventory of homes for sale, we’ll see a re-ignition of the new-home construction business, and that will mean new jobs and some good stimulation for the economy.
• The median home sales price for the month of June was up 7.2% for new single-family homes. That could be an indication that homes in the higher price ranges are starting to sell.

If you are a glass-half-full kind of person, the new monthly index figures are a little encouraging. If you are more of a glass-half-empty sort, then the index just means more of the same.

Tags: case-schiller, home prices, price index, real estate, Tampa Bay

Adjustable rate mortgages on the rise again in Palm Harbor

One of the casualties of the real estate market “collapse” was the adjustable rate mortgage. ARMs were hugely popular just a few years ago, when home prices were at their highest and borrowing cheap money was easy. But many home buyers went back to the sensible old 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage when more conservative financing seemed like the right way to go.

But not everyone shied away from ARMs. Even though the total number of adjustable rate mortgages was way down in the first quarter of 2011, the total market share of ARMs actually rose to its highest point since 2008. Inside Mortgage Finance, a mortgage trade publication, reports that ARMs actually accounted for 12 percent of all home mortgages in that first quarter of 2011.

Why is that?

Mortgage rates are really low, and the rates for ARMs are REALLY low, and some buyers simply have a hard time resisting that fact. ARMs are especially attractive when mortgage money is expensive, but people really like those rock-bottom rates no matter what the prevailing rates are.

Adjustable rate mortgages are usually written for one, five or seven years, and their rates can go either up or down at the end of the mortgage term. It’s hard to imagine that the rates on new ARMs will be going anywhere but up, current rates being as low as they are.

But for some home buyers, that fact is not all that important. Some people buy homes knowing that they will be turning around and selling their new properties in just a few years – well within in the term of the ARM. In a case like that, there really isn’t much of a down side, or risk of an escalating mortgage rate.

Also, some people don’t like debt and have serious plans to pay off their mortgages in just a few years. If you are one of those people, once again the risk of getting caught with an escalating ARM isn’t very high.

The danger lies in getting an adjustable rate mortgage simply because of the more attractive rate, with no thought given to how you will cover your mortgage payment if the rate goes up in a few years. If you plan to stay in your home for a long time, an ARM may not be a very good strategy for you.

What’s the best mortgage strategy for you? Why don’t you give me a call and we’ll discuss your own special needs and strategies – 727-643-7100.

Tags: Mortgage, Palm Harbor, pinellas county, real estate

Murals adorn the walls of Palm Harbor real estate

If you’ve ever browsed through this blog before (yeah, I know, I haven’t exactly been a blogging fool lately), you probably know I enjoy finding and photographing murals in Pinellas County.

For some reason, this area is just brimming with murals of all kinds. Tampa, St. Pete and Clearwater are the best places to find them, but murals are all over the place if you just keep your eyes open.

Recently, I was coming out of the Publix near the corner of Alt. 19 and Alderman and I happened to look across the parking lot at the back of a strip mall building.  Sure enough– a bright, very graphic mural showing sunshine and a big, breaking wave. I didn’t see an artist’s signature, but the next time I’m there I’ll look a little more carefully. If I can find out who did the work, I’ll share it here.

Tags: murals, Palm Harbor, real estate

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

Savannah: Worlds away from Palm Harbor

Why a post about Savannah, Ga., when this is a blog about Pinellas County real estate? 

Excellent question.

The thing is, every once in a while it feels good to get away from Palm Harbor real estate and take a look at real estate in some other locale — hopefully one that has a great selection of restaurants.

So last weekend we decided to take a few days off and head for Savannah. We drove up on New Year’s Day and came back three days later. We took the Paula Deen tour, ate dinner in her restaurant, took a long walk through the historic district, had some heavenly ice cream at Leopold’s (an ice cream shop founded almost 100 years ago) and just generally had a wonderful time in spite of overnight temperatures in the 20s.

Once nice thing about living in Pinellas County is that we are a day’s ride or less from some great getaway spots — Miami and the Keys to the south, Orlando and St. Augustine to the east, Atlanta and the Georgia mountains to the north, to name a few.

We don’t take advantage of all that near enough. Maybe this year we will.

Tags: Palm Harbor, pinellas county, real estate, Savannah

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

Two-Day Palm Harbor Arts & Crafts Festival draws crowds

The holiday season  really brings out the local arts & crafts shows, and this year has been no exception.  If you scroll back you’ll see that we visited a small arts show up in Tarpon Springs a week or two ago.

But the mother of all local arts shows is the Palm Harbor Arts & Crafts Festival, a show that has been a fixcture in Palm Harbor for the past 35 years.  Most of these shows have been held in the Olde Palm Harbior area right off Alt. 19, and that’s where the show was held again this year after a hiatus of several years during which the show was moved up to the St. petersburg College Tarpon Springs campus.

A couple of art-loving Newfoundlands

This year was fun as always, athough it seemed to me that both the crowds and the number of vendors were down a bit from the average. that should be no big surprise, I guess, what with the slow economy and the general lack of disposable income rattling around in peoples’ pockets.  Several of the vendors told us that business was way down this year, and some mentioned that the past two or three years have been something less than great.

Bad weather on Saturday, rain and cold, really put a damper on things on the first day of the two-day show, although things seemed to have picked up a bit on Sunday.

One nice thing this year is that Sunday was Pet Day, a special featured done in cconjunction with the Humane Society of Pinellas. There was a pet parade on Sunday afternoon, and a special Santa was on hand so that proud pet owners could get their pets’ poctures taken with

Dogs love Santa, too...

Santa. There were also adoptable pets on hand, along with a whole street of pet-related vendors selling everything from pet food to leashes, collars and other pet accessories.

Aside from all the official pet stuff, one nice feature was that there quite a few pets simply being walked around by their owners. Not everyone loves animals, but we do, so we really enjoyed the different pets that were on hand.

We also ran into John Mascoll, a very talented wood worker who lives in Safety Harbor. John won the best of Showe award last year, and because of that we didn’t think it was likely that he would place thisyear, but he did — a big blue ribbon was hanging in his display.

The Palm Harbor arts how is a juried show, which is nice because ot attracts vendors who might not otherwise come. Even if an artist doesn’t sell a whole lot, he or she might win a prized worth bragging about.

This was the 35the annual Palm Harbor show. It started out pretty small, but it has become a major Palm Harbor event that local people really wait for.