You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars remodeling your kitchens and bathrooms, putting in granite countertops and stainless steel appliances or adding a new pool to make your house more sell-able.

There are numerous things you can do which will make your house look better to prospective buyers which are more affordable and easier to do.

Some are as simple as sweeping off dead leaves from the path to your front door and putting down a welcome mat.  Other involve fixing things around the house that may distract buyers from the overall nice appearance of your house – like windows or doors that don’t open and close like they should.

This article puts it quite well:

First impressions matter, especially when it comes to selling a home.

A home’s curb appeal – how its exterior looks to a buyer from the street – can either provide an inviting enticement for a prospective buyer or produce a negative impression.

Read more here:  Boost Home’s Value With Curb Appeal

Jacaranda trees are mostly found in tropical and subtropical locations so people in many parts of the world have never seen them.  We have them here and they bloom for about 3 weeks each spring with small lavendar flowers.  The pictures below were taken on the last day of April at a Belleair home and show the jacaranda toward the end of its blooming period so the tree is more sparsely flowered.

Althought I’m no fan of Time magazine, I did get a laugh at their recent article about whether the real estate market (nationally) has hit bottom or not.

Despite the fact that the title of the article is “Has the Housing Market Finally Hit Bottom?” which might lead you to believe that they are looking at this being a possibility, they practically work themselves into a pretzel to make the case that there really shouldn’t be any optimism.

The articles starts out in a way that makes it appear that we have hit the bottom but they just can’t help themselves and make sure that they gives you a better idea of their take on this.

No wonder, then, that the media and economy watchers have been so concerned with tumbling home values. Many have been eager for house prices nationally to reach a point at which they stabilize and start to creep back up. The information superhighway is littered with the corpses of pundits who have erroneously called the “bottom” of the real estate market, but hope springs eternal. This week produced two reports which have analysts optimistic that we’ve reached that point….More at Has the Housing Market Finally Hit Bottom?

The problem is that what they are saying is not completely untrue.  However, putting their slant on news makes this more of an editorial than a news story.

They present information about the two reports they mention and then continue to work their ‘angle’ on the story.

So do these data describe a housing market that’s hit bottom? Possibly, but we’ve heard this song before. Despite these optimistic reports, there’s still plenty of reasons to be dubious….More at Has the Housing Market Finally Hit Bottom?

Again, I’m not in disagreement with them that the positive statistics and reports about the real estate market definitely show an improvement but that it doesn’t mean that the national real estate market has hit the bottom.  Real estate markets are local and though there can be national real estate market trends you still have to look at a specific local market and what condition it is in to know how that market is doing.

Right now there are local markets that have already hit bottom and are rising, some are at the point or near the point of hitting bottom and others are still declining.

I do understand some of the point of this article but like I said at the beginning I had to laugh when I read it for its optimistic-sounding title and pessimstic content.  Take a look at the end of the article to get an even better feel for this.

Sobering stuff, but even if you think that Ritholtz’s analysis is too pessimistic, remember everyone who has called a housing bottom to this point has been wrong. And even if housing prices have stabilized, it doesn’t mean that they have to start rising again any time soon. It may be that we have to wait for employment to drag us out of the housing mess rather than the other way around….More at Has the Housing Market Finally Hit Bottom?

Even though prices are down significantly from their peak and the homes and condos for sale are a much better value, with some very good values still to be found, the high demand and low inventory have changed the local market to where it is no longer really a buyer’s market and is instead shifting somewhat toward being a slight buyers market right now.

I have seen this a lot in the last few months.  Clients who come to look at houses or condos give me a list of places that want to see and when I call to set up appointments I find out that nearly half have just gone under contract.  This happened again this past week with a client where nearly every house they really liked when they saw the listing ended up having just gone under contract.

Because of this, buyers will need to understand how the market is right now and approach it correctly.  A recent article went over this and what they discussed definitely applies here.

Low-ball bidders in many markets learn they can no longer get a steal on a house

by Kenneth Harney at the Washington Post Writers Group

…

Based on the latest survey results, that sort of strategy is not a winning move in many communities this spring. In fact, in local markets where inventories are tight and competition for homes rising, realty agents say that buyers looking to steal houses by low-balling their offers are ending up at the back of the line, their contracts either rejected out of hand or countered close to the original asking price….More at Housing Survey: Fewer “low ball” Offers in 2012

The summary at the end of this article is good advice:

The takeaway here: Rolling low-balls at sellers may have been an effective approach between 2008 and early 2011. But in 2012’s environment — at least in rebounding markets — it could be counterproductive if you truly want to buy….More at Housing Survey: Fewer “low ball” Offers in 2012

Right now it is vital to be prepared to act quickly when you find something you really like, make sure you are paying a fair price for it – but don’t deal with a real estate purchase in a way that no longer works in this current market.

I’ve been writing recently about the likelihood that there will be more foreclosures coming on the market in the next several months and that I thought it would not have a significant impact on the overall market.  I’ve seen a high demand for homes and condos in the last year and the continued high level of sales and lower inventory bears that out.

However, I wanted to really see if this was true and so I did a statistical analysis of the foreclosures coming on the market during March and April and found some interesting things.

What I did was to look in the MLS and find every foreclosed residential property that came on the market in March in Pinellas County (Clearwater, St. Pete, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, the beach cities, etc.) and found that there were a total of 217 new residential foreclosure listings.

Next, I looked at how many of those were under contract or sold as of 4/21/12 and found out that there had already been 30 that had sold and another 117 that were under contract but hadn’t yet closed.  That’s a total of 147 out of 217 that either had already sold or were under contract and hadn’t yet closed.  So within 3 weeks of the end of the month there were over two-thirds already off the market.

Then I looked at the total number of foreclosure listings that came on the market in April up through the 21st and there were 175 – so it looks like there will likely be a higher total in April than in May.

When checking out the number of those either sold or under contract I found that as of the 21st there were none that had sold yet but that 43 were already under contract which is almost 25% that are no longer available.

This confirms what I’ve been saying about the demand and how that will most likely make sure that as new foreclosures come on the market they will sell quickly and not sit on the market which would negatively affect sales and prices.

I think we’ll have a better idea as we get closer to August but for now it does appear that the strength of the local market will continue despite increases in foreclosures coming on the market.

Image by moultriecreek via Flickr

Unfortunately it fell into disrepair and needed extensive renovations.

During the real estate boom in the early to mid 2000s there was quite a battle going on whether it would be restored and reopen as a hotel or be torn down so that condo buildings could be put up.

With the downturn in the real estate market the condo idea became less attractive and an investor came forward with a plan to fully restore the historic building.  However, there wasn’t much progress made and I was wondering whether or not it would ever occur.  It seems that there is still some hope.

Commissioners approve extension of plan to restore Belleview Biltmore

By Lorri Helfand, Times Staff Writer
Lorri HelfandTampa Bay Times In Print: Wednesday, April 18, 2012

 

BELLEAIR — Town commissioners received a standing ovation from about 120 local residents at Tuesday’s town meeting after they approved an extension of a 2008 plan to restore the historic Belleview Biltmore.

Coral Gables architect Richard Heisenbottle and his team have a contract to buy the hotel and plan to spend about $225 million restoring it to its former glory and to renovate other resort properties, he said….More at Commissioners approve extension of plan to restore Belleview Biltmore

As with many development projects, issues come up that cause delays or otherwise derail the project.  The article describes some of these issues.

But it sounds like the plan will go ahead now and they seem to have some ambitious ideas on what they want to do.

The team also wants to build a new 153-room east wing in the style of the old hotel and restore the historic Magnolia, Palm and Sunset Cottages on the property.

Their plan includes more improvements to the Biltmore’s golf club and the development of the Cabana Club property into a 38-room boutique hotel….More at Commissioners approve extension of plan to restore Belleview Biltmore

When the Biltmore was open as a hotel years ago and in full swing it brought a lot of visitors from around the world and some of them liked the golf course community of Belleair so much that they became residents (at least for part of the year) and bought houses there.

It is possible that the restored Biltmore could again attract a regular flow of visitors which could then make the Belleair homes market even more attractive than it already is because of the increased demand.  But that will be at least a few years in the future so we’ll have to wait and see.

I’ve been starting to see this more and more lately with the demand being high, inventory low and prices reasonable.

Mostly I see well-priced properties selling very quickly but have had more than one occasion recently where multiple buyers were trying to get the same property.

Bidding wars break out over Tampa Bay area homes

By Mark Puente, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Sunday, April 1, 2012

 

The Sunshine State’s overall supply of homes has dropped from 11 months to 6 months in the past year. Tuccillo described Florida’s housing market as being in a “mini-recovery” that will continue to normalize as unemployment falls.

In Florida, the current median price for all single-family homes jumped from $125,000 in February 2011 to $134,000 last month, according to Florida Realtors. In the same period in Tampa Bay, prices rose from $100,000 to $107,000, according to My Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service data.

…

Hillsborough’s overall supply peaked at 25 months in January 2008; Pinellas’, at 18 months in March 2007. Today, Hillsborough is 5.4 months; Pinellas’, 5.8 months.

Read the full article.

 

This is a good article that goes over how the lower inventory is affecting prices and competition between buyers but also notes that there will likely be an increase in foreclosed properties coming on the market which can affect things.

Florida was one of the hardest hit areas when the real estate market turned starting in 2006-2007 and has seen a significant drop in prices.  However, sales have been strong the last few years and with strong sales and a dramatically lower inventory of properties for sale, there is some increase in prices starting to occur.

This is reflected in a report from CoreLogic, an information and analytics provider that comes out each month with a Home Price Index (HPI) report.  Here’s what they’ve found:

“House prices, based on data through February, continue to decline, but at a decreasing rate. The deceleration in the pace of decline is a first step toward ultimately growing again,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Excluding distressed sales, we already see modest price appreciation month over month in January and February.”“The continued strength of sales activity and tightening inventories in many markets are early and hopeful signs that prices will continue to stabilize and improve in the coming months. In fact, non-distressed home sale prices, which represent two-thirds of all sales, have appreciated by just over 1.0 percent since the beginning of the year,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

Highlights as of February 2012

Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: West Virginia (+8.6 percent), Michigan (+5.8 percent), Florida (+4.7 percent), Arizona (+4.5 percent) and South Dakota (+4.1 percent).
Read the full press release from CoreLogic.

I still think that the backlogged foreclosures that will be coming on the market in the upcoming months will have an effect of slowing price recovery but not reversing it. Let’s see what happens.

This month I want to go over some conflicting signs about our local real estate market to try to help you make sense out of them as well as some new ways for you to find out about what is going on here locally more often than just once a month when I send out this newsletter.

First, to understand what’s going on in the market here let’s look at last month’s statistics.

Sales in March

Last March had sales here that were the highest since back in 2006 and I doubted that this March would be able to beat that number.  In fact, most months of last year were higher than the same month in all of the previous 3 years so it was questionable whether we’d be able to keep the same pace.  However, not only did January and February (barely) top the same months in 2011, but March did also.

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

Inventory Still Falling

And as a result of that, the inventory has dropped to its lowest level yet in the last 5+ years.

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

Up to this point there wasn’t much sign that this was affecting prices, but that has now changed.

From January 2007 thru December 2011 there have only been 2 times that the median price for a single family home was higher than in the same month in the previous year and that was in January 2010 and October 2010.  So far this year, we have had 3 consecutive months where the median price for a single family home was higher than in the same month last year and the average increase was about 20%.

For condos there have also only been 2 months since January 2007 that showed a median price increase over the same month in the previous year and that was in May of 2008 and April of 2010.  This year we saw a higher median price in both January and February over last year by about 8-10% but a drop in price in March.

With the sales still increasing each year (which shows a continuing strong demand) and inventory continuing to fall to very low levels, it was only time before this was reflected in prices.  It seems that the single family home market is stronger at this point than the condo market and that is in part due to the fact that the inventory of single family homes has dropped about 70% in the last 5 years while the inventory of condos has only dropped a little over 50%.

For Buyers

What this means for buyers is that you will start to see more competition and less negotiating room especially considering the fact that last month about 60% of the buyers paid cash.

For Sellers

What this means for sellers (more so for houses than condos except beach area condos) is that this if you were waiting to sell, this might a good time to go ahead and list your house or condo.

New Places to Keep Up to Date on the Local Market

There have been a lot of articles lately in a wide variety of publications that discuss this and that also discuss the fact that there will most likely be a noticeable increase in foreclosures coming on the market in the near future and to keep you more up to date on all this news I’m now providing you with a few different ways to stay current on what is happening.

First, I’ve done a makeover on my Facebook page and am updating it quite regularly with the latest news on the real estate market and will also be putting info there periodically on local events and news.  Feel free to check it out and Like or Share anything on there you want.  I also would love to have you share news you hear about and also helpful information for others such as photos of any remodeling you’ve done, info about happenings in your local community and people or companies you’ve found that do go work in any of the areas having to do with taking care of or improving a home or condo.  You can see the new Facebook page by clicking here.

Another place you can go to keep updated is the Real Estate & Area News section of my blog that will have these same articles.

The third place where I will posting updates is in my Google + account.  You can get to my Google + page by clicking here and to keep up to date you should add me to your Circles.  If you don’t have a Google + account and would like to get one (they are by invitation) just click this link and set up your account.

Don’t forget I also still have my Clearwater Beach condos for sale site at http://clearwaterbeachcondosforsale.com which is more focused on Clearwater Beach and the surrounding beach areas if that is what you’re more interested in.

There’s a lot more to go over but since you can now read about other news on my Facebook page or Google + I don’t have to include it here and so am going to end off for now.

I hope to see you here soon and if you need help with anything, please let me know.

As I noted in a previous newsletter and post, the number of foreclosures in the local area have been down significantly since the ‘robosigning’ problems in the fall of 2010 but they are starting to pick up a little again.

It seems that this has also been happening in most areas across the country.

This article from RealtyTrac pretty much confirms this although they get a little dramatic when discussing what the future looks like.

The first quarter total was the lowest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2007, when 527,740 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. The report shows one in every 230 U.S. housing units with a foreclosure filing during the quarter….More at RealtyTrac: Q1 2012 Foreclosure Activity Lowest Since Q4 2007

With residential inventory down 30-40% from last year it will probably be helpful to have more properties coming on the market even if they are more foreclosures and short sales.  But I still think that due to the continued high level of sales and demand that it will not have an overall negative effect on the market except for possibly slowing any recovery of prices.

More Reading

• BofA sues BofA in Foreclosure Filing: More “Robo foreclosure”?