Are foreclosures safe to buy now?

I mentioned in the last few newsletters that all indications pointed to this as a good possibility and especially with the recent settlement between the government and some of the larger banks. I can’t say for sure how this will proceed but I did notice more this week as I was going through listings.

I still think that this will not have an overall bad effect on the local market other than dragging out the recovery some and pushing off the potential property value increases for another 12 months or so. But let’s keep an eye on how this affects the Clearwater homes market in the next 3-6 months to see for sure.

If you haven’t had a chance to check them out yet, I’ve put together a video on YouTube about the 3 areas of Clearwater Beach condos for sale and also a new site specifically covering just these properties.

The site has MLS searches focused on the Clearwater Beach condos and townhouses that are currently available and there is a page on the site that lists all the condo complexes in Clearwater Beach and has links to pages with further information about many of the complexes.

If you haven’t seen the video yet you can watch it here (or you can go to YouTube and watch it by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt514nJkFB4).

Clearwater Beach Condos for Sale Video

Lots of news this month and mostly it has to do with what the local Clearwater real estate market is really like now (and this includes the surrounding Tampa Bay areas) .  This month I also have important information for both buyers and sellers.

The current real estate market is quite different than it was just a year ago.  In 2009 and 2010 we saw gradually increasing sales and gradually decreasing inventory.  This was a stable improvement and recovery that continued throughout the years since 2008.

2011 also saw increased sales and decreasing inventory but the change was more significant than in some of the previous years.

The number of houses, condos, townhouses and villas sold in Pinellas County as noted in the MLS has increased over 50% from the lowest year in 2008 and in 2011 the increase over 2010 alone was 15% as you can see it the chart below:

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Dec 2011.

This trend is continuing as confirmed now by the January 2012 sales numbers. I didn’t expect last month to beat January 2011 since that had been a very strong January (with January typically being the lowest sales month), but as of the date I’m writing this we did see an increase last month over last January. And since there may still be sales for January not yet noted in the MLS the increase may even be a little more than is showing on the chart below:

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Jan 2012.

Now this factor just by itself isn’t the reason that I’m saying we have a very different market from last year. The other factor to look at is inventory, or number of properties available for sale. As I mentioned above this has also be slowly but steadily declining since it reached its peak in January 2008 when there was 31.34 months of inventory. A normal level of inventory is considered to be in the 6 months range and in 2011 we had 10 months where the inventory levels were in the 6-8 months range.

January is typically the highest inventory level each year and last month that was only 8.61 months. See the chart below to get a better idea of this:

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Dec 2011.

So what this means is that we now have a much lower inventory of properties while at the same time the demand is steadily and stably increasing. To emphasize this, the total number of Active Listings in the Pinellas MLS at the end of last January (for houses, condos, townhouses and villas) was 11,151 and as of the end of January this year there were 7,364.

How This Affects Buyers

Many buyers are still assuming that our local market is doing poorly and that they can get exactly what they want and name their price.  A lot of this is based on what they hear on the news about the economy and the real estate market in general.  However, that doesn’t apply to this particular market at this particular time.

What is happening now is that well-priced properties, especially those which are in at least decent condition and in a decent location, are selling more quickly and in some cases with more than one offer.  Buyers are still making sure they aren’t paying above market value but they aren’t typically getting huge price reductions on properties that are appealing.  One problem this creates for buyers who aren’t aware of the current market conditions is that they have a much more limited selection to choose from than in the past 3 years.  I run into this with a lot of buyers who keep asking ‘what else is there’ and I have to let them know that we have already seen everything that fits their criteria in the price range they set.

Just to give you an example, I have a client who has been buying very low priced condos that need to be completely redone and his plan is to remodel them and then rent them out, he’s planning to hold them for several years as an investment.  Since last winter there have been very few condos that have come on the market that were like the ones he had previously bought and the few that we did get contracts on were short sales that we couldn’t close on because the banks wanted more than they were worth.  Recently a condo came on the market in one of the complexes he already owns a few condos in and is a bank-owned property.  This is the first one in over a year, but when I called the listing agent he told me that they already had 7 offers in and that the bank would be choosing the one they wanted within the next several days (and this was less than 1 week after it had been listed).

So the bottom line for buyers right now is that you should know what the current market conditions are and approach your purchase in a way that fits the market.  You can still get properties for good prices but it is not as easy as it has been and you should definitely have someone on your side that knows how to deal with the current conditions.

What This Means for Sellers

I only work with a limited number of listings as I am mainly a buyer’s agent, but when past clients or people who are on my email list request my help I will assist some with selling their house, condo, townhouse or villa.  This past year I had 4 listings which gave me a much better insight into how the current market conditions affect those who are trying to sell their property.

What I found was that if a seller does not really want to sell their property or has unreasonable expectations on price – their property will not sell.  If a seller does want to sell and has a realistic expectation on price based on the current market – their property will sell, and if marketed correctly it will sell within a relatively short period of time and in the range of the current market value.

This does not mean that all properties are selling right away and that it doesn’t take work to get a potential sale to close because there is still a lot of work involved.  Even with the current market conditions, buyers are often more demanding on things they want and when a buyer is getting financing there is no guarantee they will get it – so these have to be followed closely.  But I would have to say that right now is a good time to sell a property if you want to and if you are willing to accept what the current market value for your property is.

One other thing that any potential sellers should know which is quite important – if your property may be in a short sale situation (where the amount it will likely sell for is less than what is owed on loans) then you should probably get it listed within the next 30-60 days.  Currently when you have a short sale and the bank forgives the balance on your loan you do not have to pay taxes on what the bank writes off.  But this is only true through the end of 2012 and it is not certain at all that this will be renewed beyond the end of the year.  What this means is that if you sell your property as a short sale and the bank writes off $50,000 of the loan and it closes after December 31, 2012 – you may end up having to pay tax on that $50,000.  I don’t want to get into whether this is right or wrong, I just want to warn you about this because if you wait too long to sell your property and it ends up being a short sale you may end up regretting your hesitation on listing your property.

To close out this section of the newsletter I wanted to let you know that I am wrapping up the last of the listings I had and am now open to taking a few more listings if you would like my help (and they don’t have to be short sales either).  If you have some interest in getting help with selling your condo, townhouse, villa or house then you can fill out the Request to List a Property form I put on my new site.

Speaking of the new site, a lot of you visited there last month and got to check out the new MLS tool and I wanted to let you know that I have added pages on several more of the Clearwater Beach condos complexes since then so feel free to go back and look if you want to.

Sorry that this got so long this month but I just felt that this information was too important right now for anyone trying to buy or sell any Tampa Bay or Clearwater real estate and hope that you find at least some of it applicable and useful for you.

The MLS search software I use on this site has just had an upgrade and offers some new features.

The first is an ability to do a radius search.  So you can choose a specific location and draw a circle expanding out from that location a specific distance.  You will see it now on most search as the first or second choice under ADD ADDITIONAL CRITERIA:

When you click the + sign next to Radius a box will open there which will give you the ability to either put in an address and a radius distance or you can choose a distance from your current location.

Here’s an example of how this would look.  I chose a specific property and entered the address and a radius of 1/2 mile.  The map shows the address I chose as a blue circle with a white circle inside it, the radius is shown by a green shaded area and the properties that are showing are only those within that radius that match the rest of the criteria set.

The other new feature is driving directions.  When you find a property and look at its information in the details tab on the right, you can scroll down to see all information and partway down there are 4 other tabs that you can choose including one for “Maps”:

When you click on the Maps tab you now will have the ability to get driving directions to that property and just by clicking on that button and then entering your address you will be able to find out how to get to that particular condo, townhouse or house:

I hope that you will find these to be useful if you need these features.

What will happen with the Clearwater Real Estate Market in 2012? A lot will depend on the economy and how it does this next year. The more stability that people see, the more the real estate market will improve.

And with more people retiring, there are more people moving to Florida. In a recent article about population growth in different areas around the country from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011 they said that “Florida added 256,000 people during those 15 months, lagging behind only Texas (529,000) and California (438,000). Its growth rate was 1.36 percent, or ninth highest.”

I think that the Spring will be very strong like it was last year, but I can’t say what will happen once we get into the summer months and then closer to the Presidential election.  We’ll find out as the year progresses.

Last year was very strong in the local market.  Sales started their decline in 2006 and continued until the end of 2008.  In December 2008 there was the first showing of some strength starting to return to the market and each year since has seen a 10-25% increase in number of sales in Pinellas County for residential properties.  In fact, the total number of sales in 2011 were nearly 55% higher than in 2008.

Last month I wrote in my newsletter that I didn’t think that December 2012 would be higher than December 2011 since that was such a strong month and I was correct.  But…it was only a few dozen less as you can see in the chart below (click on the chart if you want to see if full-sized):

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Nov 2011.

If you want to keep up to date on how the year progresses, make sure to read these newsletter each month – if for no other reason than to see the updated chart.

Inventory of residential properties for sale are lower than they have been since 2006 and I think that is partly because there have been a lot less foreclosed properties coming on the market.  From what I can tell, that will change in 2012 but since there is still such a high demand in this market I don’t think it will have an adverse effect on sale although I think it will prevent property values from rising much.

But there are definite signs that the next few months will be strong.  One is that statistic on Pending Home Sales which reflect contracts signed for future purchases.  Here’s an article from the National Association of Realtors about the November statistics regarding this:  Pending Home Sales Rise Again in November, Highest in a Year-and-a-Half

Clearwater Real Estate – New Clearwater Beach Condos site and Personalized Search

I just put together a new site geared toward beach condo buyers at http://clearwaterbeachcondosforsale.com and one of the features I included was a form that a site visitor can fill in if they want me to set up a personalized search in the MLS for them where they will be emailed any condos that come on the market that match their criteria.

It’s pretty cool because I took some time and got together a list of all the condo and townhouse complexes in each of the 3 sections of Clearwater Beach and when you use the form it will show the list that applies depending on whether you selected condos or townhouses or both, and for the specific area of Clearwater Beach you choose.  You can check it out at http://clearwaterbeachcondosforsale.com/personalized-search-for-clearwater-beach-condos-and-townhouses-for-sale/.

Well that’s all I have for this month.  Hope you have a good January and that I get to see you here soon when you get a chance to come down here and enjoy the nice weather and check out some Clearwater Real Estate.

Sincerely,
Ron

This December so far has been warmer than usual.  In fact last week I heard that we were running about 10 degrees higher than normal.  This week there is a cold front coming through but that only means that our high temperature will only get up into the upper 60s for a few days before it goes back up into the low and mid 70s.

For those of you coming down this time of year from a colder area I’m sure you won’t mind.

Last year in December there was a marked spike in sales.  So much so that it was the second highest month of sales since 2006.

This year, at about 2/3′s thru the month, it looks like we will have a significantly lower month of sales than last year although I’ve been surprised before by a sudden surge at the end of the month.  Overall this has been a very strong year but we’ve also seen a decline in inventory, especially in foreclosed properties, and I think that this is starting to have an effect.

We’ll see how things up in about 2 weeks.

Part of what I try to do here with the Clearwater homes Clearwater Condos site is to provide you with information about the area and timely news about upcoming events.  As Christmas is coming soon and some of you who live here or will be visiting here may want to plan for your Christmas eve dinner, I thought it might be useful to give you some info to help with this.

Below is a link to an article on a Tampa Bay site that gives several recommendations for restaurants that will be serving a special dinner on Christmas eve day or night.  But if you don’t want to go out and don’t want to cook, I can personally recommend The Fresh Market as a place to order a prepared holiday meal.  Their precooked turkey is amazing and they have all the side dishes you could want.  Just make sure to call or visit enough in advance and place your order.

Best Bets:  Christmas Dinners

Before I start looking back on the year in Tampa Bay and Clearwater real estate in the local market, some secrets for how to approach an upcoming purchase you want to make, and a new free service that helps sell houses faster and for more money…

I want to make sure to wish you a very happy holiday season and a better year in 2012 than you had in 2011.  For some people the holidays are a happy time they spend with family and friends and for others it is a lonely time.  This year, whether celebrating with loved ones or by yourself, find ways to do something you enjoy and that makes you happy no matter how small it is and look at all the positive things in your life – even if it is only a few things.  It is better to focus on the good things in your life than to worry over the bad so take this time to acknowledge those good things.

This has definitely been an interesting year when looking at the Tampa Bay and Clearwater real estate market and though many of the really good deals were bought up this year there are still going to be opportunities over the next several months for those buyers who are prepared to take action.

Statistics for Clearwater real estate and Pinellas County in 2011

Sales in 2011 in Pinellas County were up – in fact every month so far this year except for one saw sales for Clearwater real estate and all other areas in the county that were higher than the same month in the last 4 years.  (You can click on the chart below if you want to see if full-sized.)

Information for this chart was taken from PRO/Suncoast MLS from Jan 2007 thru May 2011 and from the MFRMLS for May 2011 thru Nov 2011.

At the same time, the inventory (properties available to purchase) decreased from 11087 as of Jan 1st to 7891 on Dec 1st.    That’s an almost 30% drop.

Prices have still gone down, more this year with condos than with houses, but the overall pricing looks like it may be stabilizing.

There have been significantly less foreclosures on the market and coming on the market this year which, I think, has a lot to do with the big drop in inventory and I think that sometime in the next year we will start to see more coming on the market but most likely at a gradual pace rather than all of a sudden.

This spring there was a very big demand for condos, especially beach condos, and the months of March and April saw dramatic increases in sales for both due to the fact that prices were lower than they had been in 7-8 years.

Short sales are taking longer to get through now in many cases and, despite regulations that were supposed to speed them up, lenders are dragging their feet more than I have seen in the previous 2-3 years.  This is not true in all cases but seems to be very common in the very low-end short sales properties.

How to be prepared for your 2012 Tampa Bay area or Clearwater real estate purchase – including a few secrets:

1.  Start your search early.

Spring is the strong buying season and those buyers who act in December and January have a much better chance of finding what they want without having as much competition and at the same time a better chance of getting sellers to negotiate.

2.  Work out what you want to buy.

Get as specific as possible so that you don’t wander around too much without making any progress.  View it like you would taking a trip – if you know where you’re going on your trip then you can tell if you start to get to far off the route you’ve set but if you don’t have a set destination you may just wander around not really getting anywhere.

3.  Know your price range and have your financing lined up.

This applies both in a general and a specific way.  You should know what the maximum price is that you can and/or are willing to pay for your purchase and have worked out how you are going to pay for it.  If you will be getting financing, this means you should have already contacted your bank or at least one lender to make sure you will qualify for the financing you will need.  When you find a property you are interested in, we will need to look at information I have access to that you wouldn’t normally be able to get so we can tell what the property really is worth so as to determine what the maximum price would be that you could pay for that specific property.

4. Act quickly and decisively.

I will help you with this since this can sometimes make the difference between getting what you want and losing it to another buyer. This requires having enough information to make a decision without rushing into one that could be a bad one.

5. Find the best leverage.

I have found that you need to utilize the correct leverage in negotiations, whether there is another competing buyer or not. In many cases the seller’s agent will either give hints or say directly certain things that let me know what will make an offer one that is more likely to be accepted, or to do better if there is another competing buyer. I pay close attention to what is said to me and how it is said to find out how to best approach the offer and negotiations. I also make sure that the seller’s agent knows that working with me will make the job easier for them and their client and have had this make the difference for my buyers being able to get what they want. Without a buyer’s agent representing you, you lose the ability to get certain points of leverage as the seller’s agent will not be as direct with a buyer as they will with another agent.

So there are some tips that can help you with your future purchase – please make sure you follow them because you should try to get every advantage you can.

Finally, I wanted to let you know about a new service that helps in selling houses faster and for a better price.

New Service to sell your house faster and for more

If you have a house to sell in this area that is $200,000 or more and is vacant, I can now arrange to get a ‘house manager’ who will furnish and stage the house with good quality furniture (so it is now empty and thus shows better), will take care of the house and your utilities and lawn care (and even pool maintenance if you have a pool) will be taken care of and paid for you. An occupied property that is staged generally sells faster and for a better price than one which is empty and not being kept up. If you are interested in this, just send me an email.

Well that went longer than I had originally thought it would but there was just too much info that I felt you should have to skimp. Again, I hope you have a wonderful holiday and I look forward to seeing you in the next few months when you come to make your Tampa Bay area or Clearwater real estate purchase.

Sincerely,
Ron

Here are some articles and pictures about some interesting things
having to do with Clearwater Beach lately.

For those of you wondering about that new structure being built on Clearwater Beach…

Clearwater Beach Hotel project ready to enter next stage
It is also an endangered species: a new beach hotel, built with a level of investment few have copied. Above it towers the only crane on Clearwater Beach. By spring it could be open for business. Years ago, beach developers had planned $1 billion in …
www.tampabay.com

This should remind you why Clearwater Beach is so popular…

Could her secret to a long life be the beautiful weather here?

Clearwater woman is 100
 Erma M. Berry of Clearwater celebrated her 100th birthday with a pre-birthday lunch at Emeritus of Beckett Lake, where she now resides, and a trip to Clearwater Beach on her birthday proper with her daughter and son-in-law, culminating with lunch at …
www.tampabay.com

Here’s what sunrise looks like (sometimes) when you look back to the east from Clearwater Beach…

Maybe you noticed those crosswalks with flags for pedestrians in the beach areas.  Looks like they’re starting to spread…

Beach launches novel flag system for crosswalk safety
Brown said the system was modeled off systems implemented in other places such as Clearwater Beach. “Florida has one of the highest pedestrian injury rates in the nation, making programs like this an important aid for visibility and safety of …
staugustine.com