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The South Florida Real Estate Market is HOT!!! With the influx of cash buyers from abroad the South Florida Housing is seeing a recovery that few could have predicted.New Condo Towers are joining the South Florida Skyline and with new projects to come like the Health District and the Riverside reface along with the Miami Design District and Biscayne will make of Miami the magnet for investors the city needed to sell the inventory left behind due to the 2008 crisis. 

Good Times are coming to Miami, by 2020 the whole Miami Skyline will look way different as we see today. Are you ready to capitalize on that? Please, visit our page http://MiamiHomesListings.com and learn what's available to you today

RealtyTrac: Fla. still No. 1 in foreclosure rates

                                    

FREE List of Foreclosures in South Florida

 

IRVINE, Calif. – April 10, 2014 – According to RealtyTrac’s foreclosure report for March, Fla. has retained its No. 1 status for homes in some stage of foreclosure, with one in every 407 Florida homes with a mortgage affected.

And in a look at metro areas (populations of 200,000 or more), Florida cities hold eight of the top 10 spots.

March 2014

RealtyTrac’s report finds that 5,815 Florida homeowners received their first foreclosure notice in March; 9,983 were notified of a foreclosure sale; and 6,258 homes transferred to bank ownership (REOs). However, the total number of impacted homeowners in all stages fell 8.79 percent month-to-month when compared to Feb. 2014 and 21.92 percent year-to-year.

First quarter 2014

Looking at January through March, Florida foreclosure activity in first quarter 2014 decreased less than 1 percent quarter-to-quarter, but it declined 19 percent year-to-year. Still, Florida retained its top spot even though its foreclosure activity has decreased annually for three consecutive quarters.

First quarter 2014 metro areas

Port St. Lucie, Fla. – where one out of every 99 housing units had a foreclosure filing in the first quarter – led the nation’s cities, though seven other Florida cities also made the top 10.
 
Miami came in at No. 2 (one in every 106 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville at No. 3 (one in every 112); Orlando at No. 4 (one in every 120); Tampa at No. 5 (one in every 122); Lakeland at No. 6 (one in every 127); Ocala at No. 7 (one in every 130); and Jacksonville at No. 8 (one in every 134).

Nationwide, 29 states posted annual increases in scheduled foreclosure auctions. While Florida’s scheduled auctions rose 21 percent, it ranked tenth for auction sales behind Utah (up 226 percent), Oregon (up 177 percent), Connecticut (up 131 percent), New Jersey (up 79 percent), Delaware (up 49 percent), New York (up 47 percent), Maryland (up 46 percent), Massachusetts (up 37 percent) and Nevada (up 21 percent).

Other findings

• Foreclosed homeowners still live in 51 percent of REOs nationwide out of homes with occupancy data. However, no Florida cities ranked in the top five for owner-occupied REOs.
• It takes 935 days to foreclose on a Florida home as of the first quarter, but it takes longer in two other states: New Jersey (1,103 days to foreclose) and New York (986 days). Hawaii (840 days) and Illinois (830 days) round out the top five.

RealtyTrac posts an interactive Florida map that compares foreclosure rates color-coded by county. Scroll across a county to see its foreclosure statistics. 
© 2014 Florida Realtors®

U.S. home prices rose in Feb. despite weaker sales

                                                         

WASHINGTON (AP) – April 1, 2014 – U.S. home prices rose in February from a year earlier at a solid pace, suggesting that a tight supply of available homes is boosting prices despite slowing sales.

Real estate data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday that prices for existing homes rose 12.2 percent in February from a year ago. That was up slightly from January’s year-over-year pace of 12 percent.

On a month-to-month basis, prices in February rose 0.8 percent from January. But CoreLogic’s month-to-month prices aren’t adjusted for seasonal patterns, such as winter weather, which can depress sales.

Snowstorms, rising prices and higher mortgage rates combined to reduce home sales in February to their lowest level in 19 months.

A tight supply is helping boost prices even as sales slow. Sales fell 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.6 million in February from January, the National Association of Realtors said earlier this month. That sales pace would exhaust the number of available homes in 5.2 months, the Realtors’ said – below the six-month supply typically available in healthy markets.

The states with the biggest price gains in the past year were: California, where prices rose 19.8 percent, followed by Nevada, 18.5 percent, and Georgia, 14.2 percent. No states posted a drop in home prices.

Prices in four states reached a record high in February: Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota and Texas. An additional 22 states are within 10 percent of their previous peaks, CoreLogic says.

Nationwide, average home prices remain 16.9 percent below the peak reached in April 2006, at the height of the housing bubble.

Home sales and construction faltered over the winter, partly because harsh weather discouraged some Americans from venturing out to house-hunt. In addition, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage is about a percentage point more than it was last spring. That means buying costs are up.

Most economists think the housing recovery could pick up once the spring buying season begins, though likely at a slower pace than last year.

But some recent reports haven’t been encouraging. A measure of signed contracts fell for the eighth straight month in February. That suggests sales will remain slow in coming months. Signed contracts usually lead to a finished sale in one to two months.

And home construction fell for a third straight month in February. But there was one hopeful sign: Developers applied for the most building permits in four months.
 Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press, Christopher S. Rugaber, AP economics writer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 

More banks lower FICO score requirements

NEW YORK – March 31, 2014 – More banks are lowering minimum FICO score requirements in an attempt to shore up lending for underserved borrowers.

Carrington Mortgage Services is the latest company to announce that it lowered its minimum FICO score to 550. It also expanded guidelines on several FHA VA, and USDA loan programs to aid those with FICO scores below 640.

Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said in February that it was lowering its minimum FICO score requirements on FHA-backed mortgages from 640 to 600. The move, bank officials said, was aimed at “opening up our credit box more.”

One in three consumers has a FICO score below 650, according to Carrington, which says it’s refocusing its business on the underserved segment and eliminating conventional and jumbo loans. In addition to accepting more lower-score borrowers, it’s also limiting its acceptance of wholesale submissions with FICO scores above 680 starting April 1, except for VA loans, HousingWire reports.

“Effectively meeting the needs of clients in the underserved market requires the ability to both originate quality loans and appropriately service them after the fact,” says Ray Brousseau, executive vice president of Carrington’s mortgage lending division. “Both Carrington’s lending platform and specialty servicing business were created to serve this particular market segment. That uniquely positions us as the lender of choice for this population of borrowers and the mortgage brokers and real estate agents who work with them.”

Source: “Carrington Ups Ante on Wells Fargo by Lowering FICO Standard,” HousingWire (March 24, 2014)

© Copyright 2014 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

Realtors in Fla. expect prices to rise more than 5%

WASHINGTON – March 24, 2014 – According to the just-released National Association of Realtors®’ (NAR) Realtors Confidence Index, members expect home prices to continue to rise over the next 12 months, but they expect them to do so at a moderate pace given tight credit conditions and lower home affordability.

The Realtors Confidence Index is a monthly survey distributed to more than 50,000 real estate practitioners. It gauges their expectations about home sales, prices and market conditions. Overall, Realtors expect a median price increase of 3.9 percent over the next 12 months.

Florida is one of four states where practitioners predict the biggest increases – 5 to 7 percent – along with California, Alaska and Hawaii. Tight inventories have helped to lift home values in these areas, according to the survey.

“In states with booming economies like Washington, North Dakota, Texas, Michigan, and the D.C.-metro area, the expected price increase is about 3 to 5 percent,” according to the report.

Real estate professionals also expressed several concerns over the housing market holding back some buyers, particularly due to “unreasonably” tight credit conditions.

“Access to credit was often cited as a deterrent to home buying,” the report says. “About 13 percent of Realtors who did not close a sale in February reported having clients who could not obtain financing.” In those cases, about 6 percent of the professionals said their buyer gave up, while 7 percent said their buyer continued to seek new or other financing.

Other transaction hang-ups were lack of agreement on a price (11 percent); buyer losing a home to competition (10 percent); and appraisal issues (3 percent).

The complete survey is available online.

Source: Realtor Magazine Daily News

© 2014 Florida Realtors®

Fla. halts sale of conservation land

                                                       

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 3, 2014 – Falling short of a $50 million goal set by lawmakers, state environmental officials have changed focus and won’t sell pieces of conservation land to help raise money for the Florida Forever program.

The state Department of Environmental Protection now plans to raise money for future Florida Forever purchases by selling sites such as the closed A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana and potentially other non-conservation land.

The sale of the hospital site is set to go before Gov. Rick Scott and the state Cabinet on Thursday.

The state agency announced the shift in policy late Friday after six months whittling a list of parcels – from among the state’s inventory of more than 3 million acres of publicly owned conservation land – to determine which could be sold without impacting overall environmentally sensitive sites. The issue became controversial in places such as Polk County, where the state raised the possibility of selling part of an area known as Green Swamp.

“I’m thankful for the efforts of our staff, who conducted many public meetings and sought public comment to make this a transparent process,” said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard in a release. “We will continue to assess our land, determine what should be sold and we are excited about the possibility of selling non-conservation land to fund conservation land purchases to protect our springs, water resources and buffer military bases.”

Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation, praised the decision that he noted “ended up where it should have been all along.”

“One positive thing that has come out of this is that Floridians care deeply about our conservation lands, and this process has demonstrated clearly is that Florida’s public-conservation lands should remain in public hands for conservation and sustainable nature-based recreation,” Fuller responded in an email.

Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Patrick Gillespie said the new focus will be on selling unused prison, hospital and state buildings.

The first example of the new emphasis is A.G. Holley, a tuberculosis hospital closed by lawmakers in 2012 after six decades in operation.

Southeast Legacy Investments, a land development and construction company, has offered $15.6 million for 80 acres at the hospital site, according to the Cabinet meeting agenda. The sale has been recommended for approval by state staff.

The surplus land-sale program was established by lawmakers in 2013 to add to $20 million they set aside in the budget for future conservation land purchases through the Florida Forever fund. The hope was to raise an additional $50 million for the purchase of land to protect springs, improve water quality and water quantity, or to serve as buffers for military bases.

The initial list of 169 sites, combined for roughly 5,300 acres from state parks and watersheds, drew fire from conservationists for including ecologically important wetlands, submerged lands and space for wildlife habitat.

Shaved down in October to 77 parcels that totaled 3,405 acres, there was still displeasure with the proposed sites.

While most remaining parcels on the list were under 10 acres, the list continued to include the 2,638.3 acres within the Hilochee Wildlife Management Area, known as the Green Swamp Area.

The Polk County Commission asked for Green Swamp to be removed, as the area contains the headwaters of four Florida rivers, including the Hillsborough and Withlacoochee.

As it became apparent the sale of environmental sites would fail to meet the $50 million mark, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, slammed the program in January as a “disaster.”

“This is just a charade that we’re going to sell land and we’re going to use it to buy land and replace a program that was a very popular program (Florida Forever and its predecessor) put in place by Gov. (Bob) Martinez in 1990 and kept going by Gov. (Jeb) Bush,” Latvala said during an appearance by DEP officials before the Senate General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.

In Friday’s release, the DEP noted that the program has “significantly increased” staff’s understanding of the land owned by the state and management issues; “an important factor given that government owns about one-third of all land in Florida.”

Source: News Service of Florida, Jim Turner

Fla.’s housing market continues positive trends in Jan. 2014

                                          

Fla.’s housing market continues positive trends in Jan. 2014

NAR: Existing-home sales drop in Jan. but prices continue to rise

ORLANDO, Fla. – Feb. 21, 2014 – Florida’s housing market reported more closed sales, higher median prices, more new listings, fewer days on the market and the continued stabilization of inventory in January, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Closed sales of single-family homes statewide totaled 15,000 last month, up 10.2 percent over the January 2013 figure.

“Price increases are continuing to improve home equity in areas across the state, and combined with still-low interest rates, it’s creating a great opportunity for sellers,” says 2014 Florida Realtors President Sherri Meadows, CEO and team leader, Keller Williams, with market centers in Gainesville, Ocala and the Villages. “We’re seeing homeowners ready to take that next step and list their properties for sale: Statewide, new listings for single-family homes in January rose 13.8 percent year-over-year, while new townhouse-condo listings rose 7.4 percent.

“And here at the start of a new year, January marked 26 consecutive months that we’ve seen increases in statewide median sales prices for both single family homes and town home-condo properties, year-over-year.”

The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes last month was $162,500, up 12.1 percent from the previous year, according to data from Florida Realtors Industry Data and Analysis department in partnership with local Realtor boards/associations. The statewide median price for townhouse-condo properties in January was $131,000, up 17 percent over the year-ago figure. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.

According to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), the national median sales price for existing single-family homes in December 2013 was $197,900, up 9.8 percent from the previous year; the national median existing condo price was $198,600. In California, the statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in December was $438,040; in Massachusetts, it was $320,000; in Maryland, it was $255,183; and in New York, it was $236,875.

Looking at Florida’s townhome-condo market, statewide closed sales totaled 7,377 last month, up 9.3 percent compared to January 2013. The closed sales data reflected fewer short sales in January: Traditional sales in Florida rose 20.4 percent for single-family homes and 16.9 percent for condo-townhome properties. Closed sales typically occur 30 to 90 days after sales contracts are written.

“The figures released this month are characteristic of a market that has reached balance,” said Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. John Tuccillo. “While sales and prices continue to rise, the most striking characteristic of the market is the stability of inventory as measured in months. It appears that the rate at which properties are coming on the market is closely matched by sales. In addition, rising prices have cut down on the availability of short sales and these have been dropping consistently.”

Inventory was at a 5.6-months’ supply in January for single-family homes and at a 6-months’ supply for townhouse-condo properties, according to Florida Realtors.

According to Freddie Mac, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.43 percent in January 2014, up from the 3.41 percent average recorded during the same month a year earlier.

To see the full statewide housing activity reports, go to Florida Realtors Media Center under Latest Releases, or download the January 2014 data report PDFs under Market Data.

Breakout: NAR: Existing-home sales drop in Jan. but prices continue to rise

© 2014 Florida Realtors

Realtor.com: Jan. 2014 data points to homebuying season early start

Realtor.com: Jan. 2014 data points to homebuying season early start

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Feb. 20, 2014 – Despite severe weather conditions across much of the country, the 2014 homebuying season has begun on one positive note, showing an uptick in inventory a month earlier than last year, according to Realtor.com’s National Housing Trend Report for January 2014.

Data from Realtor.com reveals the median list price for January 2014 is 8.3 percent above levels observed in January 2013. The number of properties for sale is up 3.1 percent and the median age of inventory is essentially unchanged, indicating a transition to a less frenzied market compared to January 2013.

“January’s start compared to year-ago levels is an encouraging sign of sellers’ interest, particularly given the adverse conditions brought on by the polar vortex,” said Errol Samuelson, president of Realtor.com. “We saw the tight-supply market of last fall carry all the way into November – later than is typically expected – and this early rise in inventory is a welcome trend. The sustained median list price growth supports the gains we saw last year, and sellers are responding with confidence in that consistency. We will continue to watch inventory movement in the coming months as we move further into typical seasonal patterns, but anticipate a more balanced buying market.”

The national median existing home price is projected to rise about 5 to 6 percent in 2014, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), which cites job growth and large pent-up demand as drivers of the market in light of rising mortgage rates.

National perspective
Inventory increasing: At the national level, for-sale inventories are now 3.1 percent higher than they were one year ago, and the rise in inventory is spreading to more markets across the country. In January 2013, just eight markets registered increases in inventory. This January, 83 markets (58 percent) of the 143 markets tracked by Realtor.com showed increases in inventory, year over year. While the next few months will be critical to watch, these trends suggest a more balanced housing market going into the 2014 homebuying season.

Price increases more widespread: Median list price rose a healthy 8.3 percent in January 2014 compared to the same time last year. In January 2014, 44 markets saw year-over-year list price increases of 10 percent or more, compared to January 2013, when 24 markets registered double-digit increases in median list price. The number of declining markets in terms of median list price dropped, from 58 in January 2013 to just 13 in January 2014.

Days on market stabilizing: Median age of inventory remained steady in January 2014 compared to the same time last year, at 115 days. However, the number of markets showing year-over-year declines in age of inventory has dropped significantly, from 133 markets in January 2013 to 78 markets in January 2014. 56 markets showed year-on-year increases in days on market in January 2014, compared to just nine markets in January 2013.

Source: Realtor.com

© 2014 Florida Realtors

Doral Cay Miami-Leo Gonzalez/Skyline Realty International