Jim Jacobs' Blog: All Categories

If you listen to the doom sayers, you will believe that homes are not selling in North Palm Beach unless the price is drastically cut. If you examine the facts it presents quite another picture. It is commonly understood that if you have less then 6 months supply of homes on the market you have a sellers market. If you have from 6 months to one year of supply you have a balanced market and if you have from a year to a year and a half you have a buyers market. If you have over 2 years of supply you have a strong buyers market.   At this time in North Palm Beach, Florida there are a total of 119 single family homes for sale in the MLS. In 2003 there were 132 single family homes sold. In 2004 there were 126 single family homes sold in North Palm Beach. In… Read Full Post

The number of homes on the market in Palm Beach County has declined for 4 consecutive months now. The amount of homes for sale is still about a 24 month supply at the present rate of sales, but once the buyers understand the prices are not going lower it will pick up rapidly. There will still be isolated cases of sacrifice sales, but the trend line for home prices is basically flat at this time. What has always happened in the past is the trend on home prices is usually up about 3 to 5 % a year on average. If you get a rapid run-up in prices as we did in 2004 and 2005 and the prices get far above the line, you then get a downturn and go below the trend line to compensate. It takes a period of time from 6 months to 3 or 4 years to get back on the trend… Read Full Post

The prices of luxury homes in the Jupiter, Juno Beach and North Palm Beach areas are almost unchanged from last month with sales slow, but steady. The inventory of older homes, condos and townhomes in Jupiter, Juno Beach and North Palm Beach has stopped building and has actually declined about 5 % in the last two months. There will still be isolated cases of distress sales, but the trend is toward prices stabilizing and starting to climb once again. If you are considering buying a home in Jupiter, Juno Beach, North Palm Beach or Palm Beach Gardens, it is time to get off the fence and do something.  If you are holding off waiting for the bottom to come before you buy something you may be waiting too long.    It is kind of like summer. The heat keeps… Read Full Post

When the work started on rebuilding the draw bridge over the Intracoastal at PGA Boulevard the signs said it would be under construction for 4 months. The bridge is now finished and the construction equipment is all removed and it is only 2 years later. That is 2 years of bottle necks, long waits and periodic closings. To my knowledge no one went into road rage and did anything foolish, but I know a lot of us thought about it.   I came from 28 years in Alaska and was used to things being done very quickly. If it is going to be very cold in a few months, you make sure the work that is hard to do in -20 weather and three feet of snow is done in the short summer. If that means working 24 hours a day, then you do it. If it means two or three shifts of… Read Full Post

Jim and Ruth Jacobs are proud to announce that Jim is the broker of the new Quantum One Realty in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  The office is now open at 3307 Northlake Blvd, suite 103 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  It is a full service real estate office with mortgage service as well as residential and commercial real estate sales.

stop in and say hello or give us a call at 561-308-1189.

Jim Jacobs  www.QuantumOne.com

In Palm Beach, Martin and St Lucie Counties in Florida there are quite a few investors who bought homes just to flip them.  They planned to sell them without ever taking delivery of the home.  This was a good tactic for a time, but there became too many using the same tactic and too many homes were built.  As these homes came on the market and the investors realized they were in trouble, the situation became very turbulent.  As much as 40 % of some developments were investors.  The builders did not realize the magnitude of the problem because many of the investors were first time flippers and only bought one home.   As the market slowed, the builders started building on speculation to keep theri crews busy.  When the market became saturated they had… Read Full Post

We spent almost three months helping a really nice guy try to get some Palm Beach County grant money to help him buy a home.  He was not allowed to go directly to the County; he had to work through a "non profit" organization.  The “non profit” took his information and presented it to the County.  They were slow and bureaucratic and at times it seemed, not too caring about the person they were supposed to help. Oh by the way, charged him $2000 for their help.   They did not explain the process at all to him or to us. His purchase contract was a “as is” contract with the seller not fixing anything. This was fine for about a month or 6 weeks and then when we thought we were ready to close, they came back and said the County required all repairs to be done… Read Full Post

Yesterday I showed one of our listings to a man who brought along his friend. The home has been totally remodeled and is very nice. The friend of the prospective buyer kept saying that people need to get used to the idea of losing money on selling a home as the market is going to keep getting worse for another year or two.   He was basing his view on what happened in a previous down-turn in the real estate market. That downturn was caused by the basic economy going into recession. There is a big difference in then and now when our economy is quite good with low unemployment and good consumer confidence.  The only real problem we have with the market at this time is an oversupply of homes and one of perception on the part of buyers and sellers. Our real… Read Full Post