Housing Recovery by Spring?

Financial mogul Sam Zell, beleaguered owner of the Tribune Co. that declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, told an Israeli business conference Sunday that the U.S. real estate market will be in recovery by spring 2009.

Zell pointed out that the U.S. population is growing, and with fewer than 600,000 building starts in 2008, a million fewer than any of the last 10 years, demand for housing will rise.

Zell blamed the current crisis - at least in part - on ill-considered decisions. "We are living through our first Blackberry recession where, literally, information is instantly disseminated around the world and people, in effect, respond to it, perhaps, often without any particular caution or attention," he said.

Source: Reuters News, Ori Lewis (12/14/2008)© Copyright 2008 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD
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Bay Colony Beachfront Real Estate - Closed Sale Info

Bay Colony Shores & The Estates at Bay Colony Golf Club November 2008, Closed Sale information: Homes $1,000,000 and up.

12 Active
Source: SunshineMLS, Inc.
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Florida Association of Realtors report indicates home sales up in third quarter

According to the latest housing statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors, sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 5 percent in third quarter 2008 compared to the same period last year. A total of 33,203 existing homes sold statewide in the third quarter this year; during the same period last year, 31,558 existing homes sold statewide.
FAR reports the statewide existinghome median sales price was $185,400 in the third quarter; a year ago, it was $233,200 for a decrease of 20 percent. In 2003, the third-quarter statewide median sales price was $163,700, which reflects an increase of about 13.3 percent over the five-year period. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less.
To gain insight into Florida's real estate industry trends, the University of Florida's Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies conducts a quarterly survey of industry executives, market research economists, real estate scholars and other experts. Based on the third quarter 2008 survey, the investment outlook for various types of properties remains steady.
"People who have responded to our surveys have not lost their faith in Florida as a place to be and a place to invest," Wayne Archer, director of the center, said. "We have 40 pages of comments… and although the dominant theme is the disruption of financing, perhaps the second theme, as one person put it, is people being on the sidelines with full pads and helmets just waiting to jump back in."
Source: Florida Weekly

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Bay Colony Beachfront Real Estate - Closed Sale Info

Bay Colony Shores & The Estates at Bay Colony Golf Club October 2008, Closed Sale information: Homes $1,000,000 and up.

8 Active
Source: SunshineMLS, Inc.
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Home sales increase again in Naples

The buyers are still out in Naples.

In September, home sales activity increased again for local Realtors.

Pending sales — sales that have yet to close — grew 106 percent, while overall home sales grew 50 percent, according to a monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

The report shows sales made through the SunshineMLS, or multiple listing service, in Collier County, excluding Marco Island. There were 361 total sales in September, up from 240 a year ago. Meanwhile, pending sales grew to 481, from 234 last year.

Pending sales are up in all six geographic areas that NABOR tracks, from Naples Beach to Immokalee. The biggest jump was seen in Central Naples, where they grew nearly 244 percent to 110, up from 32 last year.

The highest number of sales was in North Naples — at 104.

Pending sales have been up the last eight months over last year, according to NABOR’s report. Sales have been up for nearly that long.

There were 92 sales made in the $500,000 to more than $2 million categories, up from 75 a year ago.
Source: Naplesnews.com

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Bay Colony Beachfront Real Estate - Closed Sale Info

Bay Colony Shores & The Estates at Bay Colony Golf Club September 2008, Closed Sale information: Homes $1,000,000 and up.

7 Active
Source: SunshineMLS, Inc.
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Best Places for a Long Life - Collier County FL

#4. Collier County, FL

Towns include: Golden Gate, Naples

Life expectancy at birth: 80.97 years

Collier County, which includes the city of Naples on the Gulf coast, is the picture of Florida leisure.
By land area, Collier is the largest county in the state, and 80 percent of it is devoted to parks and nature preserves. Any kind of water-related recreation or exercise you can think of is readily available. Naples has long been a destination for artists: Take a class at the Von Liebig Center or just work your way through the county's 100-plus art galleries.
You can also take in a show-or star in one-with the Naples Players, which is recognized as one of the nation's top community theaters.
Source: Yahoo Finance

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Bay Colony Real Estate - Closed Sales

Bay Colony Shores & The Estates at Bay Colony Golf Club August 2008, Closed Sale information: Homes $1,000,000 and up.

8 Active

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Source: SunshineMLS, Inc.

Existing single-family home sales up 80 percent in Fort Myers/Cape Coral

Sales made with the help of a Realtor in Southwest Florida rose again in July. Existing single-family home sales — or resales — grew by 80 percent to 768, from 426 a year ago, in the Fort Myers/Cape Coral market. Condo sales rose 35 percent to 174, from 129 a year ago, according to statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors.
On Marco Island, 31 single-family homes sold, up 19 percent from 26 a year ago. Condo sales rose 5 percent to 41, up from 39 in the same month last year.
[T]he Naples Area Board of Realtors in its own market report showed sales continued to rise in July. There were 361 home sales, up 31 percent from 275 a year ago.
Source: naplesnews.com
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Bay Colony Real Estate - Closed Sale Info

Bay Colony Shores & The Estates at Bay Colony Golf Club July 2008, Closed Sale information: Homes $1,000,000 and up.

13 Active
1 Pending

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Source: SunshineMLS, Inc.

Naples Home Sales Rise 5th Month in a Row

More buyers are getting back into the game. As home prices continue to drop in the Naples area, sales are rising and inventories are falling. In June, total sales rose by 9 percent to 471, from 431 a year ago.Meanwhile, the inventory of homes shrank to 10,837, from 11,602 last year, according to a monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

Pending sales have increased and available inventory has decreased for the past five months. Pending sales increased 63 percent to 494 in June, up from 302 a year ago. For single-family homes priced at less than $300,000, pending sales rose a whopping 537 percent to 172 in June, up from 27 a year ago.

There were 231 sales, up from 146 last year. Of those sales, 113 were single-family homes — a 253 percent increase over the 32 that sold a year ago.All areas covered by the report, except Immokalee and Ave Maria, saw an increase in pending sales in June. East Naples had the biggest jump to 106, from 39 a year ago.As long as interest rates remain low, Arlene Carozza, NABOR’s president, said she expects more buyers to get off the fence as prices become more affordable for more people.
Source: Naplesnews.com

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Bay Colony Naples FL - June 2008 Pending & Closed Home Sales Report

37 Active
3 Pending
5 Closed

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Source: SunshineMLS Inc.

Condo law change gives emergency power to directors

Some lobbyists and organizations are publicly touting their efforts to improve condominium law in the past legislative session, placing more power in the hands of condo leaders.
As they do, other activists are seeking out condo owners to tell them what the new rules mean.
New rules kick in Oct. 1 that confer emergency powers on condo officials, but not to the point that some are claiming, said Jan Bergemann, who heads up Cyber Citizens for Justice, a consumer group.
For more than two years, state Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami, sought amendments to limit the powers of condominium directors. Robaina’s last bill passed, but it was altered during the legislative process.
The changes were fought by some condominium associations that used major law firms specializing in condo law.
While condominium directors will get more power, it’s limited, Bergemann said of the new law.
“This bill is the result of legislators listening to the people, their constituents. It was a great effort from all parties involved. It sure is the best condo reform bill since 1991,” Robaina said, referring to when the law was approved.
There are certain provisions in the new law that individual owners need to know about, Bergemann said.
For one, the law now grants directors the ability to implement a disaster plan before or immediately after a state disaster declaration. This includes, but isn’t limited to, shutting down or turning off elevators, electricity, air conditioners, water, sewer or security systems.
This provision comes into play when “an emergency (is) declared by the governor,” said Bergemann, who lives in DeLand, north of Orlando.
A state of emergency only lasts a few days after a storm, he said.
Bergemann said that he’s already seen memos from law firms to their condo director clients, telling them they can do “whatever they want.”
In truth, condo directors now only have the power to implement “immediate damage control,” he said.
“These emergency powers are very limited,” Bergemann stressed.
If condo directors go overboard, the amended law says individual condo owners can hold the directors financially liable, said Bergemann, whose grassroots organization has nearly 600 members and thousands more who receive alerts via e-mail.
Donna Berger, a partner in the Florida law firm Katzman Garfinkel, and head of the organization Community Advocacy Network, was partially responsible for the watering down of Robaina’s original bill, which would have taken away more powers from directors.
But “as for the emergency powers, I have been seeking to pass that for several years now so, no, I had no opposition to that at all,” Berger said.
Existing laws already gave directors and condo management certain authority, which, depending on the personality of the board, can be either positive or negative, Bergemann said.
For instance, some condo directors who have a copy of your key may enter your place without your permission, Bergemann said.
“You don’t have to give them one (a key),” he said.
However, directors and managers can find ways around that, he said, and in some cases it may be a good thing. If you leave an emergency key with a neighbor, and he or she hands it over to the condo directors or management hired by directors, there’s really nothing you can do, he said.
He tells of a 2007 case in which “a single old lady, alone in her own private condo unit, awakened to find two guys in her place,” he said.
They were contractors checking the drywall.
“They didn’t even ring the doorbell,” Bergemann said.
Access may be a necessity, such as if there is a hurricane and the owner lives in Canada. Contractors may have to get into one unit to keep the entire building from being further damaged.
“Many snowbirds are not here all summer. Say a water pipe bursts. If the association really needs access, this is nothing new,” he said.
But some law firms are telling directors that they have more power now than they do, and this could lead to trouble, he said.
“The system you have here is taking away private property rights. In Europe, this is illegal,” said Bergemann, who is originally from Hamburg.
Bergemann tells of a conference in Europe a few years back when some high-profile American attorneys presented condo law. In Europe, condo associations aren’t incorporated and have no rules, he said.
In Germany, all the owners have a chance to vote on hiring a management company, but each unit has to have a separate water and electric meter.
After the presentation by the American attorneys, a German legislator stood up and thanked them for their presentations, but said it didn’t much appeal to him.
“We already had Adolf, so we don’t need any more dictators running our communities,” Bergemann said, quoting the German legislator.
If condo law operated in Florida the same way as it does in Germany, high-profile law firms that specialize in condo law would lose profitable clients, Bergemann asserted.
He urges condo owners to learn about the changes.
“This bill is undoubtedly the most owner-friendly condo bill in more than a decade,” Bergemann said. View bill and its changes.
Source: NaplesNews.com
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Bay Colony Naples FL - Home Sales Report

12 Month Home Sales Report

2 Sold
8 Active
Average Sales Price $5,522,500

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Source: SunshineMLS Inc.

Naples FL Home Sales, Pending Home Sales Increased in April

Lower prices have lured back buyers, who are feeling now is the time to buy. In April, Realtors in the Naples area had their busiest month of the year. Overall, home sales rose 6 percent to 472, compared to 445 last year, according to a monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors (NABOR).

Meanwhile, pending home sales increased 25 percent to 616, from 494 a year ago. The report tracks home sales in Collier County, excluding Marco Island. "I think we’ve hit bottom in Naples and that comes from the economists who really study this," said Arlene Carozza, a Realtor and NABOR’s president.

In an interview with Mad Money host Jim Cramer on CNBC earlier this week, Bob Toll, CEO of homebuilder Toll Brothers, described the west coast of Florida as its "one ray of hope." "Naples is back. It’s amazing," he said, adding that his company is now out of spec inventory here and its prices are starting to rise in this market.

According to the NABOR statistics, the median price for all homes in the Naples area dropped more than 23 percent last month to $300,000, from $390,000 a year ago.

The Naples and Bonita Springs markets in April reached their highest levels since August 2005. In the two markets, there were 853 last month, up from 652 a year ago a 30 percent increase.

"I think buyers are starting to realize that the sellers’ pricing is really not going to go down too much more. So the buyers are just starting to come off the sidelines," said Russ Weyer, a senior associate for Orlando-based economic consultant Fishkind & Associates.

By neighborhood, North Naples saw the most sales at 144 last month. The Naples beach area came in second with 133.
source: naplesnews.com

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