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“The Housing Crisis is Over” so says Cyril Moulle-Berteaux, managing partner at Traxis Partners in New York, in his recent May 2008 opinion article in the Wall Street Journal.

Who is he and what can he know about it? Previously, he was a managing director for Morgan Stanley and left to start Traxis in 2003 with Barton Biggs, a long time Wall Street executive, also from Morgan Stanley. With that much credibility, he must know something about this after all.

So, let’s hear him out. He says that the housing market is bottoming out. This is music to the ears of all the real estate agents in the United States. Not just real estate agents mind you but everyone wanting to sell their homes and all the thousands of would be homebuyers currently sitting on the…

I'm always trying to save paper, cut down on paper work, and get rid of junk mail.  One thing I learned today that never occurred to me before is that you can have the delivery of the yearly phone book stopped.  Every year, I get the new one, recycle the old one, and put the new one in its place - in the closet in the back room.  Never to be opened.  Does anyone actually use the phone book anymore?  I know I don't.

We are sometimes amused by the few, but regular requests, we get through our website of people asking for us to send them a "real estate book".  Real Estate books haven't been around for a long long time.  I'm not sure exactly how long but when I started in real estate about 10 years ago, everything was online.  We always tell people that each…

Many people are thinking about what they might do for vacation this year.  If you are thinking about traveling to Florida, I would encourage you to check out the Tampa Bay area.  We have the beaches - yes - some of the best beaches in the state of Florida - but once here you will discover that there are many other ways to warm up than just our white sandy beaches. 

Besides the annual festivals, year round sports and world class golf courses, we invite you to visit Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo where you can get close up and personal with many different animals.  While you are here you won't want to miss the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry or the Florida Aquarium.

Busch Gardens is a must and you will enjoy the new attraction - Jungala.  It's a 4 acre area…

Everyone around the East Lake area was talking about the East Lake Woodlands resident who found an alligator in her kitchen the other night.  It was on all the late news channels and I don't think anyone in the area missed it.

As it turns out the woman lived on the first floor and the alligator broke through the screened patio and came in an open door. The local Deputies believe he was after her cat.  Most people would have been quite frighened at the sight of an 8' hungry alligator in their kitchen, but Sandra Frosti kept her cool very well and quite calmly called 911.  In fact after the deputies arrived she was all smiles and even made a few jokes about the episode.

This time of year alligators get pretty hungry and leave nearby ponds in search of…

Home Sales Shift Emerges" was the headline in the Business section today of the St. Petersburg Times.  Finally something positive!  Well, almost positive.  But, hey, they are trying.  The article goes on to say that while home sale are still declining in the Tampa Bay area, our area is falling much less that half of the state of Florida's average.  How's that?  Well apparently all the short sales that we have in the area are finally moving.  In fact, some Realtors have multiple offers on short sales today.  A short sale is simply the practice of selling a house for less than the outstanding loan balance.  And, the bank (lender) either says yes, no, or here's a counter offer. Lately lenders are signing off more and more on short sale properties rather than…

Safety Harbor is a small town with a big appeal.  It's known for the famous Safety Harbor Spa but there's so much more to Safety Harbor than that.  Waterfront property, gated communities, luxury real estate, and family neighborhoods make up the bulk of residential property in Safety Harbor.  Go downtown and you will find eclectic homes on quaint streets with many large oak trees. Some of these homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s and have been restored; others are prime for restoration.

Surprising statistics are emerging from the MLS in Safety Harbor since the turn of the new year.  With only about 280 homes on the market in Safety Harbor, 30 of them have sold since the beginning of the year and only two of them were short sales.  That in itself is not…

The best way to put yourself in the shoes of one of your sellers is to actually become one.  If I was to take my own good advice, I would NOT sell this property right now - but hold on to it and rent it until the market improves.  But we really don't want to rent it, it's a BRAND NEW HOME.  New homes seem to have much more value than used homes.  Well, at least that's what we thought... We bought the lot long enough ago with plans of building and making a profit and ideally it should have worked out.  But, complications and delays put us far behind schedule and here we are trying to sell the house at cost just to get out from under it.  But, quite frankly, cost just isn't going to do it right now.  The home was on the market all during construction at…

According to Forbes.com's 2008 list of "America's Cleanest Cities", Florida ranks in four of the top ten spots with the Tampa Bay area being #8.  Miami was #1, Jacksonville was #3, and Orlando was #4. 

According to the Forbes article, clean water and clean air result from assertive steps by Florida's cities as well as the built in advantage of weather patterns that blow out dirty smog.  They further noted that nine of the 10 cleanest cities showed population increases between the years 2000 and 2006.

The Sunshine State just may earn the name of the Clean State!

If you are thinking about coming to Florida to check us out, please give us call, we would be happy to show you around. Real Estate in Tampa Bay is still a buyer's market. Come get a great…