Monthly Sales for Tri-County area

Sales were up over the last 30 days by 533 homes compared to last month. A total of 1,948 homes were sold as reported in the Multiple Listing Service.

The majority were priced under $300,000.

Inventory is up as well, but not by much, and the number of homes in pending status expected to close was up by over 400 homes compared with last months numbers.

Why buy in Florida

Miami – March 25, 2008 – The Sunshine State took four of the top-10 metro slots on the Forbes.com 2008 list of “America’s Cleanest Cities.” According to the magazine, clean water and air result from assertive steps by Florida’s cities as well as “the built-in advantage of weather patterns that blow out smog.”

Miami took the top spot, followed by Jacksonville (No. 3), Orlando (No. 4) and Tampa/St. Petersburg (No. 8).

On another bright note for Florida, air and water cleanliness apparently energizes these metro economies, according to the survey.

© 2008 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

More Tax Reform

2008 FLORIDA LEGISLATURE

The tax cut that voters will be asked to approve in November will do more than save property owners money. It will force lawmakers to do what they have refused to do for nearly 70 years: modernize sales-tax rules.

Read the full story:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n1-032008.cfm
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National Home Prices

National home prices fell 8.9% in 2007, according to figures released recently by the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Of the top 20 markets tracked by the Index, 17 of the metro areas reported annual price declines and the remaining three reporting flat or moderate.

Tampa home prices slipped 13.3%.

New FHA Loan Limits

The new loan limits for FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now calculated at 125 percent of the HUD published median prices, with a floor of $271,050 and $417,000, respectively, not to exceed $729,750.

Expect the impact of these loan limit increases on the housing market to be significant because of the infusion of capital into the mortgage market, which should result in lower interest rates across the board. In addition, there will be a direct impact on high-cost areas that previously required borrowers to take out costlier jumbo mortgages.

Hillsborough county FHA loan limits are now set at $292,500 up from the previous $223,000 limit.

Monthly Sales

Sales to 5 million dropped over the past 30 days from the previous month. A total of 1,415 homes sold by realtor's reported in the multiple listing service for the tri-county area.

Pending sales are up by over 1000 units and inventory is up as well. There are over 40,000 homes available for sale in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties.

Prices continue to drop, and I recently closed a sale in Westchase at a price that hasn't been seen since 2004.