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.

Buyer's Market

With a plentiful inventory of homes for sale in most of the nation, buyers will head into the spring selling season – typically the busiest time of the year – with lots of choices and bargaining power. In some markets, real estate associates say buyer traffic has picked up in the last month or two.

Housing Sales

Florida’s housing market mirrored the national trend in 2006, with sales of existing single-family homes slowing to a more sustainable pace following a five-year run of record closings. By year’s end, a total of 180,037 homes changed hands statewide for a 28 percent decrease compared to the 248,575 homes sold in 2005, according to the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR). At the same time, 2006 sales figures made it into the record books for several markets around the state; 2006 also is expected to be the third highest sales year on record nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

FSBOS

FEWER GOING IT ALONE. NAR reports a drop in the number of for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) transactions to 12 percent of all sales today from 18 percent in 1997. NAR spokesman Walter Molony says property owners believe agents are better equipped to achieve fast sales at top dollar in a slow market, adding that the median price for agent-assisted transactions was about 16 percent higher than FSBO sales last year. Molony notes that agents orchestrate showings, handle paperwork and identify serious buyers for sellers – who often lack the time or experience necessary to complete such tasks. NAR's 2006 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that 5 percent of sales from mid-2005 to mid-2006 involved FSBO sellers turning to an agent, with only 1 percent of sales involving sellers who abandoned their agents to go it alone. Source: Investor's Business Daily (01/19/07) P. A8; Kelly, Brad© Copyright 2007 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD

Sales up for December/January

The number of homes closed from 12-15-06 thru 1-21-07 doubled from the prior month and were up to 2,799 for homes priced under 1 million dollars. Pending sales also increased. There are 4,148 homes scheduled to close in the next 60 days.

Insurance resolution in the works

A series of homeowners’ insurance bills promising meaningful rate rollbacks are expected to hit the floors of both legislative chambers today as lawmakers dive into Day 2 of a weeklong special session. The Senate is advocating a state-backed “super reinsurance pool” that would cap insurers’ exposure in megastorms. The House’s skepticism about Citizens was pervasive. On Tuesday afternoon, a House council approved a bill from Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, that would wipe out the public-private company’s board of directors, to be replaced with appointees by the new House speaker, Senate president and governor.

Florida's Growth

Florida continues to have the fastest job growth rate and lowest unemployment rate of the ten most populous states, with 27,200 jobs created in Tampa from October 2005 to October 2006. This represents a job growth rate of 2.1%, compared to a national job growth rate of 1.5% for the same period, according to the report.

On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors reported that its index of signed purchase agreements fell 0.5% – a third consecutive decline – to 107 from 107.5 in October. The index was down 11.4% from November 2005. The silver lining is that the decline from the previous year has been narrowing since July, suggesting sales could be stabilizing.

Insurance reductions???

This article came through Planet Realtor. Hopefully this will be the start of Insurance and Tax reform to keep our state growing. The first test for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist comes in less than two weeks, when the Legislature meets for a four-day special session on windstorm insurance. Crist says he won't be satisfied until a solution that lowers rates is found -- a statement that has raised Floridians' expectations by predicting greater results than those suggested by House and Senate leaders.Read the full story:http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n1-010407.cfm

Inventory and Sales

There are over 18,000 homes for sale in the tri-county. The monthly sales/closings are between 1200 and 1400 for homes priced under $1,000,000.00. Homes between 200K and 300K are selling better than any other price range.

New tax deduction for 2007

Homeowners who pay less than 20 percent down must many times pay for PMI, but a law recently passed by Congress makes that cost fully deductible on income taxes starting in 2007. It applies to new loans for households making less than $100,000 per year.

Mortgage rates around the country fell this week, with rates on 30-year mortgages dipping to 6.11 percent, the second lowest level of the year. Today's buyer of a $221,300 home would save $13,763 over the life of the loan compared to rates one year ago.

Neither the threat of hurricanes, soaring insurance rates or high property values will dampen Florida's growth, according to two studies released yesterday. Participants such as UF, the St. Joe Co. and 1000 Friends of Florida predict that the state will double its population and develop seven million acres of land.