SI Real Estate Tampa and The Beaches

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Ever wondered what it would be like to own a brand new home? Many builders in Tampa such as Lennar, Standard Pacific, DR Horton, and Pulte (to name a few) are turning these thoughts into reality in 2012, and are doing so at a great price for many buyers. New construction is looking like real estate will be “hot off the foundation”. Yes, there remain some consumers out there who have mixed thoughts about buying a new home as opposed to buying a resale home. Many home buyers may have the impression that buying new is far more expensive than it actually is. Builders are loaded with incentives, upgrades, warranties and more. A resale can sometimes become a bit more of a hassle while also taking loads of time. Confusion and complications may also accompany a resale purchase. An important factor that affects resales is the appraisal process. Real estate values are often diminished by neighboring homes going through the short sale process or being sold by a bank. Value can be influence...

As we continue to realize and search for positive signs of a real estate revival, some analysts are pointing to short sales boosting the Florida housing situation. Florida’s bank owned sales and short sales in 2011, hit the national average at 22 percent of all real estate transactions. What’s interesting about this is that the number of short sales has exceeded the number of foreclosures in Florida. State wide, Florida’s bank owned sales were down 32 percent, while short sales inched up 3 percent. This has a tremendous impact on homeowners who are, at times, being presented with great deals to sell their homes instead of going through the long short sale, foreclosure process. Not only is this beneficial to the homeowner, but it is also a favorable option to the banks because they essentially reduce losses. This is helping reduce inventory and increase demand, something the Tampa Bay area has been waiting to see for some years now. Aside from short sales and foreclosures, the grea...

The National Association of Realtors reports that existing home sales have hit a 21 month high in January 2012. A total of 8% more contracts were signed by agents during that 21 month period. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says job growth and rental rates are somewhat of a cause for this recent spike. He also suggests that once credit availability becomes more regular, home sales will see a significant increase, and home prices will as well. This will in turn reduce the amount of people who are currently upside down on their mortgages. Rising rental rates may be boosting home sales as well. With the cost or renting being so close to the cost of a monthly mortgage, many prospective tenants are being asked, or asking themselves, if they have ever considered buying to save money. Here in Florida, partly due to the attraction of warm weather and comfortable retirement options, rental prices have remained high. If rental options hold their value and mortgage rates remain at an all ti...

Every once in a while we like to examine data compiled from Trulia about the local Tampa Bay real estate market. Real Estate Facts: Tampa has seen a 6.1% increase in median home sale prices from November 2011 to January 2012 compared to this time last year. Also increasing is the price per square foot in Tampa which is up 19.3% from this time last year. High demand and popular communities that are seeing more activity than others are Tampa Palms, Bayshore Beautiful, Old Seminole Heights, Hunters Green, and Ballast Point. Increases are nice to see in areas such as the ones listed above, but declining numbers also show signs of a rebound in some aspects. Research done by CoreLogic shows that foreclosures decreased by 8.4% in 2011. More stringent credit conditions helped these numbers drop as much as they have. Additionally, there is more caution being shown by lenders who have been scrutinized in recent years for the way loans and foreclosures were handled in the previous years. ...

Tampa Real Estate Pulse: Our market is again on the move in 2012 and we are reminded that our local market is above national averages. What’s your pulse? We would like to know how the real estate market in your area is doing. Tampa has seen significant increases in the last couple of months in both home sale prices and mortagage applications. With the continous flow of foreign investors coming with cash,Tampa's housing market is sure to pick up in 2012.

If you were one of the 111.3 million people who watched the Super Bowl, I’m sure you have an opinion on which commercial you enjoyed most. Whether you liked the punches being exchanged by auto makers, or dancing M & M’s, you may have noticed one that was out of the ordinary. The Century 21 thirty second spot was the first real estate commercial to be aired on Super Bowl Sunday in 21 years! The commercial featured Donald Trump, Deion Sanders, and Apolo Ohno. You may ask yourself, “is this really going to make people pick up the phone and call a realtor”? No, that was not the intent says Bev Throne, Chief of Marketing for Century 21. Their goal was to plant a real estate seed in Super Bowl viewer’s minds, and use this as a springboard as the busy spring home selling season approaches. The National Association of Realtors estimates that 4.5 million real estate transactions will take place in 2012, which in turn, equals 9 million agent commissions. The idea was to provoke a buying a...