New tax proposal...Fair or not??

GOP leaders Wednesday unveiled a two-part plan that includes a proposed state constitutional amendment that would abolish taxes on homestead property – primary homes – while increasing the state’s sales tax from 6 percent to 8.5 percent. The increase would go to local governments to partly offset property tax losses.

This puts a larger burden on renter's but only by 23 cents more per $100 spent. If you spend $21,000 per year on goods and services the increased tax amount is $47.00

Monthly Sales Report

According to the Multiple Listing Service for the period from 1/22/07 thru 2/22/07, home sales were down from the previous month from 2799 to 2173.

Pending sales increased by 829 homes for a total of 5017 anticipated closings over the next 60 days.

Inventory was up a little over 1%.

There are currently 41,123 homes listed for sale with Realtor's in the tri-county area.

mortgage fraud scams

Attorney General Bill McCollum issued a consumer advisory, warning Floridians of common mortgage fraud scams. Mortgage scams ranked among the top 10 categories of complaints received by the Attorney General’s office last year.

Home equity scams come in several variations. Equity stripping occurs when a lender encourages a consumer to manipulate their loan application in order to qualify for a greater loan amount. Loan flipping involves lenders who repeatedly encourage consumers to refinance their loans, which may require them to borrow more money and, as a result, accumulate higher fees. Other scams include baiting and switching, where the lender offers one set of terms prior to the loan application and then pressures consumers to agree to a different set of terms after signing the application. Deceptive loan servicing, another common complaint, happens when lenders do not provide their clients with accurate or complete account statements and payoff figures.

Existing-home sales to improve, later recovery for new homes

Consumers are responding to more favorable housing market conditions, but new home construction will be dampened until inventories decline further, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, looks for a steady rise in existing-home sales. “After reaching what appears to be the bottom in the fourth quarter of 2006, we expect existing-home sales to gradually rise all this year and well into 2008,” he says. “New-home sales should continue to slide, but we look for that sector to turn around later in the year. When you put it all together, home sales may appear weak in comparison with the record surge in 2005, but they will be sustained at historically high levels that are in line with long-term demand.”

PROPERTY TAXES

Homeowners' first crisis - unaffordable and unavailable homeowners insurance - has been addressed by the Legislature, but there is more heavy lifting to be done. Lawmakers will gather in Tallahassee on March 6 and property taxes are now their top priority. But any change to the state's tax structure requires a constitutional amendment.

Pending sales up

Pending home sales are higher, affirming the stabilization that is occurring in home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).
The Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in December, rose 4.9 percent to an index of 112.4 from an upwardly revised level of 107.2 in November, but is 4.4 percent lower than December 2005.
The monthly gain was the biggest increase since March 2004 when the index rose 6.9 percent. A steady narrowing from year-ago readings has been observed since last July when the level of unsold housing inventory peaked at an all-time high.

Market News

Florida’s housing markets slowed in 2006 in nearly every geographic region, according to a new report from the Attorneys’ Title Insurance Fund. The report also shows that Florida’s economy has downshifted from a period of spectacular growth to a period of strong growth and that will continue through 2007 and into the first half of 2008, before giving way to more robust growth

Property Tax Reform

Turning to property tax reform, Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed a constitutional amendment that would cut property taxes by as much as $4.7 billion a year and urged legislators to put it on the ballot in a special election.