John Sabia's Blog: All Categories

February Listing & Sales Activity for Homes for sale in Victoria Park show a decrease in the number of homes available for sale over last month while maintaining a level of 2% of the homes in the neighborhood listed for sale.

Pending & Sales activity report similar numbers as in January with 2 sales (1 bank foreclosure) and 1 home going under contract.

read more about>>>>  Victoria Park Listing & Sales Activity for February 2009 at the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog.

March statistics for Fort Lauderdale Real Estate continue into positive territory with home sales and pending sales up and inventory shrinking. 

Closings for single-family homes and condos were up 30% and 20% respectively. 

Pending Sales up 3% for single-family and down slightly for condos.

Yearly gains in closings and pending sales are up dramatically in both categories.

The Median Sales Price is up March over February, but down from same period last year no doubt a result of short sales and bank owned foreclosures.

**read more about March Fort Lauderdale Home Sales and Pending Sales Continue upward, Inventory Falls and more articles about Fort Lauderdale Real Estate at the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate blog.

I just posted an article on my Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog about new Guidelines from Fannie Mae instructing 3rd parties not to renogiate agents commission: 

From New Fannie Mae Guidelines:No Negotiation of Preforeclosure Sales Commission
Servicing Guide, Part VII, Section 504.02: Contacting Selected Borrowers
Effective March 1, 2009, closing of preforeclosure sales may not be conditioned upon a
reduction of the total commission to be paid to real estate agents to a level below what was
negotiated by the listing agent with the borrower, unless the fee exceeds 6 percent of the sales price of the property in aggregate. .....

All I can say is it is about time! 

South Florida's attraction to Canadians has always been the warm climate, a refuge from the freezing winters in Canada.  Today, however, the allure of taking advantage of a weak US Dollar and declining real estate prices has Canadians making the trip south of the border for more than just sunshine.

According to the National Associatiation of Realtors (NAR), 11% of all international home buyers in the United States in 2007 were Canadians.  In Florida, .......read more about Canadians Taking Advantage of South Florida Real Estate Market and Weak US Dollar

 Cette article disponible en français - Le Sud de la Floride Vous Offre Les Temps Chaud et la Marché favorable

When it comes to investing in real estate, national indicators are just one source of data that should be considered, however, that is only the first step.   While real estate numbers being reported may be similar across the country, it is important to remember to turn your focus locally.  You've heard it before, and worth repeating again, real estate is local.

Even when turning your focus locally, there are vast differences between city to city, neighborhood to neighborhood and condominium to condominium.

Keep your focus market specific, researching price trends, volume and inventory levels.....

Read more about Investing in Real Estate | Local Knowledge is Key at the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog.

Florida has seen an increase of tropical storms over the past couple of years, but there has also been a storm of lawsuits over who is to blame when damage occurs to common areas. 

The ongoing debate between homeowners, condo associations and insurance companies is whether the homeowner or the association has liability when there is damage caused by bad weather to personal items in the common areas of condominiums.

Read more about  Common Areas or Personal Property When Damage occurs on the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog

Everyday more and more agents/ brokers are becoming aware of the web ranking strategies that Trulia employs to possibly dominate top positions in the search engines over local real estate agents and real estate companies. 

An article I wrote Trulias-web-ranking-strategies-come-under-fire is just one of many continuous articles discussing and exploring how Trulia may be using clever technical maneuvers to outrank the true source of it's content, real estate agents.

If you have a moment, read the article as well as many other articles on the subject (link provided in article) and form your own conclusion.

It’s always been said that the spring months are usually a new beginning and in a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, billionaire Sam Zell predicts that the Spring will be the beginning of a housing recovery for the United States. The whole subprime mortgage debacle has left a lot of people in a panic but Zell, who is the chairman of Equity Group Investments, believes that the panic will be ending soon enough.

Zell has used the textbook definition of recession in his assessment that the market has hit rock bottom and will only go up from here. He suggests that sales will start to happen again soon and the overwhelming inventory will start to decrease, perhaps allowing housing prices to come back up a bit. With a history without a first quarter…