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Oct

30

Tampa home prices plummet

Filed Under Economy, Finance, Mortgage | 5 Comments

Single family home prices have continued to slide nationally and in Tampa they seem to be in free fall. Today Standard & Poor released their report for August 2007 (Standard & Poor’s S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index for August 2007) and it does not paint a rosy picture here in the sunshine state. Miami shows a 7.8 percent reduction but Tampa has taken the national lead where prices are down 10.1 percent over the previous year.

Single-family home sales in the Tampa Bay area dropped 40 percent in September, according to data provided by the Florida Association of Realtors, while the median sales price fell 10 percent to $200,700. Sarasota watched single-family home sales drop 25 percent, while the median price there slipped 15 percent to $244,300.

Condo sales took a 29 percent hit last month, however the median price was able to rise 3 percent to $159,000. A similar situation happened in Sarasota with sales falling 10 percent but median prices rising 6 percent to $250,000.

Home Price Indices

HPI Table Highlight

September Home Sales Suck- in Florida?s Tampa Bay Area

Economy is Key to Housing Turnaround

NAR Home Sale Projections - Glass Half Empty or Half Full for Florida ?

How not to become a Florida Foreclosure Statistic

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Oct

29

Do agents and brokers really do double duty - doggy doo pick-up too ?

Filed Under Helpful Information, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

paper With the downed market I am sure a lot of Agents and Brokers are now getting more time to read their morning paper. Many of us too much disdain, as the barrage of minutia that we find from the media, continues to beat up the market and scare prospects away from buying (in keeping with Halloween I could say scare the crap out of …. guess I have poo on the brain for this article). So I would assume many here in the Greater Tampa Florida area may have read an article in the paper on Saturday about agents wearing many hats in the housing slump. The article I am about to reference was printed in the Tampa Bay Homes section of the Saturday edition of the St. Petersburg Times. However, since it is a syndicated article from the Wall Street Journal the name of the article may have been modified depending on which news paper you subscribe to. The article is actually pretty good at describing some of the many things that Realtors have been asked to do by their clients as well as from their Brokers. In housing slump, agents wear many hats. But does this tell the entire story here in the Tampa Bay area… ? I found the following quote totally out of touch with what agents are experiencing here in Tampa “Agents around the Tampa Bay area say they haven’t been asked to perform unusual tasks for clients and customers.”

It appears upon further review of the WSJ article that someone at St. Petersburg Times took editorial liberty’s and modified the article to solicit and comment on Tampa Bay Realtors associations as compared with that of those interviewed by the WSJ. It also appears that the only agent they inquired from was one Coldwell Bankers Realty local to St. Petersburg. Their comment was ” But nobody’s asking agents to do really outrageous things”.

Ok, so define outrageous ? It’s like the explanation that a former president gave when asked about the meaning of IS ?

As Realtors and Brokers you have always done a lot for your clients. But should it be acceptable to deny that you are being abused ? Maybe it would not have been a good idea to mention your name or Company when asked, but come-on let’s be real here. First off the Times should have polled more than their local Realtor…just plain lazy….not to mention the person who add libbed on their column did not even mention their name so I could give them proper credit.

So, if you are an agent or broker here in Tampa, please comment. Let’s discuss and share what you do for your customers and clients. It is really OK to talk, let’s get it out in the open. Our market is in decline, so let’s let our community know what we will and won’t do for them.

Oct

28

Real Estate Blogger Aims to Kick Butt

Filed Under Helpful Information, Technology | Leave a Comment

NEWS FLASH: New Port Richey, Florida

I know this may be a controversial title but (no pun intended) it’s late and I have spent the better part of the day upgrading to the latest Word Press version and then making a major overhaul to the sites theme and functionality.

And this is just the start. The game plan is to have this site pulling in hundreds of visitors in the next 30-45 days. Pretty good considering this site has only been up a little over 3 months and we are often pulling in double digits readership. Well we are going to be adding more relevant content more often including Audio and Video. We will be posting to a ton of other sites as well in our goal to get a larger share of the readership in this growing Greater Tampa Florida Real Estate Blog arena. As Theresa and Marie start adding some great stories and accounts of fantastic developments and flourishing communities in the Tampa Area, I will endeavor to cover the not so politically correct areas of the market, as well as insights into the technical aspects as only a technology guy working in this industry can do. So stay tuned and check back often for major updates and site improvements the entire month of November.

Oct

26

Cobbs Landing Neighborhood OPEN HOUSE Palm Harbor,FL October 27, 2007

Filed Under Buyers Tips, First Time Home Buyers, Helpful Information, Listings, Seller Tips | Leave a Comment

*Neighborhood OPEN HOUSE* Palm Harbor,FL Also featuring a Neighbor hood garage sale

Saturday October 27, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM

This is a great home located near Lake Tarpon. This would be great if you have a boat or are thinking of buying a boat as the docks are within walking distance.Very nice surroundings make you feel as if you are living in a Park, be sure to check out the gazebo and jogging/walking path while you visit.Take the time this Saturday to stroll through this wonderful community. You will be pleased that you did.For Directions click on the link to the Flyer and Page down.

http://greatertampabayrealestate.com/blog/listings/

Asking Price: $424,000

Click to view Larger Images

Oct

25

September Home Sales Suck- in Florida’s Tampa Bay Area

Filed Under Buyers Tips, Finance, First Time Home Buyers, Helpful Information, Mortgage, Seller Tips | 1 Comment

102407 OK, so this was maybe not the best title for a post?but then again ? The Florida market continues to defy logic on all fronts. Yes, the market is bad most everywhere in the nation, however Florida is mentioned in just about every major and minor news outlets around the country as having a very bad Real Estate Market all over. The news is particularly gloomy here in the Greater Tampa Bay Area. Condos are near bottom and home prices continue to drop.

Today the National Association of Realtors(NAR) reported the sales rate for previously owned single-family homes dropped to its lowest level in 10 years, and the price of resale single-family homes, condos and co-ops dropped 4.2 percent in September.

To add to this, the Florida association of Realtors (FAR) reported that Statewide, sales of existing single-family homes plunged to 8,688, or 38 percent compared with the same month last year.

Now if that was not enough bad news already, the National Association of Home Builders projects that the state of Florida and metro areas within the state (meaning in large part, Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay) will experience the steepest declines in housing starts this year compared to last year.

So here’s the numbers as reported by Tampa Bay Business Journal and NAHB:

September Sales:

8.6% (The National figure for New Homes Sales drop=lowest level in 8 years)
10.5 Months (National Inventory supply of unsold homes = the highest since 1998)
9% ( The Statewide median sales price drop = $221,200)
40% (Florida Tampa Bay sales of single family homes drop = 1691 total sales for September)
10% (Florida Tampa Bay median sales price drop = $200,700)
29% (Florida Tampa Bay Condo sales drop)