we can safely say some markets have peaked.
god works, and not in so mysterious ways ;0)
received following in e-mail to cheer up the breakfast time:
Getting nasty down in Florida.....
Mac
thehousingbubbleblog.com
The Tampa Tribune reports from Florida. "Scores of gamblers gathered at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Saturday, but the name of the game was real estate, not roulette. Alan Westfall was betting he could break even on a six-bedroom home he invested in right before the local market went south last year. He hadn't counted on a swarm of bidders betting on a fire sale."
"Of the first 10 properties on the auction block, Westfall said his two properties drew the highest bids - $215,000 for a 3,000-square-foot home in the golf course community of Heritage Isles; another $215,000 for 56 acres in Riverview."
"'That doesn't make us feel any better,' he said. Not when the mortgage on the Heritage Isles place is $150,000 more than that. Not when he was looking for $2.5 million on the parcel in Riverview. Westfall, like many other hopeful sellers at the mass auction, didn't accept the offers.'
The St Petersburg Times. "Within a few hours, the 'All In Mega Auction' was over, and 26 of the 46 properties had winning offers. Judging by some of the offers, it appeared that the festive casino setting and large turnout didn't do much to offset the current buyer's market."
"The winning bid on a three-bedroom Sarasota home? $50,000. An 1,800-square-foot Bradenton home with a pool? $100,000. A two-bedroom house in West Palm Beach's historic Flamingo Park? $115,000."
"Angelina Lochridge, who hoped to sell her parents' home in Valrico and watched the live bidding online, was disappointed with the top offer of $235,000. The home was originally listed at $324,000. 'I think we'll look into doing a lease option or renting,' she said. 'We're not going to sell at a loss.'"
The Sun Sentinel. "The sluggish housing market plays no favorites. Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino has reduced the price on his Weston home to $14.5 million from $15.9 million, his listing agent, Tim Elmes, confirmed. 'He's had no activity, and he wants to be more aggressive,' said Elmes."
"Marino's palace has been on the market for almost two years. A custom home Marino and his family had built in Parkland also is on the market. Marino's business manager, Ralph Stringer, said his client is selling the Parkland digs because the Weston home is taking so long to sell."
"'Maybe if you could find a buyer for the Weston home, he could take the Parkland home off the market,' Stringer said last week with a chuckle."
"The real estate auction frenzy continues, with one investor trying to unload a pair of penthouse condominiums in the Oasis development on Singer Island. Michael LaVallie bought the two condos in 2004, then watched the market cool considerably."
"'Buyers are sitting on their hands, and sellers are saying they're not going to change the price,' JP King Auction Co. spokesman Carl Carter said. 'What an auction does is establish a market price.'
"Carter said he expects this auction to define the price ceiling for Singer Island condos."
The Orlando Sentinel. "Last year, even as storm clouds gathered over the local and national housing markets, developers marched into Orlando City Hall with plans to add more than 1,600 condominium units to a downtown already brimming with thousands of condos, real or imagined."
"As a result, the city center has now attracted more than 40 high-rise and midrise condo projects going back eight years. Yet nearly two-thirds of the towers still exist on paper only."
"The developer of Eola Place, a 510-unit condominium in the southeast area of downtown, said last month that it was putting the two-tower project on hold after having spent thousands of dollars trying to generate sales for a 196-unit first phase."
"John Bahng, JLJ's president, said the project's sales center on East Central Boulevard has been shut down. Of the sagging market, he said simply: 'It is what it is.'"
The News Press. "Despite the drop in Cape Coral home sales, developers and builders continue to build multifamily condominium buildings in the city."
"'It is a cycle and the market will come back; it might take two or three years,' said Robbie Lee, a Cape Coral developer. 'I have projects that will take two to three years to get permitting approval. The market will be there.'"
"For now, however, real estate sales associates aren't optimistic about the market. 'No one is buying,' said Realtor Ken Worthington."
"As of Thursday, the MLS, which developers don't usually use but real estate sales people do, listed 1,092 condos for sale in Cape Coral. In the last six months, 97 sold."
"'It is just difficult to sell anything,' said broker associate Scott Marinelli. 'This is a buyer's market.'"
The Palm Beach Post. "The inventory of existing homes, which was up 71 percent Palm Beach County alone in December, may grow as 're-listers' - people who couldn't sell in 2006 - are likely to try again in the spring. And analysts expect a further uptick in the region's new-foreclosure filings as high-risk borrowers continue to default on loans and lenders tighten credit standards."
"Many of those borrowers were investors who artificially pumped up demand, and prices. 'Builders ramped up production to meet surging demand during the housing boom,' said Michael Larson, a real estate analyst in Jupiter. 'But it turns out a big chunk of that demand surge wasn't 'real' demand.'"
"Further proof the local housing boom has gone bust: Palm Beach County buyers closed on only 976 new homes in the fourth quarter of 2006, down drastically from its boom-time peak of 3,123 closings in the third quarter of 2003, MetroStudy said."
"Credit Suisse estimates that investors accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. home sales in 2005. That percentage was even higher in South Florida, analysts believe, and the steep and speedy decline in new-home sales in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast seems to support that position."
"With no 'end user' in sight, these investors wound up with units they couldn't sell, and sometimes with units they couldn't afford to carry."
"'Investors were a builder's dream during the boom,' said Jim Sahnger, vice president of Palm Beach Financial Network. 'Unfortunately, everyone has to wake up sometime. Home prices, although declining, are still too high ¡K particularly when taxes and insurance are considered.'"
"The surge of foreclosures sweeping the nation is testament to that sad fact. New foreclosures in St. Lucie County surged an eye-popping 337 percent in January."
"'Hundreds of units that were snapped up by investors are now sitting empty, looking for buyers,' said analyst Larson. 'Builders are reacting by slashing production and piling on the incentives to clear the unsold inventory off their books.'"
"On the Treasure Coast, it will take a good deal of great deals to make a dent in housing inventory. In St. Lucie County, the blistering pace of new-home construction has resulted in an astounding 19.1-month supply of new homes, according to MetroStudy. That's just slightly off from the record, a 21.4-month supply, set in the previous quarter."
"Despite strong support for the county's limited-growth regulations, the number of finished vacant homes in Martin County grew during the fourth quarter because of a surge in speculative buying in 2006, said MetroStudy's Bradley Hunter. The 391 finished vacant homes represent a 12.1-month supply, he said."
"'The number of finished vacant units is at the highest level reported in recent years, despite rentals of a large number of investor-purchased homes,' Hunter said."
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