North West Florida Real Estate News and Views

By Brian Clark Howard

The housing market remains stagnant across most of the country, and analysts are worried about rising interest rates as well as widespread sub-prime mortgage lending. Some observers are beginning to ask if a beacon of light may be found in the burgeoning field of green building.

In green construction, designers and builders commit to minimizing waste, improving a building’s efficiency in terms of energy and water use, using sustainable or recycled products, and protecting indoor air quality. Walter Molony, a spokesperson for the National Association of Realtors, said he believes green features may help homeowners stand out from the competition. “People definitely value energy efficiency,” Molony said via telephone from the NAR’s LEED-certified green office building in Washington, DC. “As utility costs continue to rise, it becomes greater value in people’s minds,” he added.

Molony said his industry doesn’t yet have a reliable way of breaking down sales of green versus conventional homes. But a number of trends provide insight into green building’s great promise. More than 97,000 homes have been built and certified by voluntary green building programs around the country since the mid-1990s, according to the National Association of Home Builders, representing a 50 percent increase from the group’s 2004 survey. Further, more than half of NAHB’s 235,000 members (representing about 80 percent of homebuilders) reported that they expect to be employing at least some green building practices by the end of the year.

A number of realtors around the country have reported increasing buyer requests for green homes. Citing consumer demand, the Northwest MLS (Multiple Listing Service) recently announced that it is updating its database to allow for property searches based on a range of green features.

Maude Salinger, a spokesperson for the first residential green neighborhood in New Hampshire, Peterborough’s Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, explained in an e-mail that ten of the development’s 29 homes were sold before even a single foundation was poured. Eight additional homes were snapped up well before completion. Some of the neighborhood’s green features include an organic farm, a central pellet-fired heat plant, highly insulated structures, solar hot water collectors, natural and recycled materials, and perimeter parking (meaning there are no attached garages).

Owners of green homes tend to be happier than when they lived in more conventional digs, according to a recent NAHB/McGraw-Hill Construction survey. Perhaps another telling sign of the green shift in the building trades is the fact that almost 40 percent of Americans who recently renovated their dwellings did so with at least some green products.

Late this spring, the NAHB announced that it is working to create widely applicable standards for green home construction. The U.S. Green Building Council is also in the process of rolling out LEED certification (already well established for commercial structures) for the residential sector.

There may be no better time than now to invest in some smart energy efficiency and green improvements around your house.

That question gets asked over and over again. Believe it or not the answer hasn’t changed in a very, very long time.

The Answer : A good Realtor with a good Company representing a properly priced property will make it happen as quickly as possible.

There are seven pillars to the foundation of a good transaction. The first three:

• 1. The Property
•  2. Location
•  3. Price

These three are really out of our control. Yes we can make changes or improvements to the property to help make it more desirable, but to be honest most Sellers are not going to put major money into a property they are about to leave. So dress up is what mostly gets done before a Sale.

And unless we are talking about a Mobile Home the location isn’t going to change, that brings us to Price. The price conversation usually begins with the Seller saying something like… I need to get, or I want to get. This of course is irrelevant unless the figure proposed is below market price, because the reality is “The Property is only worth what a Buyer is willing to Pay for it.” This should be written on the wall of every Real Estate Office in the world. The Seller rarely believes it at Listing time, but usually as time goes by and no offers come in, they begin to get the message, “The Market determines the Price”.

Now we can discuss the four Pillars that we as Realtors can control:

• 4. Exposure
• 5. Information & Photos
• 6. Follow Ups
• 7. Working  after the contract, until it closes.

The exposure a property gets starts with the MLS listing. This exposes the Listing to hundreds if not thousands of other Agents who just may have a Buyer looking for a property just like yours. Of course the Information and Photos or Video of the property make a big difference in the level of interest generated, a good Agent will make sure all the pertinent information for your property is collected and made available for Buyers to see. The good Agents will make sure that the listing information gets distributed to all the major Nationally syndicated Real Estate Websites to give the greatest exposure possible.

When interested parties start to make inquires the Follow Up is very important, most Buyers are probably considering multiple properties, and making sure that any questions or concerns they may have about this Listing is vital to getting a Contract.

And finally after the Contract is written and signed…. the good Agent’s worth is fully realized by making sure that any and all Contingencies and timelines specified in the contract are met and adhered to, and the 1001 things that need to get done before the Close are all taken care of.

It really doesn’t matter where you live, or what kind of property you have the Pillars of a Solid transaction don’t change. If you would like to experience a solid Transaction, call me or visit my website to see what good exposure and properly presented information looks like.

Ron Bigus, Coldwell Banker Carroll Realty Inc.  (850) 624-3806 Website: http://www.RonBigus.com

Tax Benefits of Homeownership

The tax deductions you’re eligible to take for mortgage interest and property taxes greatly increase the financial benefits of homeownership. Here’s how it works.
Assume:
$9,877 = Mortgage interest paid (a loan of $150,000 for 30 years, at 7 percent, using year-five interest)
$2,700 = Property taxes (at 1.5 percent on $180,000 assessed value)
______

$12,577 = Total deduction

Then, multiply your total deduction by your tax rate.
For example, at a 28 percent tax rate: 12,577 x 0.28 = $3,521.56
$3,521.56 = Amount you have lowered your federal income tax (at 28 percent tax rate)

Note: Mortgage interest may not be deductible on loans over $1.1 million. In addition, deductions are decreased when total income reaches a certain level.

Reprinted from REALTOR® magazine (REALTOR.org/realtormag) with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Seventy-five percent of Americans say that “owning a home is the best long-term investment they can make and is worth the risk of ups and downs in the housing market,” according to a new survey of 2,000 bipartisan voters by the National Association of Home Builders.

Despite their situation — whether underwater on their home or even renters — the survey found Americans to be optimistic about home ownership. Eighty-one percent of those who own their homes outright, 76 percent with mortgages, 67 percent of renters, and 65 percent who have underwater mortgages cited home ownership as the “best long-term investment.”

When survey respondents were asked whether they’d recommend buying a home to a friend or family member just starting out, 80 percent of Americans said “yes.” Even home owners currently underwater — those who owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth — overwhelmingly (78 percent) said they would recommend home ownership to family or friends starting out.

More buyers are coming up through the pipeline too. The survey found that 73 percent of those surveyed who do not own a home said their goal is eventually to buy one.

The NAHB survey also found:

▪ 58 percent of Americans oppose eliminating the mortgage-interest deduction and 63 percent oppose lowering it. What’s more, 57 percent of those surveyed say they are less likely to support a candidate for Congress who wanted to eliminate the mortgage-interest deduction.
▪ Respondents were split on about requiring a 20 percent down payment to purchase a home: 49 percent were in favor and 49 percent opposed it. However, mortgage holders and renters aged 18 to 54 were more opposed to it: 58 percent of younger mortgage holders and 59 percent of younger renters opposed adding a 20 percent down payment requirement.

Source: “The Cook Report: The Home Front,” National Journal (June 2, 2011)

Hello.

Welcome to my Blog. I will be posting items of News and my Views on the Real Estate Market in North West Florida. If you are interested in searching for property in and around Panama City Beach in Bay County Fl. take a look at my website. I have one of the easiest searches to use that covers all of the property in our local MLS.

The last few years have been pretty rough on Real Estate prices in general. Buyers have found some great deals while Sellers  have seen their equity diminish to a disappointing level.

For the most part this was just the market following its cyclical history. Call it inertia or the rubber-band effect or whatever other clever wording you want to use, but the market always corrects itself, back to the norm over time.

For the Housing market to work, new housing will always be tied to local labor cost + materials + local land value. So when existing housing prices go way above, (as they were from 2000 to 2005) or way below, (as they are now) the cost of new housing the market will correct the prices back to reality. How fast the correction happens is driven by supply and demand.

Current demand is being stifled by strict lending practices so the prices are low, as credit loosens up prices will go up to be on a par with new construction and all will be ok again. This happens over and over again to the housing market, usually due to how loose Banks are in lending money, which is usually driven by and large by Government Rules and Guidelines that determine the amount of money available for the Banks to lend for Mortgages.

The Federal Government for the most part controls the housing market, the Banks can’t put out more money for any one type of loan than the Fed allows or they are out of compliance with the Fed and they will get shut down. They also cannot resell mortgages without the Fed’s approval on the underwriting of those mortgages, so when the Government says the Banks caused the current problem, they are blowing smoke up our butts.

That’s the way I see it. What do you think? let me know.

Ron Bigus