Tower plan set to loom over St. Pete

Defying a dull real estate market, developers submitted plans this week for a mammoth $360-million mixed-use complex at Second Street and Central Avenue. The downtown project, dubbed Tropicana Center, calls for two towers that will include a hotel, shopping and 585 condominiums on an empty lot now used mostly for the Saturday Morning Market. Tropicana Center will completely fill the block with nearly 1-million square feet. It will rise five stories straight up from the sidewalk in a retail and parking platform before the towers separate and continue rising, the east tower to include 33 stories of condominiums, the west tower to be a 36-story hotel.

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Flippers flop as housing market cools

Foreclosure filings across the United States rose 47 percent last month from a year ago to 149,150 — one for every 775 households, according to statistics from Realty Trac Inc., a foreclosure listing service. More than other states hit by the mortgage lending crunch, the high foreclosure rate in Nevada, California and Florida was driven by speculation.

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Crist tells lawmakers to split difference on property-tax relief

As House and Senate property tax relief negotiators grew farther apart on how much should be cut, Gov. Charlie Crist entered the discussion Wednesday with a proposal that essentially would split the difference. Crist's plan, though, does not include any sort of proposal to increase sales taxes in exchange for sharply reducing and potentially eliminating property taxes for homeowners – a key component of the House's package.

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Mortgage Rates Drift Lower On Weak Home Sales

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.16 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending April 26, 2007, down slightly from last week when it averaged 6.17 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.58 percent.

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New home sales post modest gain in March

Sales of new homes in the United States rebounded slightly in March, helped by better weather, but the gain was not enough to offset big declines in the previous two months. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales rose 2.6 percent in March compared with February, when new home sales had plunged to the lowest level in nearly seven years. New homes were sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 858,000 units in March. The March improvement was just half what analysts had expected and still left the sales pace 23.5 percent lower than a year ago as the housing industry continues to go through a painful adjustment after an extended boom period.

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Senate says no to tax swap, offers revised plan

Senate negotiators said Tuesday they don’t even want to talk about a republican-sponsored House proposal to trade homeowner property tax relief for higher sales taxes because they believe it has no chance of passing should it get on the ballot. Instead, they offered a revised plan to roll back and cap property taxes, which could take effect without going on the ballot. It would save taxpayers an estimated $15.3 billion over five years. That’s about $3 billion more than the Senate previously had proposed but less than half of what the House wants. The latest Senate offer would roll back taxes one year, as previously proposed, and then add a 5 percent cut on top of that. The Senate would also apply the rollback to all special taxing districts instead of exempting independent districts as previously proposed. As in the prior plan, taxes would then be capped with allowances for growth and inflation.

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Insurance Crisis Curbs Florida Immigration

Allied Van Lines recently reported that about 2,000 more shipments left Florida last year than came in. Now, instead of being a magnet for inbound moves - a spot Florida held as recently as 2004 - it has joined Michigan and New Jersey as top-net-loss states in Allied's rankings. No one knows whether the decades-long trend of Florida being a boom state could be heading toward a permanent shift. However, Tallahassee-based Florida Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Jennifer Krell Davis said her members have been hearing reports of a slowdown for some time. The force keeping people away doesn't appear to be hurricanes; rather, it's simple economics.

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Slumping Market Strikes Home

Newly minted real estate agents are leaving the market in droves, said Bob Hogue, who teaches real estate. The state requires new agents to take additional courses in the two years after they graduate in order to renew their licenses. About a fifth of 24,670 new agents up for renewal last month didn't renew, Hogue said. Hogue's own enrollments, which peaked with the market two years ago, are down 70 to 80 percent. New agents, many hoping to get rich quick in a red-hot market have learned a hard lesson with the downturn, Hogue said. "They were stunned by the sudden change," he said.

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Nationwide Sales of Existing Homes Fall by Largest Amount in Nearly 2 Decades

Sales of existing homes plunged in March by the largest amount in nearly two decades, reflecting bad weather and increasing problems in the subprime mortgage market, a real estate trade group reported Tuesday. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell by 8.4 percent in March, compared to February. It was the biggest one-month decline since a 12.6 percent plunge in January 1989, another period of recession conditions in housing. The drop left sales in March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.12 million units, the slowest pace since June 2003. The steep sales decline was accompanied by an eighth straight fall in median home prices, the longest such period of falling prices on record. The median price fell to $217,000, a drop of 0.3 percent from the price a year ago. The fall in sales in March was bigger than had been expected and it dashed hopes that housing was beginning to mount a recovery after last year's big slump. That slowdown occurred after five years in which sales of both existing and new homes had set records.

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Tampa Existing Home Sales Continue Plunge; Prices Down 4%

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) reported 2,502 existing homes sold last month compared to 4,006 homes sold a year ago for a 38 percent decrease. The market's median sales price for homes was $209,700; it was $218,600 in March 2006 for a 4 percent decrease. A total of 500 existing condos changed hands in the MSA last month, down 48 percent from the 968 condos sold the previous year. The existing condo median sales price in March was $164,100; a year ago, it was $172,300 for a 5 percent decrease.

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Less hurricanes expected due to global warming

New research suggests that global warming could actually decrease the risk of hurricanes because it increases wind shear, or turbulence, even as it warms ocean waters. But the theory is too new to include in hurricane models and can’t be considered by Florida officials as they review new property insurance rate hike requests.

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Insurance reform attracting new insurers to Florida

Florida’s scary property insurance market is becoming more welcoming to new insurers thanks to recent changes in laws that are helping them financially. Four new homeowners insurance carriers have entered the Florida market since the state passed legislation in January to lower premiums and entice new carriers to write policies. Another three companies have applications pending with regulators to begin doing business in the state, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. New carriers entering the market is a sign companies are finding it more attractive to do business in the Sunshine State after the Legislature expanded the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund in January to give insurers cheaper reinsurance, which is insurance for insurance companies.

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Crist's Citizens plan gets a setback

Gov. Charlie Crist's personal quest to make state-backed Citizens Property Insurance a true competitor took a major hit Monday when the House Policy and Budget Council approved a bill that would do just the opposite. In its original form, HB 1267, sponsored by Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, would allow homeowners who are insured privately to switch to Citizens if their insurance company is charging 15 percent more than Citizens. Under current law, enacted in January, homeowners can jump to Citizens only if the premium difference is 25 percent higher. Good for the consumer, bad for the insurance industry. A similar bill knocking the threshold down to 15 percent is in the Senate. But Monday, House members at first stripped all percentage language out of their proposal. Later, they put the 25 percent threshold back in, reverting back to existing law.

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Tax relief plans far apart

What happens over the next two weeks - or beyond if a special session is required - is of great significance to Floridians. Tax bills are going to change and it's likely the services of local government will, too.

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Florida Senate unanimously passes tax overhaul plan

The Florida Senate unanimously passed its bipartisan property tax overhaul package without debate Thursday, setting up negotiations with a House split mainly along party lines on a key part of its very different plan. That element is a proposed state constitutional amendment (HJR 7089) that would trade property tax relief on primary homes, known as homesteads, for sales tax increases. The Senate plan has no such tax swap. Senators say their legislation would spread tax relief more broadly. The House plan would give the greatest relief to homeowners, who already benefit from a $25,000 homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes Amendment that limits their annual tax increases to 3 percent.

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Insurance Panel Reviews Study

New research suggesting fewer hurricanes in the future, not more, may be ignored by a state commission reviewing computer models that help determine homeowners insurance rates. It's an important issue because one model under review by the commission assumes more hurricanes and far greater losses, thus helping justify higher insurance premiums. Florida's decision could affect homeowners in other states, too. On Friday, Louisiana's insurance commissioner froze use of one the same models, from Risk Management Solutions, pending Florida's decision.

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House approves two tax-cut bills

Florida’s House of Representatives voted unanimously Wednesday to roll back property taxes to 2001 levels, while also passing, along party lines, a second plan to rewrite Florida’s tax code and give voters the option of eliminating property taxes on their homes by raising the sales tax.

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Slow Housing Market Creates New Demand For Apartments In Tampa

With the condo market slumping, some developers are seeing gold in building new apartments. Don't look for the new stock of apartments to bring down local apartment rents, though. An average 1,000-square-foot unit is expected to set you back $1,500 a month. At least three developers are planning mid-rise apartment buildings in the West Shore and West Tampa areas. Unlike typical "garden-style" apartments, which have clusters of two- and three-story buildings, the new projects will be four to six stories each and house between 200 and 400 apartment units.

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Mortgage Rates Edge Down On Inflation News

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.17 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending April 18, 2007, down from last week when it averaged 6.22 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.53 percent.

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Tax cut plan heads to a vote

Backed by a cheering section of hundreds of frustrated taxpayers Tuesday, House Speaker Marco Rubio maneuvered his far-reaching property tax plan into position for a key vote today. After a rally concluded outside the Capitol, the GOP-controlled House beat back Democratic criticism on the plan to abolish property taxes on homesteads in exchange for a 2.5 percent sales tax increase.

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USAA to limit exposure in Florida

Citing large losses and outsized exposure in Florida, USAA will limit its new homeowners insurance business to active duty military. USAA will renew its existing policies in Florida. But it will limit Florida policyholders to one property policy. This action is expected to reduce USAA’s 270,000 policies in Florida by about 10 percent. USAA ranks as the fifth-largest home insurer in the state, behind Citizens Property Insurance, State Farm Insurance, Allstate Floridian and Nationwide Insurance of Florida. USAA won’t write new policies for retired military members and military family members.

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Plea for U.S. disaster fund rejected by Bush

Despite pleas for help from Gov. Charlie Crist, the Bush administration yesterday bluntly opposed creation of a national catastrophe insurance fund, saying federal intrusion would disrupt the private market and burden taxpayers. Still, Florida backers plan to continue pushing for legislation.

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Real Estate Forecast

Tighter lending criteria and fallout from the subprime loan debacle will lead to a healthier housing market with greater assurance that owners can handle mortgage adjustments, but higher loan standards will slow the housing recovery, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). This month’s forecast marks the first time NAR has predicted a year-over-year decline in national housing prices. Existing-home sales are likely to total 6.34 million in 2007 and 6.52 million next year, in contrast with 6.48 million in 2006. New-home sales are seen at 904,000 this year and 935,000 in 2008, below the 1.05 million last year. Housing starts are estimated at 1.47 million in 2007 and 1.55 million next year, down from 1.80 million units in 2006. The national median existing-home price will probably slip 0.7 percent to $220,300 in 2007, following a 1.0 percent rise last year. The median new-home price is projected to increase 0.4 percent to $246,200 this year, after gaining 1.8 percent in 2006. Modest growth is expected next year, with existing-home prices increasing 1.6 percent and new-home prices rising 2.0 percent.

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Senate Unveils Plan To Reduce Property Taxes

The state Senate on Thursday unveiled a plan to lop $11 billion off local property tax bills in the next five years with a rollback of rates and a complicated exemption schedule that would require no increase in the state sales tax. The Senate strategy is more modest than a House plan that eventually could eliminate all property taxes in exchange for a boost in state sales taxes. The bipartisan Senate proposal would roll back local tax rates to 2005-06 levels, adjusted for growth in population and income, which would provide an immediate 6.5 percent savings to the average taxpayer. The House plan rolls back rates to 2000-01 levels, which translates to about a 20 percent discount. The Senate plan then would freeze taxes at that rate for one year, then cap revenues so they could not rise faster than population and income growth. The plan takes a complicated tack when it comes to the homestead exemption and Save Our Homes benefit. It would double the homestead exemption from the current $25,000 for first-time buyers of homes under $100,000. Homeowners would maintain their Save Our Homes benefit - which caps the increase in taxable value of a home at 3 percent a year - when they move. That new taxable value, however, then would grow at 10 percent per year until it reached its truer taxable value, when the 3 percent cap would kick back in.

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Mortgage Rates Jump Up On Strong Employment Report

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.22 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending April 12, 2007, up from last week when it averaged 6.17 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.49 percent.

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My Safe Florida Home program to resume

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced yesterday that the free home inspections would resume within the next two weeks. The pilot phase of the My Safe Florida Home program was launched in late August 2006. During the MSFH program’s 2006 pilot phase, more than 14,000 free wind inspections were conducted in 17 counties. Along with an inspection report, these 14,000 homeowners received a grant application to apply for matching funds, and the department has received applications for matching funds from more than 4,100 homeowners to date. These homeowners are currently working with licensed contractors approved by the MSFH program and making recommended improvements to their homes. Once the work has been completed, the state will reimburse the homeowners for 50 percent of the actual cost of the improvements, up to $5,000. To date, more than $47,000 in grant money has been awarded to 19 Floridians in seven counties.

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Hurricane Shutter Proposal May Have Tax Consequences

A state proposal to require many Florida homeowners to buy storm shutters faces rising criticism from residents who say such mandatory purchases will increase their property taxes by driving up the value of their homes. Shutters are so important against hurricanes that Tallahassee lawmakers are considering a plan to require coastal homeowners to buy them before they get a building permit or a Citizens Property Insurance policy. That's rubbing many Floridians the wrong way. They argue homeowners should not be required to buy shutters and then also pay for the resulting higher property taxes.

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Hurricane shutters may no longer be optional

People who own homes along the coast valued at more than $300,000 may have to open their wallets a lot wider when they want to have a fence built, their roof repaired, or do any kind of work that requires a building permit. A bill passed out of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Monday proposes that starting Jan. 1 coastal homeowners who need a building permit for any reason must also buy hurricane shutters. The affected area includes nearly the entire Florida coast. In the Tampa Bay area, the region typically lies west of U.S. 19 in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. The region does not include Hillsborough County, but does include all of Pinellas. Shutters can cost anywhere from about $2,000 to more than $25,000, depending on the number of windows and type of protection. And forcing homeowners to buy them could present a financial burden for many.

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State to home buyers: Keep sinkhole policy

In January, state Sen. Mike Fasano and Rep. John Legg ballyhooed the option of dropping sinkhole insurance as a way to "protect our consumers" and drop premiums as much as 60 percent. There's something else consumers should know: "Sinkholes are an unpredictable part of the Florida landscape, especially in West Central Florida and the greater Tampa Bay area," according to a flier for home buyers from the state Department of Financial Services.

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Homesteaders’ property tax may rise even if home prices fall

If home prices in a neighborhood fall, non-homesteaded property owners could see a property tax decrease while homesteaded owners pay more. Under the Save Our Homes cap, tax cap values for homesteaded homes can continue to rise 3 percent annually until they reach market value.

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Tampa Home Glut Is Huge

So many for-sale homes continue to bloat the area real estate market - nearly 41,000 - that sales as a share of total home listings are at their lowest point in recent memory. Realtors call it "absorption" and it's easy to calculate: Just divide total monthly sales by the total number of homes on the market. In February, it was 5.4 percent. In other words, about one home of every 20 on the market found buyers. In hard numbers that's 2,225 out of 40,896 single-family homes and condominiums. Two years ago, during the peak of the last boom market, absorption was running beyond 50 percent, meaning half the homes on the listings sold in a given month.

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Mortgage Rates Climb Slightly This Week

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.17 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending April 5, 2007, up slightly from last week when it averaged 6.16 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.43 percent.

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Homeownership Affordability Act of 2007

U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) plans to introduce legislation that would allow family members to provide tax-free cash gifts to relatives equivalent to a 20-percent house downpayment, as long as the home's price is 110 percent or less of the Federal Housing Administration's local median price. Weldon believes the Homeownership Affordability Act of 2007 could help young, first-time buyers and middle-income service workers achieve homeownership and expand their housing choices.

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Families Fight Back Against 55+ Community Rule Enforcement

A couple who face losing their home because they are caring for their 3 1/2-year-old granddaughter in The Lakes, a neighborhood for residents 55 and older just east of U.S. 19 and 49th Street, has received national attention and the assistance of a volunteer lawyer. But neighbors and an attorney for the Lakes Homeowners Association say they are not singling out Judie and Jimmy Stottler. To the contrary, the homeowners association is suing two other families as well, and each lawsuit cites a common cause: Allowing children to live in the adults-only neighborhood. In a 55-plus neighborhood, 80 percent of the community must be households in which one member is 55 or older. Children 18 and under can visit, but they cannot spend more than 60 days per year in the community.

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Condotel Sales Struggling

A few years ago, condo-hotels, or condotels, practically sold themselves. With real estate prices marching upward, the idea of owning a condo unit on the beach and covering some of the expenses through hotel rental payments seemed irresistible. Today, the market has sobered up. Condos aren’t selling and condo-hotels are caught in the same downdraft. For tourism, the downshift could signify that some buildings financed by condo-hotel speculation weren’t necessarily good ideas. It could also delay the construction of new hotels announced but not yet started. A rule of thumb among hotel developers is that to be profitable rooms should rent for a tenth of 1 percent of their building cost. If a buyer acquires a unit for $500,000, that translates to room rates of $500 a night.

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Downtown Tampa's Revitalization Plans Slowed By Market

The first six of two dozen condo projects planned in the downtown Tampa area are expected to open by August, and pioneering condo dwellers are moving in. The combined 1,495 residential units promise a lot: a boost in downtown's population, a flock of retailers willing to serve those residents, and a bustling atmosphere of night life, cafes and thriving restaurants to draw outsiders. Is this the year Tampa's downtown blossoms? City planners and developers think so. But how long will the transformation take, and will the slowing real estate market postpone their dreams, as it has for developers who have already pulled their projects?

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Florida Market Slump: Will it Bounce Back?

The Florida market has been hit particularly hard by the current real estate slowdown. Investors, potential owners of second homes, and retirees are backing away from buying there, says David Hehman, chief executive of EscapeHomes.com, a vacation home Web site. In the Fort Myers and Cape Coral areas of Southwest Florida, for example, existing home sales plummeted 34 percent between January 2006 and January 2007, according to the Florida Association REALTORS®. WCI Communities, a builder based in Bonita Springs, Fla., saw its net income plunged from $186.2 million in 2005 to $9 million in 2006. CEO Jerry Starkey says he isn’t discouraged, though, and points out that 78 million baby boomers are reaching their peak second-home ownership and retirement years. "When America wakes up from this slump and this fear of buying homes," Starkey adds, "I think we'll see Florida return to one of the top home building markets in the country, as it has been historically."

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Clearwater Beach landlords fight ordinance

The issue: Longtime landlords of short-term rentals in the affluent north Clearwater Beach neighborhood have sued the city for its 2003 attempt to crack down on rentals of less than one month. The landlords say the city's vague, pre-2003 code allowed short-term rentals. But permanent residents have sought the short-term rental ban.

The venue: Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court

The resolution: Expected from Judge Nelly Khouzam by the end of the month.

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Pending home sales rise narrowly

Pending sales of existing U.S. homes rose above analysts' expectations in February, data from a real estate trade group showed on Tuesday, a signal that the housing sector may be stabilizing. The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in February, rose 0.7 percent to 109.3 from a downwardly revised 108.5 in January.

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First checks cut for My Safe Florida Home program

Florida officials say they’ve cut the first checks for a handful of residents who strengthened their home’s storm preparedness under the My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) program. It’s a drop in the bucket – only $30,000 to 10 homeowners in five counties – but more checks will be sent during this phase of the program. The homeowners, who received free wind inspections during the pilot phase of the program, are being reimbursed for half the cost of a variety of home improvements, including hurricane shutters, reinforced garage doors and roof enhancements. The MSFH program is currently on hiatus but Sink says it will resume statewide. For more information, visit the MSFH Web site at http://www.mysafefloridahome.com.

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'Homeowners Choice' Insurer Taking Shape

A group of prominent local businessmen, who last fall grabbed headlines by launching a bank, are doing an encore by forming an insurance company. Paresh Patel, chairman of the new Homeowners Choice insurance company, said the businessmen believe homeowners rates in Florida have risen more than the true risk facing the state. So they see an opportunity to provide a much-in-demand insurance, while still making a profit.

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Study: U.S. Prices Return to Normal

The Housing Valuation Analysis — a joint effort by Global Insight and National City Corp. — examines the top 317 U.S. real estate markets using data from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Taking into consideration differences in population density, household incomes, and interest rates, the analysis determines what home prices should be and how much current prices deviate from that norm. “Nearly all markets posted a decline in the level of overvaluation, which signals that the overall housing market is beginning to trend back to more normal price growth,” says Jeannine Cataldi, senior economist and manager of Global Insights Real Estate Service. The number of markets identified as overvalued decreased to 57 from 60 metro markets in the fourth quarter of 2006. Texas had the highest concentration of undervalued markets with Dallas and College Station-Bryan tying for lowest in the nation.

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Why workers need enticements to come to Tampa Bay

3.6% Unemployment rate for Tampa Bay area in January

4.8% Unemployment rate in the United States

125% Increase in Tampa Bay area median home price since 2000 $94,900 in Feb. 2000 to $213,300 in Feb. 2007

82% Average increase in Florida homeowner property insurance premiums since 2004 hurricane season

$35,922 Average yearly wage in Tampa Bay area (2006 estimate)

Last Ranking of Tampa Bay area wages compared with five competing cities in the Southeast.

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Owners of short-term rentals seek help with expenses

All along the coastline, communities are wrestling with what to do about the short-term rentals that are popping up in neighborhoods never meant to house vacationers. A convergence of factors has spawned the trend. Skyrocketing property taxes and insurance have combined with the easy advertising on the Internet to make it a lucrative option for owners of second homes or investment properties. And fewer low-cost, near-beach hotels have made it far more appealing for renters. At the heart of the debate, like so many in Florida, is property rights, the real estate market and the increasing cost of owning a piece of paradise. Runups in property values have led to higher taxes. Active hurricane seasons have multiplied insurance costs. The upshot: Many investment owners and snowbirds are stuck with an asset they can't unload or afford, notes Grant Thrall, who teaches business geography at the University of Florida.

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Grandparents sued for keeping girl in 55+ community

Kimberly Broffman is a vivacious red-haired thrill seeker who loves to watch NASCAR on TV. But at 31/2 years old, the only vehicle Kimberly operates is her Big Wheel. Her grandparents don't dare let her cruise it down the quiet streets of the Lakes subdivision, off 49th Street near U.S. 19. That's because the neighborhood association is aware that Kimberly is living in the 55-plus community and has filed a lawsuit to force the child out.

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