TC Palm reports from Florida. “Sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums in the region increased in April, a report from the Florida Association of Realtors showed Friday. However, home prices in the Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie metropolitan statistical area dropped 34 percent to $159,200 in April, down from $242,600 the prior year. The last time prices were this low was during September 2003, when the median price was $154,100.”
“‘This is stating the obvious, but the overheated housing market caused escalation in the pricing and market value of homes that was just not sustainable,’ said Richard Hope, past president of the Treasure Coast Builders Association. ‘Consumers became well aware of this and backed off on home purchases so they didn’t end up upside down.’”
The Sun Sentinel. “Sales of existing homes in Palm Beach County dropped slightly in April, FAR said Friday. The median price of an existing home in Palm Beach County last month dropped 17 percent, to $314,000 from $376,300 last year.”
“The supply of foreclosed properties will continue to drag down prices across the area, real estate experts say. ‘It’s shark time right now,’ said Ryan Greenblatt, a real estate agent in Boca Raton. ‘Everybody’s swimming, looking for deals.’”
“Greenblatt’s clients, Seth and Stefanie Ellis, bought a four-bedroom home in a new development west of Delray Beach two years ago. But they’re already outgrowing it.”
“They started by asking $799,000, then reduced the price to $775,000. Even so, they’ve had only a few showings in three months. ‘I’m surprised,’ said Seth Ellis. ‘There are a lot of opportunities for buyers out there.’”
“Many buyers are bottom feeding on so-called short sales. Agents say they aren’t having much luck negotiating those deals because overwhelmed lenders don’t respond in a timely manner. In some cases, banks are foreclosing on properties and listing them for less than the short-sale offers that they either rejected or failed to acknowledge.”
“‘I won’t even show short sales anymore,’ said Pamela Orr of Balistreri Realty in Palm Beach and Broward counties. ‘Ninety percent of the time, it doesn’t work out.’”
“‘Nationally, housing activity remains weak,’ said Chris Lafakis, associate economist covering Florida for Moody’s Economy.com. ‘But in Florida prices are coming down and sales activity is picking up. The only way to work through this correction is for prices to fall to a level that’s best for housing affordability and demand.’”
The Miami Herald. “In April, the median price of a single-family home in Miami-Dade fell 24 percent from a year ago to $291,900 and 18 percent in Broward to $298,100. Condo prices also fell in Broward by 24 percent, to a median of $150,000.”
“Doug DeWitt, a Miami real estate agent said he has nine properties under contract and more listings — mostly bank foreclosures — than ever. But, he added, he wouldn’t want to be a seller. ‘If you have to sell right now, you’re at the mercy of a mean, bottom-feeding market.’”
“Tracy Lopez said she and her husband took the plunge last month despite the likelihood of further price declines because they were tired of renting. Lopez said they negotiated a great deal with a motivated seller who cut his asking price by $100,000.”
“The couple got the deal on a home that sits on an acre behind Baptist Hospital, partly because it had been on sale for nearly a year and a half. ‘What my husband’s tactic was, he went in very low. The house was listed at $999,000. He put in an offer at $850,000 or less,’ Lopez said.”
“Eventually, the sellers settled on $900,000. The couple will close next month. Lopez said they found plenty of homes for sale, but many they considered still overpriced. ‘When you look at a $1 million house, you expect a castle, what we found were average houses. What we were finding was really nothing.’”
The Daily Business Review. “Buyers hoping to profit from South Florida’s troubled condo market – are eyeing the expanding inventory of thousands of unsold units. But they can’t get them for the rock bottom prices they are willing to pay.’
“The vultures put much of the blame on lenders who won’t agree to deals. Developers mostly have their hands tied by pricing set in loan agreements made before the condo market crashed. The bargain hunters can be patient. They have the upper hand.”
“An investor who acquires the remaining units in a failed development can be responsible for many of a developer’s legal liabilities, depending on the percentage of units owned by the investor, according to Martin A. Schwartz, an attorney at Miami-based Bilzin Sumberg.”
“Broker Peter Zalewski said most developers are willing to remain liable for any problems that surface in a project for a year after the sale, he said. He said the one prime reason more deals haven’t closed: ‘The moment of capitulation has not occurred with the banks yet.’”
“Until banks are willing to take a short-sale, bulk condo deals will not happen, Zalewski said. ‘There is not a lack of funding, product or willingness,’ he said. ‘Developers want to sell, buyers want to buy, but banks don’t want to take a writeoff.’”
“Zalewski and others in the condo industry said the game will turn once regulators step in.”
The News Press. “Existing homes sales in Lee County in April rose sharply from a year earlier as prices plunged and builders offered deep discounts. The median price fell 29 percent from $283,200 to $200,300 in the same period. Charlotte County sales showed a similar trend: The price was down 27 percent from $197,100 to $143,400.”
“One recent buyer said he’s glad to be buying after a long decline in the market. The median price of a single-family home is now 37 percent off the all-time high of $322,300 reached in December 2005.”
“‘We found it cheaper to buy than rent,’ said Bernie Connor, 71, a retiree from Maine who’s under contract to buy a four-bedroom, two-bath house in northwest Cape Coral for about $110,000.”
“‘I found it more reasonable to buy, naturally, because of the equity,’ he said. ‘The low home market’s probably going to last for another year or so but then it’s going back up – there’s no question about that.’”
“Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said he saw reasons for optimism for the second half of this year. ‘I would encourage buyers who were disappointed by poor mortgage options to take another look at the market because the lending changes are significant,’ he said.”
“However, other economists were not as optimistic about a rebound in sales. ‘With prices collapsing, the incentive not to buy a home is increasing by the week, and with inventory showing no sign of improvement, prices will keep falling,’ predicted Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.”
The Herald Tribune. “Realtors have been saying for several months that sales were perking up in Southwest Florida. ‘The market is much healthier now than during this time last year,’ said Luke Andreae of Re/Max Harbor Realty in Punta Gorda. ‘I don’t mean prices, I mean the number of buyers and people out there looking.’”
“Sales in other part of the state continued to fall. In Miami, sales dropped 47 percent, with just 281 homes changing hands — only 13 more than were sold last month in Charlotte County-North Port.”
“In Southwest Florida, median sales prices are still lower than a year ago: 11 percent lower in Sarasota-Bradenton and 27 percent lower in Charlotte County-North Port.”
“Lillian St. George of Punta Gorda Realty thinks it will be several more months until sales pick up significantly. Some homeowners in her territory still refuse to accept the reality of the market and lower their prices, she said.”
“‘Those owners will never sell their properties,’ she said. ‘They’re waiting for the next big boom.’”
“Steve Dutoit, a broker in Sarasota, said inventory is the real problem now. ‘We’ve seen an increase in sales activity, which is good, but we’re still very far away from a balance in our inventory,’ Dutoit said.”
“Before the exuberance of the boom, for example, there were about 2,500 listings in the Sarasota MLS. There are now more than 12,000.”
“While the pace of sales is increasing, there is trouble closing a sizable percentage of pending offers — a phenomenon Dutoit thinks is partly because of short sales being denied by the banks.”
“‘We’re seeing over 50 percent of the homes that go pending come back on the market,’ he said.”
“Markets where speculation was rampant during the boom also showed rebounding sales during April. In Fort Myers-Cape Coral, the number of homes sold spiked 41 percent last month, with the median price slipping by about $83,000 to $200,300.”
The Bradenton Herald. “For the past year, Realtors have talked about pricing a home properly but in an ever-changing market, that is not always an easy task so Ron Cornette, director of training and marketing, and Wagner Realty VP Polly Gaar have been going to all the company’s offices teaching agents how to price homes right.”
“‘You almost have to do a new market analysis every 60 to 90 days because the market is changing,’ Cornette said.”
“Determining what people are willing to pay per square foot to live in a particular neighborhood is one way to ensure a home is priced properly, Cornette said. ‘Our job is to sell it, not just to list it,’ Cornette said.”
“As predicted, condos are taking longer to show signs of recovery. In April, condo sales were down 16 percent from last year, and average prices fell 11 percent to $212,000.”
“‘It took a long time for us to get in the real estate mess we are in today, and it could take a long time to get out of it,’ said broker Rod Rawlings.”
The St Petersburg Times. “Pending sales, homes under contract waiting to close, were up in April in every county in the Tampa Bay area compared to a year earlier. Higher sales correlated with lower prices. The Tampa region’s median home price is $176,000, 26 percent below the high mark of $239,300 in June 2006.”
“‘Price, price, price is what sells a house. Period,’ said Nikki Ubaldini, a Palm Harbor real estate broker. ‘Nine of 10 people just want to know they’re paying a fair price.’”
“April sales in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties totalled 2,087. That’s 8 percent below April 2007’s total of 2,257. Purchases approximated those of April 1999.”
“Tempering the optimism is the recognition that many homes changed hands through short sales. One-third of Ubaldini’s current business is short sales.”
“The market seems most stable in Hillsborough, where the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors reported sales down only a hair year to year, 1,235 vs. 1,249 a year earlier. Deborah Farmer of Star Light Realty, this year’s president of the Tampa association, hopes to press that advantage into what is now the peak selling season.”
“‘If we don’t make it in April, May or June, that’s pretty much it for us,’ Farmer said.”
The Naples News. “Broker Carla Bonten said one major reason why the Sunshine State defies the country’s average is Florida’s weather. ‘We’re in paradise. That’s what everybody says,’ she said.”
“Broker Wes Brodersen said…when it comes to interpreting how the housing market is doing…people will often see what they want to see. ‘Perception is everything in this business,’ he said. ‘Doom and gloomers always find doom and gloom. They’ve been telling me the sky is falling for the past few years, and you know what? I don’t have a single piece of sky in my hair.’”
“While John Gilletti sits safely in his villa in Colombia, the lives of the Fort Myers families who rented or bought homes from him are in shambles.”
“Gilletti is named in 10 foreclosure lawsuits in Lee County. The families that he rents to may have no idea that their residence is in foreclosure, and they’ll be forced to move.”
“Ana Freed, her husband and three sons had been renting a four bedroom, two-bath house, near Page Field, from Gilletti for $1,000 a month. Gilletti mentioned to Freed that someone with foreclosure papers might show up and that she shouldn’t worry about it.”
“‘I thought he was kidding,’ Freed said, until the processor came knocking to serve Gilletti the documents for the lawsuit.”
“Freed said Gilletti told her not to worry about the foreclosure, that it would take two years to make it through the courts. But Freed said she didn’t want the uncertainty of living in a house under foreclosure. And she called Gilletti and left a message telling him to keep her security payment as the last month’s rent. Her family would be moving in 30 days.”
“Freed said that after her call, Gilletti went to her husband’s job and demanded to see him. Then he came to her home and threatened her with an eviction.”
“Freed said she told him: ‘Go ahead, I dare you. They’re looking for you on eight properties. Go to the courthouse and I can come and watch.’”
“The Freeds found another house where they pay $1,200 a month. But before they moved out Gilletti had posted a sign in front of the home on Third Street advertising that it was for rent for $800 a month.”
“‘This man is going to take advantage of another family,’ Freed said. ‘They will be the ones out on the street while he takes off with their money.’”
“The Tampa Bay metro area lost at least 27,000 jobs in the past year, according to a report released last week. Three days before the report came out, Carl Smith was standing outside the room he had rented by the week. With him were his only possessions – a suitcase and a guitar. The room was clean and the rent was cheap. Only $150 a week. But he could no longer afford even that.”
“So now he had to decide whether to keep trying or give up on Florida for good, take what was left of his savings and hop the 7 p.m. bus to Nashville.”
“Smith is 50, single, and has worked as a carpenter for half his life, usually making around $18 an hour. But that was before the housing market tanked last year.”
“He said that in order to compete for the few remaining jobs, contractors have had to slash costs. To do that, they hire people willing to work for less than half the going wage.”
“‘Illegal workers,’ Smith said. ‘It’s frustrating as hell. I’d be glad to work for a living. I can do framing and high-end trim work. I can cut rafters and stairs. I know what I’m doing. But try to make it on $6 or $7 an hour.’”
“He sold magazine subscriptions over the phone after the construction jobs dried up. But after he paid his rent last week, he had $20 left. ‘You’ve got to eat,’ he said. ‘And the bus costs $3 a day. I don’t know what to say. I’d just as soon get out of here.’”
