Gulf Coast Associates' Blog: All Categories

The Federal Open Market Committee, the monetary policy arm of the Federal Reserve, held their December meeting Tuesday and lowered both the Fed Funds and Fed Discount rates by 25 basis points each. It was the third such rate cut in succession by the Federal Reserve Board and is designed to continue their efforts to help foster price stability, sustain growth and hopefully ward off the potential for a recession. In addition, the rate cuts should also help with the current foreclosure situation and give another boost to the ailing housing market.

Recent evidence suggests the risk of core inflation continues to improve modestly, oil prices have stopped climbing, at least for the time being, and the declining dollar has leveled off somewhat. While the Fed's…

Today, the Bush administration and the Lending Industry announced their plan for helping homeowners who are facing higher mortgage payments when their upcoming subprime ARM loans reset. Faced with the prospect of 2 million subprime mortgages scheduled to reset at higher interest rates in the coming years, the agreement will freeze the loans' current interest rate for the next five years. The administration stressed that the deal is not a bailout because no government money is involved and limits will be put in place as to exactly what type of borrowers will be eligible for the program.

By adopting such limits, only those borrowers who are current on their payments and can't afford the higher reset interest rates will qualify. Borrowers who have been …

The January thru September Ft. Myers Beach real estate sales statistics for both homes and condominiums are listed below. Ft. Myers Beach is the "happening" locale on Southwest Florida's Lee Island Coast. Ft. Myers Beach offers every amenity you can imagine- from seven miles of wide sandy beaches, golf, boating, fishing and more than anything else - relaxing. The Beach as its known, is eclectic and diverse. It draws visitors from all over the world and you'll find all sorts of folks from generations of families to Easter Break kids. There's nothing else quite like it anywhere in Southwest Florida.

Ft. Myers Beach Sales Data

Ft. Myers Beach Home Sales Jan-Sept 2007*:

• 57 Closed Sales
• Average Sales Price - $639,987
• Median Sales Price -…

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced on Monday there could soon be an agreement between the government and the major players in the mortgage industry to help thousands of American homeowners avoid mortgage defaults by temporarily freezing borrower’s lower introductory rates to keep them from resetting to higher levels for a period of years.

Paulson was addressing a national housing conference and said in his speech that this effort was a “pragmatic response” to the current realities of the worst housing slump in more than two decades. He also noted that the number of homeowners unable to meet their higher monthly mortgage payments because of their rates resetting is currently soaring and will continue to do so unless something is done to help…

As promised, Governor Crist announced the launch of the state's new floridaperforms.com website which is designed for making Florida government functions more accessible to the public. The site compiles data from a variety of government resources and provides an easy to use format to show a synopsis of Florida's current state of affairs.

The website reports on how well Florida is doing in areas that affects its residents quality of life. According to his introductory letter welcoming visitors, Governor Crist states that "the performance measures will not only provide you with a window into your government, it will also provide our managers with important tools to build upon successes and address shortcomings", which should be invaluable to those agencies…

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) announced today that the maximum 2008 Conforming loan limit for single-family mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain at the 2007 level of $417,000 for one-unit properties. Higher limits will continue to apply for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as for properties with more than one unit.

The Conforming Loan limit determines the maximum size of a mortgage that Fannie and Freddie can purchase. By law, the limit is based on the October-to-October change in the average house price in the Monthly Interest Rate Survey of the Federal Housing Finance Board. While the average house price in the survey declined by 3.49% over the last year, the OFHEO once again…

No matter how much the drive-by media wants to spin the current housing slow down, one thing those of us who live in Florida know for sure, people will continue to flock to the Sunshine State no matter how much doom and gloom the pundits currently espouse. And, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand why. A simple look at the numbers mixed with a little common sense is all anyone needs to see the forest for the trees.

First and foremost, if you read a newspaper or watch cable television, you'd have no choice but to think that absolutely no one is buying houses anymore, especially in Florida. And, while it is a fact that the sales numbers are down from the boom in 2005-2006, the reality is sales are still occurring at a pretty respectable pace.…

For most Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate with family and friends giving thanks for the good fortunes of another year. For residents of Florida and other coastal states, Thanksgiving 2007 is also a time to give thanks for another quiet hurricane season. While many areas in Mexico and the Caribbean were not so fortunate, the United States, for the most part, was left unscathed by the destructive nature of this year's storms.

For newer residents to the coastal areas, this year has been an unusual blessing. For more seasoned veterans, it was a mere respite. It doesn’t take much for most of us to recall 2004-6 when the likes of Charlie and Ivan, Dennis and Wilma wreaked their havoc on our very existence. In fact most years, we're grateful to…