Boomers like single family homes

PARSIPPANY, N.J. -- ERA Real Estate announced the results of its annual survey of mature consumers regarding their opinions toward real estate and the home buying and selling process. The national telephone survey of more than 1,000 men and women aged 50 years and older determined that the majority of respondents (64 percent) clearly identify the single-family home as their preferred residence of choice.

The survey found that 21 percent of 50-plus consumers were considering a move in the next five years. Of those who plan to move, a majority (63 percent) are looking to purchase a single-family home, while 18 percent would purchase a condo or townhouse and only a scant 2 percent would choose an adult community.

More than half of those surveyed (55 percent) cited retirement as one of the reasons for buying a new home. Other motivating factors identified include a desire to downsize, lower taxes, proximity to friends and family, a change of climate and affordability. Predictably, 42 percent of seniors over 65 years of age factored health concerns into their decision to move. A surprising 15 percent of senior men and women actually said that they wanted to upsize their home.

Source- National Realty news

Florida takes 3 spots

From Dr. Beach

AMERICA'S BEST BEACHES 2005


America's Top Beaches for 2005 are:

1. Fort DeSoto Park - North Beach, St Petersburg, Florida - National Winner
2. Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
3. Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii
4. Caladesi Island State Park, Clearwater, Florida
5. Fleming Beach, Maui, Hawaii
6. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
7. Coronado Beach, San Diego, California
8. Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Florida
9. Main Beach, East Hampton, New York
10. Hamoa Beach, Maui, Hawaii

Featured Real Estate Blog of the week

Vacation Home Insider

Insider

The Tunguska Event

Tunguska

What's a MLS?

An MLS is a Multiple Listing Service that all of us realtors use to list properties so that other agents see that it is for sale.

So how many different MLS systems are there around the country you ask ?

850 or so today. Not to long ago there were 1000 but some mls services are merging or getting bought out by other mls services.

One of these days there might be just be Three or four MLS systems left.....

Making buying and selling a home more efficient in this mobile Nation we live in.

A Million dollar drop?

I saw a listing on the MLS today that dropped from over $4m to over $3m in one day.
A million dollar drop !

Hooray ! the sooner we get this market adjustment in gear the faster we start moving forward in sales again.

Where is that Check ?

Realty Times - Real Estate News and Advice.

This article in Realty Times makes a good point. Its major statement basically is correct that all the measures of visitors, clickthroughs, and page views of your real estate web site are really unimportant if they don't lead to a check.

However, that said, there's nothing in the article that tells you what DOES lead to a check. It does want accolades from Realtors® stating "I got a check!". So here's mine.....Last year I got six figures worth of checks all from my web site.

But that statement doesn't help you either. It is much more correct and helpful to be told that visitors, clickthroughs, visit duration, page views, etc. mean nothing unless you garner visitor information from those who might actually have a real estate transaction in their near future plans. That's how you get a check. So it IS VERY IMPORTANT to have a lot of great site traffic numbers, but ONLY IF you have mechanisms in place on your site to get visitors to give you their email address so that you can go to the next step.

Websalesfunnel Most of us have seen a funnel used in sales training to illustrate the progression of prospects through our sales process to a check. Your web site can generate a huge number of prospects above the funnel. However, due to their anonymity at that point, the great majority will totally miss your funnel and you'll never know who they are. Since they don't really know you either at this point, they're normally gone for good. What you have to do is pierce the anonymity, get their email address, and then let them get to know, trust and depend on you for information.

I have, on my tech site, specific examples of how to go about doing this at : Tech Tips If you take anything from the Realty Times article, it's that only concentrating your efforts on generating visits and great site popularity stats will not guarantee you the real goal....a check.

March 11, 2006 at 08:23 AM in General Marketing

Global Warming, who ya gonna believe?

17,200 scientists who reject the theory or TIME magizine ?

Links to both sites:

17,200 Scientists

TIME MAG

Let's be prepared this year

With about 9 1/2 weeks to go before Hurricane season 2006 we can think about dividing our get ready list by 9 and it now seems like we have time to get it all done without undue stress. It's also easier on the pocket book that way as well.



66 Days until 2006 hurricane season

48 *DEP Days until 2006 Hurricane season (they don't work weekends)

35 Days until the start of 2006 turtle season

25 Fish & Wildlife days until 2006 turtle season (They don't work weekends)

* Dept. of Environmental protection

New Credit Scoring System

The three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian jointly unveiled a new credit score - the VantageScore system.

According to their press release, it is "designed to simplify and enhance the credit process for both consumers and credit grantors...Under the new scoring system, credit score variance between credit reporting companies will be attributed to data differences within each of the three consumer credit files and not to the structure of the scoring model or data interpretation."

Using a rating ranging from 501 to 900, VantageScore claims that it "will provide consumers and businesses with a highly predictive, consistent score that is easy to understand and apply."

Expect to hear more about this in the coming weeks!

To read more: www.VantageScore.

Credit to: http://franandrowena.blogspot.com/ ( The Real Estate Blog)

Protect Florida’s Coastline

Legislation Would Protect Florida’s Coastline Far into the Future
Recent Statement of Florida PIRG Director Mark Ferrulo on the introduction of Senator Martinez and Nelson’s Permanent Protection for Florida Act of 2006

“Today, Senators Nelson and Martinez introduced the Florida PIRG supported ‘Permanent Protection for Florida Act,’ a bill to protect Florida’s coast from offshore oil and gas drilling.

This legislation includes a list of coastal protections Floridians have long fought for. From making Florida’s current moratorium against offshore drilling leases permanent to canceling all existing drilling leases in Florida waters, this is a comprehensive bill that would provide long lasting protection for Florida’s world famous coastline. This bill is not only bi-partisan, it’s also bi-coastal, with a provision that extends coastal protections for numerous sensitive coastlines around the country from 2012 until 2020.”

Specifically, under this legislation:

• Florida would be granted permanent protection from any future offshore drilling proposals through enactment of a new “Exclusion Zone” to be put in place all the way around the state’s coastline, and extending outward approximately 150 miles from the panhandle and up to 260 miles off of Tampa Bay including much, but not all, of the Lease Sale 181 Area.

• An area extending 100 miles from the Alabama coast, next to the Florida border and very close to Florida’s panhandle beaches, would also be included in this new “Exclusion Zone”.

• New leasing, exploration, drilling activity and seismic inventories would be permanently banned in this area (as permanent as you can get without amending the U.S. Constitution).

• The 90+ existing and active leases, some as close as 11 miles from our coast, would be permanently cancelled. The holders of those leases would be compensated through rents due and royalty forgiveness for their current drilling activity taking place in the central and western gulf. Each of the existing leases off the Florida coast are loaded guns, cocked and ready to fire, and their cancellation must be the top priority of any campaign to protect Florida’s coast. The Martinez-Nelson bill cancels them outright.

• The Presidential Executive Order that bans leasing off America’s east and west coasts and parts of Alaska would be extended from 2012 to 2020, making this bi-partisan bill also bi-coastal in the scope of new protections included.

• For the first time, a 150 mile buffer zone against drilling on Florida’s east coast would be enacted and made permanent.

What the Bill Does Not Do:

• As stated above, not all of lease sale 181 in the eastern Gulf would be protected under this bill. The White House agreement with the state of Florida that currently protects most of the 181 area expires next year and all indications are that the next 5 year leasing plan would put most, if not all, of this 4 million + acre area on the auction block. While the Martinez-Nelson bill would permanently protect most of this area, approximately 500,000 acres would remain unprotected with passage of this bill.

• The Martinez-Nelson bill does not eliminate or weaken the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), which Florida’s next governor could utilize to stop new drilling anywhere in the eastern Gulf, including areas not protected by this legislation. Pro-drilling advocates have actively sought to eliminate provisions of the CZMA that have historically been one of the most important tools used by Florida decision-makers to protect our beaches from offshore drilling.

“For decades, Floridians and our representatives in Washington have been united in their resolve to protect the unique and fragile nature of our state’s coastal environment. Last year, the oil and gas industry and their allies in Congress were able to fracture that unified voice. I’m optimistic that the Martinez-Nelson bill will provide a legislative rallying cry for permanent protection of our coast that Florida’s entire Congressional delegation can once again link hands across the aisle and fight for.”



FLORIDA PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP
926 E. Park Ave.• Tallahassee • FL 32301 • 850-224-3321

Jerry, You ain't wrong

Capitol Comments

“Why move to Florida when Arizona and other states do not have these penalties?"

“Snowbird” Jerry Quinn from Jensen Beach on a legislative proposal to charge vacation- and second-home owners more for property insurance than full-time residents.

Investor migration

Housing speculators relocate to hotter spots

LOS ANGELES -- March 22, 2006 -- Scores of real estate investors are fleeing Southern California and taking their profits to more affordable housing markets -- including coastal Florida areas. At its peak in the first half of 2004, investors accounted for 14 percent of sales in Los Angeles and Orange counties. However, investors still make up a large portion of sales in Phoenix, Las Vegas, coastal Florida, and Central and Northern California. According to DataQuick Information Systems, investors and second-home buyers accounted for nearly 40 percent of home sales in Arizona's Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties in 2005.

A good time to buy... Before all those new investors arrive...

REAL REAL REAL ESTATE

Real Estate 101

Real estate 101

Throwaway houses for the coast.

Disposable homes ? Green Homes ?

I was thinking about the old days before the heavy duty coastal building codes that we have today. A bad hurricane could come and wipe out all the homes near the water.
people would come back in and build new homes behind the new beach/dune line until the next one.

Now we have people building Forts or McMansions or whatever you want to call them on the beach to withstand mother nature which is just wishful thinking. However with so much to lose at stake people are compelled to throw great sums of money at trying to save those big expensive castles by the sea.

We have gone from rolling with the punches of mother nature to sticking our armored chin out and daring mother nature to knock us out.

I envision a situation where we produce a very enviro friendly home that can be prepped before a hurricane to do as little harm as possible to the enviornment when it is destroyed and can be inexpensivley and quickly replaced by another home.

We would need code exemptions to the current standard.

But first we need to change our thinking.

inmates running the Asylum ?

Well this is Stupid. Someone is willing to buy a home in our great state and they have to pay more than the Florida resident who lives next door? Dumb. Very Dumb.

House plan would charge some homeowners more for insurance

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- March 17, 2006 -- House lawmakers followed their Senate colleagues Thursday in approving a plan to charge owners of vacation and second homes more for hurricane coverage from the state's insurer of last resort.



The House

Insurance Committee plan would also charge all Florida homeowners 3 percent more on their policies to help pay off the debts of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which is burdened with claims from two destructive hurricane seasons in a row.



The committee voted to charge second and vacation homeowners who are insured by Citizens up to twice as much as year-round Floridians will pay, said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, the panel's chairman.



''As legislators our choice should be, in terms of priorities, to the residents who are permanently here,'' Ross said.



Under state law, Citizens can assess a surcharge on all Florida homeowners regardless of their insurance company to make up any of its deficits. The agency has already assessed $515 million in losses from 2004 hurricanes, and another $1.4 billion assessment is expected for last year's storm season.



''What we've got to accept is that consumers are going to have to pay higher rates for insurance,'' whether they're covered privately or by the state, Ross said.



The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee took similar action Wednesday by approving a proposal by its chair, Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah, to slap a 25 percent surcharge on Citizens policies for second and vacation homes.

Toast of the Coast

Ahhhh La Dolce Vita

$9.8 Million 5000 Sq. Ft. Gulf Front with Views to Live For...

St. Patricks Day Irish Blessings

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.


May you live as long as you want,
And never want as long as you live.


Always remember to forget
The things that made you sad.
But never forget to remember
The things that made you glad.

Always remember to forget
The friends that proved untrue.
But never forget to remember
Those that have stuck by you.

Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day.


May the saddest day of your future be no worse
Than the happiest day of your past.


May the roof above us never fall in.
And may the friends gathered below it never fall out.


May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And the road downhill all the way to your door.


May there be a generation of children
On the children of your children.


May you live to be a hundred years,
With one extra year to repent!


May the Lord keep you in His hand
And never close His fist too tight.


May your neighbors respect you,
Trouble neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And heaven accept you.


May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.


May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.


Walls for the wind,
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks beside the fire -
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire!


May God be with you and bless you,
May you see your children's children,
May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.


May God grant you many years to live,
For sure He must be knowing
The earth has angels all too few
And heaven is overflowing.


May peace and plenty be the first
To lift the latch to your door,
And happiness be guided to your home
By the candle of Christmas.


May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

It's St. Pattys Day Friday

Me friends and me want to see you wearing the Green this Friday and may the Luck O' the Irish be with Ya!

St. Patty's Day Friday

This guy can't wait to start celebrating St. Patty's Day...

Million Dollar Dump

So you think you have some over priced properties to sell?
Check this dump at:DUMP

No wonder they are worried about a Real Estate bubble.

How do we stack up?

I looked at the 100 wealthiest zip codes in America to find Florida's wealthiest zip codes which are:

Not in Order of wealth.
Palm Beach 33480
Vero Beach 32963
Miami 33156
Jupiter 33477
Boca Raton 33432,33496
Naples 34102,34103,34108

Then I did a search of Realtor.com's data base for the number of homes and condos listed at over $5 million and the highest price in each of the cities above.

Here are the results:

City: No. Homes/Condos listed Highest Price listed

Palm Beach 109 $45.0 Million
Vero Beach 22 $14.9 Million
Naples 106 $19.9 Million
Miami 403 $14.9 Million
Boca Raton 74 $15.9 Million
Jupiter 16 $15.0 Million

VS.


Hwy. 30-A 13 $17.6 Million
Destin/Sandestin 12 $10.5 Million

So we have a little ways to go to catch South Florida....or do we ?

New other home trend

We recently showed a premier property to that 4 couples were considering buying together as a shared beach house.

Hey, If your not going to use it all the time anyway then 25% of a 4 Million dollar home instead of 100% of a 1 Million dollar home may work just fine for you.

Lotus help U find Your Dream Home

looking for Real Estate and Driving exclusive Sports cars are not Mutually Exclusive.

Let's compare asset classes

Click on image to enlarge


For more check out www.bigpicture.typepad.com

Going to our third place , darling

Extra home trend bigger than thought. Out of 44 million second homes
7 Million are private vacation homes and 37 million are investment properties.

Source - WCI Communities

Shocking

1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women.

It gets worse see the whole article at: Shocking

Shocking

1% of the titled land in the world is owned by women.

It gets worse see the whole article at: Shocking

32 homes over $5 milliom

32 in our area. I guess were not Miami, Sarasota,Boca,Naples, or Palm Beach just yet.
In fact our prices look really good right now vs. these "hot spots" of Florida Real Estate.

The Real Estate Blog of the Day....

This one is all about Second homes

Second Homes

The Real estate blog of the week is...

Vacation home insider

vacation Home insider

That BOOM BOOM THING

My wife was talking to a munitions engineer at St. Rita and asked him if the bombs we hear rather often in Santa Rosa Beach are connected with bombing practice at Eglin Air Force Base.

He said no, that those bombs from Eglin fall near Defuniak Springs.

The Loud sounds we hear over our way are from Air to Air Missile practice associated with Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City and are caused by Sonic Booms from the fighter jets.

The Eternal Moment

Emerald waters herald the coming of the Sun King
Riding his flaming Chariot across the sky
A million diamonds shimmering across the waters surface
Draw us to the shores blanketed in soft white powder

If you live only today to see this splendor
Equal to a hundred lives of barren moments
Then you are the fortunate ones
Whether you be blessed or damned beyond the setting sun




The Eternal Moment Copyright 2006 © shawn O'neal All Rights Reserved.

MY MY HEY HEY

THE INTERNET IS HERE TO STAY>>>>>>>>

Check out www.zillow.com

and www.redfin.com

For the latest in Real estate technology.

words to the wise... Adapt or die.

It's a 30A Vibe Kind of day

If you can tell me what band's album cover this is I will buy you a veggie omlet at Blue Orleans...

Income Re-Distribution by another name

Maybe you have heard about the builders who are suing the city of Tallahassee because the city is making them build a certain percentage of homes in a development that cost less to create affordable housing.
That means everyone else in the neighborhood pays more. It has to come from somewhere.

This is not the way to get affordable housing which we need in Santa Rosa Beach and Destin too. This just takes money from one group to give to another because theres no such thing as a free lunch.

Americans need to innovate and use technology to bring the cost of building housing into reach of working class folks.

Socialism never sleeps.

Official start of the 2006 Real Estate season

A 20+ year veteran of the Appraisal business ,who is seldom wrong(he told me so) says that April 16th the day after the day of Dread is the start of the season.
Another 6 weeks to ramp it up and rev it up.

Good luck everyone!

Oh DEER !

My wife called and told me that a deer just ran across the road in front of her car at 283 at 30-A so whatch out people.

Also a fed study 2001 -2004 about consumer trends in homeownership etc. at:
Ownership trends