Archive for the 'Pensacola Real Estate News' Category
Free Legal Advice For Florida Real Estate Owners Facing Foreclosure
July 16th, 2008 Categories: Credit And Financing, Pensacola Real Estate News, Saving You Money
Thanks to the the Florida Bar and Florida Legal Services, Florida homeowners facing foreclosure can now get access to a lawyer and free legal advice.
With the surge in real estate foreclosures, especially in Florida, this program comes none too soon.
According to Florida Legal Services Inc., 77,000 state homeowners are in foreclosure, making Florida second in the nation only to California. And many other homeowners are at least 30 days past due on their mortgage payment. Fortunately for the Pensacola real estate market, we are not seeing the high foreclosure rates that other parts of the state are seeing.
Florida Legal Services and the Florida Bar Association have partnered in establishing a toll-free hotline that consumers can call.
They’ll be asked some initial questions about their situation to ensure accurate placement, and then be sent to a free attorney.
The attorney will then negotiate with the lender on behalf of the client to keep the home from being foreclosed.
Here is the toll free number: (866) 607-2187
Hours to call are Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
More than 10,000 Florida attorneys have volunteered their services in the program, according to Florida Legal Services Inc. Remember that next time you feel the need to tell a bad lawyer joke.
Related Articles On Pensacola Real Estate News:
Real Estate Short Sales - Is It Worth It?
Did Speculators Accelerate The Florida Housing Downturn?
Click on Pensacola Real Estate News for a list of articles indexed by category.
| Currently 1 Comment »
Pensacola Real Estate Weekly Market Report for Week Ending July 5, 2008
July 11th, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Market Data, Pensacola Real Estate News
Pensacola Real Estate Market Data
Weekly Update For Residential Listings
In Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties
Welcome to the weekly Pensacola real estate market report. This one covers the week of June 29-July 5.
We saw a big jump in sales at the end of May. The jump in home sales at the end of June actually surpassed that of May, which is great news. The table doesn’t show it because the table is on a Sunday-Saturday week. However, from June 24-June 30 the total home sales reached 178.
Days On Market (DOM) is up a little, but that is attributed to several high end homes selling that had been on the market for 500 to 900 days. If we take out these oddball sales, average DOM for Pensacola homes sold during that week comes to 155 days.
I have done quite a bit of home searching for clients this past few weeks and it seems like every other home I came across is a short sale.
If you want to know more about short sales, check out my article on Pensacola Real Estate Short Sales - Is It Worth It for more information on why short sales are so frustrating for both the real estate agent and the buyer.
Look for more posts coming soon about the number of short sales on the market and the problems with buying bank owned foreclosure properties.
Look also for an upcoming 6 Month beach report where I will show the active real estate listings and sales on Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key for the first 6 months of 2008.
If you are interested in sales of homes in different areas of Pensacola, check out my Pensacola Real Estate Market Report By Area post which breaks out the sales by different areas Northwest Florida.
- The table shows the weekly market data for Pensacola residential property.
- These numbers include only residential homes and condominiums in Escambia County and Santa Rosa County that are listed in the Pensacola MLS.
- They do not include vacant land or lots, mobile homes or manufactured homes or Pensacola FSBOs.
- The numbers above are created using data from the Pensacola MLS and are deemed reliable but not guaranteed
Click on Pensacola Real Estate News for a list of articles indexed by category.
| Currently No Comments »
Fully Furnished Home Takes On A Whole New Meaning
June 29th, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Real Estate News, Working With Realtors
A Florida real estate agent is advertising her home for sale. Her ad starts with “Florida Dream Home”. And it does look like a beautiful home. She even posted a couple of photos of the home on her Craigslist ad.
But this home comes with something special. HER!!!
Yes, that’s right, you can buy this beautiful Florida dream home, wife included.
Here is the full headline on her ad: Florida Dream Home with a Dream Princess Bride included (West Palm Beach, Florida)
Deven Traboscia has been divorced for eight years and she is ready to get married. Deven is a single mother and real estate agent. Here is a portion of her ad:
“If you want to live the never ending dream and experience the real love, life and the romance you have always felt was a fairytale then this is the vibrant outstanding woman of your dreams! To sweep this European Loving Lady off her feet send in your application right now ”
You can find the full add at this link on Craigslist.
All my blog post normally fit nicely into predetermined categories. This one required some thought. In the end I decided to put it in the “Working With Realtors” category. Appropriate, don’t you think?
| Currently 1 Comment »
Declining Real Estate Market Policy Scrapped by Fannie Mae
June 13th, 2008 Categories: Credit And Financing, Pensacola Real Estate News
The Pensacola Real Estate market was listed as a “declining market” by Fannie Mae. Fortunately, Fannie Mae has decided to scrap the “declining markets” policy. This policy required loan underwriters to boost minimum down-payment requirements by 5 percent in areas where home prices are falling or difficult to determine. Pensacola Florida was considered one of those areas. The policy also applied if an appraiser determined a property was in a declining market.
This is great news for potential home buyers in the Pensacola real estate market. Beginning in June 2008, Fannie Mae will instead require 3 percent down payments for conventional, conforming mortgages processed through its Desktop Underwriter automated underwriting system, and 5 percent minimum down payments for loans processed manually. Larger down payments may be required depending on occupancy, property and transaction types.
Last month, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) sent a letter to Fannie Mae complaining that entire metropolitan areas were being labeled as “declining markets”. Actual values in local neighborhoods were not being taken into account. The result of this policy was to discourage potential home buyers from entering the real estate market. The policy kept some would-be home buyers from taking action because they could not come up with the funds to make the increased down payment. Others avoided buying because they were afraid to do so if prices were still declining.
In the letter, NAR stated “In either case, the impact of the policy becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that creates declining markets that did not exist before and intensifies the decline for markets that are declining and delays their recovery”
Note that the declining market policy was not considered a factor in getting an FHA loan, which is the loan most first time home buyers find the easiest to get in this market. Either way, I believe it is a good thing this policy was scrapped. Anything we can do to boost our local economy and real estate market is a plus.
Click on Pensacola Real Estate News for a list of articles indexed by category.
| Currently No Comments »
FBI Shifting More Resources To Mortgage Fraud
June 12th, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Real Estate News
I have reported in several articles about the rise in real estate mortgage fraud. A news story was published from Inman news today that indicated the FBI is shifting even more resources to investigations of mortgage fraud. This shift is occuring in 26 field offices in areas hit hardest by mortgage fraud.
Agents in these field offices have actually been ordered to temporarily stop opening new investigations on other crimes, such as wire fraud, mail fraud, price fixing and environmental crimes.
While Florida is one of the top 10 states for mortgage fraud cases, most of these cases are in the central and southern part of the state. Pensacola has not seen the level of fraud that other areas of Florida have. This is due mainly to the fact that Pensacola was not as speculative of a market as other areas of Florida were. Read more in the related articles below about mortgage fraud in Florida, and a case we saw right here in Gulf Breeze Florida.
Related Articles On Pensacola Real Estate News
Mortgage Fraud On The Rise
Did Speculators Accelerate The Florida Housing Downturn
Click on Pensacola Real Estate News for a list of articles indexed by category.
| Currently No Comments »
Pensacola Real Estate News: Mortgage Fraud on the Rise
May 14th, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Real Estate News
In recent days, reports have been coming out that indicate the FBI has increased their real estate mortgage fraud caseload. That is not a big surprise, as a down real estate market provides an ideal climate for mortgage fraud perpetrators.
Examples of real estate mortgage fraud include builder bailouts, seller assistance, foreclosure rescue and identity theft in exploiting home equity lines of credit. An example of a builder bailout scheme would be a builder providing undisclosed incentives to buyers, such as returning the down payment.
Remember, to stay out of trouble, make sure everything is openly disclosed to all parties, including the lender. As a real estate buyer, don’t let a seller try to provide you any incentives to buy that are not fully disclosed in writing.
The FBI had more than 1,200 mortgage fraud investigations open at the end of fiscal year 2007. This is a 47 percent increase from the previous year but still is estimated to be a small fraction of suspected cases. The number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by banks detailing suspected mortgage fraud grew 31 percent during this same period, to 46,717. Although federally chartered banks are required to file SARs with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), many other mortgage lenders are exempt, suggesting that the FBI is investigating only a small fraction of mortgage fraud cases.
The FBI said the top 10 worst states for mortgage fraud were Florida, Georgia, Michigan, California, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, New York, Colorado and Minnesota.
A Pensacola real estate attorney spoke recently at a Pensacola Real Estate Navigators meeting. She told the audience about a local case of mortgage fraud that she handled. A man had bought a house and lived in it for only a few years. He then forged a Satisfaction of Mortgage and recorded it in the public records. Thus it appeared that he owned the home free and clear. He then applied for a home equity loan. In doing the title work, the attorney became suspicious, as it is rare that someone pays off a home in a few years. She checked with the bank and found that they still held the mortgage and it had not been paid off.
The attorney went ahead with the closing on the home equity loan. The man came into her office and signed the necessary paperwork. On his way out, the police were waiting for him. He was arrested and taken away.
It is not worth it. Disclose everything to your lender and to your buyers if you are the seller. In the long run, this ensures that everything is legal and no one ends up ruining their life over simple and plain greed.
Fortunately, there is relatively little mortgage fraud in the Pensacola Florida area. Most of the real estate fraud in Florida will be in the southern part of the state. See related articles below.
Related Articles on Pensacola Real Estate News
Did Speculators Accelerate the Florida Housing Downturn
Click on Pensacola Real Estate News for a list of articles indexed by category.
| Currently 1 Comment »
An Evening With Chris Jones, Escambia County Property Appraiser
April 1st, 2008 Categories: Local Stories, Pensacola Real Estate News
In the March 2008 monthly meeting of Pensacola Real Estate Navigators, our local Escambia County property appraiser Chris Jones was the guest speaker. I have never met Chris, although I have been friends with other members of his family for many years. And Chris, like the rest of his family, is a warm and friendly person and truly cares about his Pensacola community.
I have also had to work through real estate related issues with the Escambia County Property Appraisers office, and they are a pleasure to deal with. (I’m not kidding. No sarcasm intended.) Maybe you’ve dealt with our local county or city government and were left wondering how anything ever really gets done in our county. That is not Chris Jones’ office. They are extremely customer service oriented and just as helpful and friendly as they can be.
The main topic of the speech was Property Tax Exemptions: Limitations on Property Tax Assessments, also known as Amendment 1. If you are not familiar with Amendment 1, follow the links on the Escambia County Property Appraisers home page for more information.
The first topic Chris covered was the doubling of the $25,000 homestead exemption. Chris made the point that this was not a “true doubling”. The homestead exemption was increased to $25,000 in 1980. At that time, it should have been indexed to increase at a rate to keep pace with inflation. However, it was not. It was kept at $25,000 for the next 27 years. If the homested exemption had been indexed to keep pace with inflation, the exemption would now be $65,000, not $50,000. Hence, not a true doubling. This exemption does not apply to school taxes.
Why did we end up with Amendment 1? The taxable value of Escambia County real estate doubled over the last 7 years. The taxing authorities refused to lower tax rates, and just raked in all the extra money. Citizens of Florida said enough is enough. Hence, Amendment 1 was the Florida citizens’ way of stopping the government from taking advantage of rising property values while not providing any better service to the people. 
Another feature of Amendment 1 is portability. Portability refers to being able to move your “Save Our Homes” benefit from one home to another if you buy and sell your home in Florida. Without this portability, it can be cost prohibitive for many citizens to move in Florida. Chris gave the example of a gentlemen in his 80s who had lived on waterfront property on Bayou Texar for many years. His current property value is well over a million dollars. However, to downsize and move to a more modest $250,000 home would result in an increase in property taxes paid by this man. Portability will help with these types of issues. Chris believes that the portability feature will help absorb much of our current glut of inventory in the Pensacola real estate market. You can follow my Pensacola real estate market reports to keep track of local inventory.
The next feature of Amendment 1 discussed was the Tangible Personal Property Tax Exemption. This exemption pertains to Florida businesses. It basically helps the property appraiser’s office focus their efforts on larger businesses that have more assets, versus wasting valuable resources on smaller businesses.
The last feature of Amendment 1 discussed was the 10% per year cap on non-homestead property. Thus if you own land, a second home, or other investment properties, your property taxes cannot increase more than 10% per year. This does not apply to school taxes.
After Amendment 1 was discussed, Chris went on to give his assessments of what he felt was the state of the Pensacola real estate market. He felt one of the big positives for the area was commercial property. We are seeing commercial property selling well, and holding its value. In addition, homes under $200,000 are holding their value fairly well. This should be a call to action for first time home buyers. There is bond money available at low interest rates, down payment assistance, and other programs to help first time Pensacola home buyers.
Of course we also have our negatives in Escambia County. Chris saw our big negatives being sales of waterfront properties and condos. These properties are not selling well in the current Pensacola real estate market. However, the prices are coming down on waterfront. See my article on Cheap Pensacola Waterfront Properties. Unfortunately, insurance rates are a big factor in preventing sale of these properties.
Chris also sees that people are leaving Escambia County faster than they are coming in. We need new business to attract people to our area. Santa Rosa county is rated as the 5th fastest growing County in Florida. Mobile Alabama is booming, along with Baldwin County and Orange Beach. And here sits Escambia County, sandwiched between 2 of the fastest growing areas in the nation. Our economy is stagnating and we are losing residents, while our neighbors are creating new business and have positive growing economies. Something is wrong. My feeling is that our local government leaders are not proactive in bringing new business to our area. Chris did not go so far as to say this, but I did hear several people in attendance mention poor leadership as our biggest problem.
I would like to extend a big thank you to Chris Jones for sharing his time and his knowledge with our local real estate investment group. It was a great educational experience for all who attended.
Click on Pensacola Real Estate News for a list of articles indexed by category.
| Currently No Comments »