Toast of the coast

15,000 sq. feet but who's counting
Slightly less than 10 million dollars but who's counting.......

It's just a corporate bonus away....


Your kingdom on the sands....

17 hours to go.....

And we are in Hurricane season 2006.

A lot of folks say we really need a mild season here to get this real estate market moving again.

And since when did we not need a mild Hurricane season?

History of the Pledge

The Pledge of Allegiance
A Short History

by Dr. John W. Baer

Copyright 1992 by Dr. John W. Baer
Mr. Bellamy retired in Florida.....

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897).

Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for all. The government would run a peace time economy similar to our present military industrial complex.

The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.

In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]

Dr. Mortimer Adler, American philosopher and last living founder of the Great Books program at Saint John's College, has analyzed these ideas in his book, The Six Great Ideas. He argues that the three great ideas of the American political tradition are 'equality, liberty and justice for all.' 'Justice' mediates between the often conflicting goals of 'liberty' and 'equality.'

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.

What follows is Bellamy's own account of some of the thoughts that went through his mind in August, 1892, as he picked the words of his Pledge:

It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...

The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?

Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...

If the Pledge's historical pattern repeats, its words will be modified during this decade. Below are two possible changes.

Some prolife advocates recite the following slightly revised Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, born and unborn.'

A few liberals recite a slightly revised version of Bellamy's original Pledge: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with equality, liberty and justice for all.'

American History Timeline
American Involvement in Wars from Colonial Times to the Present

Dates	War in Which American Colonists or United States Citizens Officially Participated	Major Combatants
July 4, 1675 - August 12, 1676	King Philip's War	New England Colonies vs. Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Nipmuck Indians
1689-1697	King William's War	The English Colonies vs. France
1702-1713	Queen Anne's War	The English Colonies vs. France
1744-1748	King George's War	The French Colonies vs. Great Britain
1756-1763	French and Indian War (Seven Years War)	The French Colonies vs. Great Britain
1759-1761	Cherokee War	English Colonists vs. Cherokee Indians
1775-1783	American Revolution	English Colonists vs. Great Britain
1798-1800	Franco-American Naval War	United States vs. France
1801-1805; 1815	Barbary Wars	United States vs. Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli
1812-1815	War of 1812	United States vs. Great Britain
1813-1814	Creek War	United States vs. Creek Indians
1836	War of Texas Independence	Texas vs. Mexico
1846-1848	Mexican War	United States vs. Mexico
1861-1865	Civil War	Union vs. Confederacy
1898	Spanish-American War	United States vs. Spain
1914-1918	World War I	Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary vs. Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia. The United States joined on the side of the Triple Entente in 1917.
1939-1945	World War II	Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan vs. Major Allied Powers: United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia
1950-1953	Korean War	United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China
1960-1975	Vietnam War	United States and South Vietnam vs. North Vietnam
1961	Bay of Pigs Invasion	United States vs. Cuba
1983	Grenada	United States Intervention
1989	US Invasion of Panama	United States vs. Panama
1990-1991	Persian Gulf War	United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq
1995-1996	Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina	United States as part of NATO acted peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia
2003	Invasion of Iraq	United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq

Real estate Shopping on 30-A

Number of Single Family Homes available in different price ranges in US Dollars.

500k - 1 Million - 364

1 Million - 1.5 Million -228

1.5 Million - 2 Million- 155

2 Million - 3 Million - 148

3 Million - 4 Million - 55

4 Million - 5 Million - 22

5 Million - 10 Million - 21

Summer of 06

3 Days, 13 hours, 43, Minutes until Hurricane season begins

The Nam

"Rooster" Lyrics by Alice in Chains
A tribute to all those who fought in the bloody jungles of Vietnam.

Ain't Found A Way To

Kill Me Yet

Eyes Burn With Stinging

Sweat

Seems Every Path Leads Me To

Nowhere

Wife And Kids And Household Pet

Army Green Was No Safe Bet

The Bullets Scream To Me From Somewhere



yeah They Come To Snuff The Rooster

Yeah Here Come The Rooster

You Know He Ain't Gonna Die



Walkin' Tall Machine Gun Man

They Spit On Me In My Homeland

Gloria Sent Me Pictures

Of My Boy

Got My Pills 'Gainst

Mosquito Death

My Buddy's Breathin'

His Dyin' Breath

Oh God Please Won't You Help

Me Make It Through

Devil tails, a Poem

This poem is dedicated to everyone who has learned the hard way to read the fine print in contracts.

Devil Tails

The Devils in the details
You shoulda read the fine

The Devil's in the details
And now he's screwed your mind

The Devil's in the details
It's Hell on earth you'll find

I'm the Devil in the details
And now your ass is mine


The Devil Tails a Poem - Shawn O'Neal Copyright© 2006 All Rights reserved

Dude..... That's Gross

STDs Running Amuck In The Villages

Viagra, Lack Of Sex Education

Doctors said sexually transmitted diseases among senior citizens are running rampant at a popular Central Florida retirement community, A gynecologist at The Villages community near Orlando, Fla., said she treats more cases of herpes and the human papilloma virus in the retirement community than she did in the city of Miami."Yeah, they are very shocked (to hear the diagnosis)," gynecologist Dr. Colleen McQuade said. "I had a patient in her 80s.""More and more senior citizens are ending up in the gynecologist office, and their diagnosis is a sexually transmitted disease," .

A doctor blamed Viagra, a lack of sex education and no risk for pregnancy for the spike in sexually transmitted diseases at The Villages."

13 days that changed the world

Alamo Flag The Mexican constitution of 1824 gave the people of Texas rights similar to those enjoyed at the time by the citizens of the United States, but every new Mexican government attempted to increase control over Texas. To call attention to this, Texans removed the coat of arms from the center of a Mexican flag, and replaced it with the date of the constitution. It was this banner that flew from the walls of the Alamo. For 13 days, less that 200 Texans held off an army of more than 5,000 men. The alcalde of San Antonio, an eyewitness to the last day of the battle, recorded: "The deadly fire of Travis' artillery resembled a constant thunder. At the third charge of 830 (Mexican soldiers) only 130 were left alive. The gallantry of the Texans who defended the Alamo was really wondered at by the Mexican army. Even the generals were astonished at how dearly victory was bought."

The Lucky Thirteen

To the original thirteen who threw off the heavy hand of tyranny and risked all for liberty.
We give you our undying gratitude.

patchwork quilt market

There is no one real estate market.

Conditions are somewhat different everywhere.

Coastal, Loft, Ranch, Price range differences, Inventory levels, etc. etc.

So we have to FOCUS on where Our market is at.

Sandestin and east and west 30A sales closed on homes or condos over $2.5 Mill since May 1st?

1-house
1-condo

A L i t t l e Sloooooooow here.

With a mild hurricane season we will get a boost because all of the weather guys saying we are in a decades long bad weather cycle will have to back off........

The latest (Drudge report) has New Orleans at a 30% chance of getting wacked again this year.

The Valiant , A poem

Leftenent give the sound
Then wheel her around
let's give them what for
Hear our mighty sixty roar !

We'll break their masts
Then send them down fast
To the bottom
By Davey Jones grave

May the Devil take them
And the bitches who made them
Hip Hip hooray!
Hip Hip hooray!

The Valiant, a poem , Copyright © shawn O'Neal 2006 , All Rights Reserved

this effects everything

Web inventor warns of 'dark' net

By Jonathan Fildes BBC News science and technology reporter in Edinburgh The web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said. Recent attempts in the US to try to charge for different levels of online access web were not "part of the internet model," he said in Edinburgh. He warned that if the US decided to go ahead with a two-tier internet, the network would enter "a dark period". Sir Tim was speaking at the start of a conference on the future of the web. "What's very important from my point of view is that there is one web," he said. "Anyone that tries to chop it into two will find that their piece looks very boring." An equal net The British scientist developed the web in 1989 as an academic tool to allow scientists to share data. Since then it has exploded into every area of life. However, as it has grown, there have been increasingly diverse opinions on how it should evolve. The World Wide Web Consortium, of which Sir Tim is the director, believes in an open model. This is based on the concept of network neutrality, where everyone has the same level of access to the web and that all data moving around the web is treated equally. This view is backed by companies like Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to be introduced to guarantee net neutrality. The first steps towards this were taken last week when members of the US House of Representatives introduced a net neutrality bill. Pay model two-tier system, where data from companies or institutions that can pay are given priority over those that cannot. This has particularly become an issue with the transmission of TV shows over the internet, with some broadband providers wanting to charge content providers to carry the data. The internet community believes this threatens the open model of the internet as broadband providers will become gatekeepers to the web's content. Providers that can pay will be able to get a commercial advantage over those that cannot. There is a fear that institutions like universities and charities would also suffer. The web community is also worried that any charges would be passed on to the consumer. Optimism Sir Tim said this was "not the internet model". The "right" model, as exists at the moment, was that any content provider could pay for a connection to the internet and could then put any content on to the web with no discrimination. Speaking to reporters in Edinburgh at the WWW2006 conference, he argued this was where the great benefit of the internet lay. "You get this tremendous serendipity where I can search the internet and come across a site that I did not set out to look for," he said. A two-tier system would mean that people would only have full access to those portions of the internet that they paid for and that some companies would be given priority over others. But Sir Tim was optimistic that the internet would resist attempts to fragment. "I think it is one and will remain as one," he said. The WWW2006 conference will run until Friday at the International Conference Centre in Edinburgh.

Seller finance is back

Another sign of a changing marketplace.

Sellers are starting to entertain the option of owner financing.

This can be very helpful in a slower market as buyers have a reason to move forward rather than sit on the sidelines.

Rental Blues clues

I keep running into people who have rental property saying the July and forward bookings are a little thin.

Could this peoples fear of booking during hurricane season because of the worry that a hurricane will cancel their plans ?

Countdown to the Official start

Hurricane season starts in 10 Days, but between me and You I Think I'll start keeping an eye out from tomorrow,

Guest Blog

Since Florida ranks in the top 10 for Mortgage fraud I thought you might want to bookmark this blog.

Sales strategy

Bert & I will be having an open house tomorrow at 51 Park Row (beachside in waterColor).

We will be looking for you folks to float over from the seaside wine fest with your checkbooks.

So .... Come on over and lets talk

the market

Some say 5 years

Others say 2 years

What say You?

Only $ 75 Million and it can be all yours...

A Southern California oceanfront home in CORONA DEL MAR, California is for sale at a record breaking $75 million listing price.

The 30,000-square-foot custom-built estate features a car museum, entertainment complex, gymnasium and mini water park.

This MEGA home is listed for sale by the McMonigle Group.

The record U.S. home sale price was posted two years ago when a Palm Beach, Florida home sold for $70 million, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Celtic Dragon

Wind and wave to vanquish the hearth

Battlefield birds to pick the bones

Red Sun to scorch their memories from the Earth

War driven ashes scattered to the four corners


425 Millennia before the One appears

The Blackness of time shall amplify fear

Blood shall thicken and slow in veins

A Requim played for gathering souls


Marching into the endless maw of time

Where light leads only to light

Truth glimpsed only in moments passing

In front of the candles eye


A noble Dragon slain by evil knight

The story of Man still unfolding

While truth lies deep inside his heart smoldering

Until the worm turns again


Celtic Dragon by Shawn O'Neal copyright 2006 All Rights reserved.

Got Insurance ?

Already, at least one company has cut back. Allstate won't write policies for new customers in Florida, coastal areas of Mississippi and New York. New policies on the Texas coast and in Louisiana won't include wind or storm coverage, which must come from other insurers or the government. Allstate won't write policies for the vast majority of new customers in inland counties like Harris, home to Houston, where the hurricanes may strike but the state government does not offer windstorm insurance.

Insurance companies paid out about $58 billion for catastrophe coverage last year, primarily for hurricanes, the most ever, said Carolyn Gorman, a vice president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York City.

Source: © Copyright 2006 Florida Association of Realtors®

2006 hurricane forecast risk map

Happy Mothers day from 30A Vibe

Political mini rant

POLL: 66% NOT BOTHERED IF NSA COLLECTS PHONE RECORDS
so about 2/3 of the people are so full of drugs, blasted with media, and busy tying to make a living to be bothered.

Is this a case of not knowing enough to care or
not caring enough to know?

Mothers day in 2

"Woman knows what man has long forgotten, that the ultimate economic and spiritual unit of any civilization is still the family." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Second home away from home

Buying a second home is increasingly a matter of adopting a second country. Americans are buying second homes in foreign countries in droves, connecting real estate markets across international borders. Foreign buyers are playing a significant role in major U.S. markets like Florida, and U.S. buyers are showing a growing interest in international markets, particularly Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Mothers day is but 3 away

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.
~ Irish proverb

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.

~ Spanish Proverb

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Listen up you Mothers

Here is an excerpt from Julia Ward Howe's original 1870 Mother's Day Proclamation:

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with

Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor,

Nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,

Let women now leave all that may be left of home

For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace...

PLANET REALTOR SPEAKS

REAL ESTATE TRENDS

While much of hurricane-battered New Orleans 
is still without electricity and basic services, 
residential real estate sales are at a fever pitch.
 One of the ironies of natural disasters is that they
are often good for real estate: 
It's a pattern real estate professionals
witnessed in Florida after Hurricane Andrew.

Summer time will tell

We are hoping that the number of buyers in this market increases right along with the humidity...and soon.

So much depends on so much this season

Factors:

1. Weather - if, when, and how bad

2. Interest rates- higher means less buyers

3. Stock market rally - competition for investment in real estate

4. Insurance rates- an increased cost of ownership

5. Rental , Wedding, event business- Pretty beaches are a must have item.

Marketing makes me sick

I was just reading an article in the Realtors trade mag about blogs.
They try and tell you so much information all at once. To impress you with how much THEY know
about blogs, blah blah blah and at the end ... the big reason for doing it all is.....
Marketing is the great cause .... SELL YOU LOSER SELL

Sick !

Blog because you have something to say not something to sell.
People can tell if your not real.

Must.... Get.....Cash.....

Nows the time, the time is now..... To start I repeat start to look for deals....

First owners have the upper hand because they got in early they can afford to give you a "deal" and still make some profit on a sale.

If the property has been flipped too many times .... that's a different story.

What will you do.,....

Until the market comes back?

Welcome to the dead zone

Real estate survival guide: The great housing bubble has finally started to deflate, and the fall will be harder in some markets than others.

By Shawn Tully FORTUNE senior writer

You won't find that news in broad national statistics or the upbeat comments from the real estate industry. ,For example, show both new and existing home sales rising in March, a mixed bag on prices - and a record number of new homes on the market.

But FORTUNE's on-the-ground reporting - in what up to now have been some of the nation's hottest areas - paints a very different picture: Contracts are being canceled, deals are drying up, prices are starting to drop. The psychology is shifting even as thousands of new homes and condos join the for-sale listings each day - so the downward pressure will only get worse.

"The buyers' sense of urgency is gone," says Bob Toll, CEO of luxury builder who has long been a housing bull. "They see the market going soft, so they stall."

Take a deep breath. We're not forecasting a nationwide housing collapse. For one thing, the vast expanse of America between the coasts was never touched by real estate mania and is in no danger of a meltdown. And even some overheated markets - including Manhattan, Los Angeles and California's Orange County - are still simmering.

But things are suddenly looking very chilly indeed in four coastal cities - Boston, Washington, Miami and San Diego - as well as three Western boomtowns: Phoenix, Las Vegas and Sacramento. So far this year, monthly sales have fallen 11 percent to 25 percent in Miami, Boston, northern Virginia and San Diego, according to local housing experts.

The prognosis is even worse in Phoenix, where only 4,500 homes sold in the first three months of 2006, vs. 6,100 for the same period last year, and in Sacramento, where new-home sales plunged 57 percent in the first quarter (compared with the first quarter of 2005). In California it now takes six months to sell a house, twice as long as a year ago.

And what's happening in these areas is a sign of what may be coming in the rest of the bubble zone -- the two dozen or so mainly coastal cities and their suburbs that have seen prices soar in recent years and account for 60 percent of the nation's residential real estate value.

The problem is as basic as beams and trusses: The triple threat of soaring prices, higher mortgage rates and relentlessly rising property taxes has drastically increased the cost of ownership and put many homes out of reach for a huge number of potential buyers.

In California, for example, only one household in seven can manage the payments on the median-priced house, now selling for $561,000. It takes an income of $134,000 to afford that home, which might be a modest three-bedroom ranch in a bland subdivision. The affordability gap is driving buyers to the sidelines, replacing the frenzy with a growing void as buyers wait for prices to drop.

Welcome to the dead zone

With houses hovering beyond the reach of most potential purchasers, formerly frantic markets grow eerily calm. People who rush to list their homes, hoping to grab a fat gain just before prices break, take them off the market.

Sales shrink as buyers float low-ball offers, and sellers refuse them. Realtors and mortgage brokers find other jobs. The bubble areas turn into Dead Zones.

There's no mystery about what it will take to close the affordability gap and bring the markets back to life: Prices will have to come down, and incomes will have to move up. Right now the ratio of home values to incomes in the bubble zones is about 40 percent above its historical average. So the only question is how much of the adjustment will come from rising incomes and how much from falling prices.

On that point there's reason to be hopeful. In the past, housing declines almost invariably occurred while the economy was suffering through a recession. This time the housing downturn is coming during a period of strength, with GDP surging nearly 5 percent in the first quarter. If the economy keeps chugging along, household incomes should grow at around 4 percent a year.

Under those conditions one likely scenario is that housing prices would drop 10 percent to 15 percent in the bubble zone over the next 12 months, then remain flat for maybe four more years while incomes catch up.

But there's another possibility. For the past few years the housing boom has driven the economy, adding jobs in construction, remodeling, and real estate services. And consumers gorged on the equity in their homes, taking out a total of $2 trillion via loans, refinancings, and sales over the past five years.

Those powerful stimulants, which added a full point to annual GDP growth, will soon vanish. If corporate spending or some other force doesn't come along to pick up the slack, we could go into a recession that would cut income growth to zero. Then inflated housing prices would have to shoulder the entire, wrenching adjustment, falling 30 percent or more over several years.

In either case, many individual homeowners have nothing to worry about: They can simply stay put and ride out the cycle. The only thing they'll lose is the opportunity to brag about their paper profits. And in some places, appreciation has been so sharp that a seller could see prices plunge 30 percent and still make a hefty gain.

The real losers will be those who bought recently at inflated prices and are forced to sell, usually because they're taking a job in another city or can't make the payments when their adjustable mortgage rate jumps. And speculators who bought overpriced condos in hope of a quick killing are going to get hosed.

Got Insurance ?

May 2, 2006

The state's lawmakers are struggling to come up with a compromise in insurance legislation before the Legislature's session ends later this week.

BY BEATRICE E. GARCIA AND MARY ELLEN KLAS

bgarcia@miamiherald.com

TALLAHASSEE - One version of a massive insurance reform bill was approved and new proposals surfaced as the last week of the legislative session got underway Monday.

Yet there's still no consensus on the best remedy for Florida's insurance crisis.

Senate leaders and insurance industry representatives worked on a plan over the weekend that would tap state coffers for about $500 million to create a loan program to help some insurers get on a more equal footing.

The Senate proposal, which has gained some support from key leaders in the House of Representatives, would allow insurers to borrow up to $25 million, as long as it is matched with an equal amount of existing surplus or new capital.

State Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, said it was ''an innovative program'' as long as the priorities are appropriating state funds to a mitigation program to make homes more hurricane-resistant and covering a portion of the $1.7 billion deficit by the state's insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance.

But Ross, who chairs the House Insurance Committee and who shepherded the insurance bill this session, contends that lawmakers need to be sure any loans coming from state dollars go to ``good, strong companies, not ailing companies on respirators.''

''The arguments are that you put a dollar up and we'll put a dollar up. It certainly is appealing on the surface,'' said House Speaker Allen Bense, R-Panama City, after the House had passed its own package of insurance reform measures.

But, Bense noted, the surplus loan program was a new idea that had come in late in the session and that may discourage him from giving it much attention. ``Our folks are going to scrub that issue more.''

Sen. Rudy Garcia, the Hialeah Republican who heads the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, said the premise behind the surplus loan program was to strengthen companies' ability to continue writing policies in Florida ``so we don't lose them and their policies don't end up with Citizens.''

That's what's happening with the failure of the Tampa-based Poe Financial Group, whose three insurers were handed heavy losses after the eight hurricanes that hit the state in 2004 and 2005.

One firm, Southern Family, is insolvent and in the hands of regulators. It's expected regulators will take over Atlantic Preferred and Florida Preferred, the two other Poe firms, in coming days.

Industry sources said the idea of a loan program came from a bailout request by William Poe Sr., founder of Poe Financial, to state regulators. Lawmakers balked at the idea of using state funds to help just one insurer, but they began considering a plan to use some of the extra sales tax revenue to help various companies.

Among the key provisions of the House bill are the creation of a $500 million mitigation fund to provide low-cost loans for Florida residents to retrofit their homes and make them more storm-resistant and $920 million to cover nearly half of the 2005 deficit run up by Citizens.

The House bill also prevents Citizens from insuring homes valued at more than $1 million and tags a 25-percent surcharge on vacation and second homes.

Yet, neither the House bill that passed Monday, nor its Senate companion as currently structured, provides immediate relief from rising insurance rates for Florida homeowners.

Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, told his fellow representatives that his own insurance bill from Citizens is going up $6,930 this year to more than $15,000.

Though the House bill did pass, there remains some major differences with the Senate insurance measure.

The Senate proposal would phase out coverage for high-value homes in five years. It does provide a surcharge for non-homesteaded properties. The bill also provides $750 million to cover a portion of the Citizens' deficit and $50 million for a mitigation program.

Gov. Jeb Bush has warmed to the idea of using the extra state revenue to provide a small break for homeowners who are hit with surcharges on top of higher insurance premiums. But he's pushing for reform as well.

''It's a huge issue for the state,'' Bush said. ``I've said all along, unless there's reforms attached to the money, the money in and of itself is not satisfactory.''

House and Senate leaders are ''working on it. I hope it gets done prior to the end of the session,'' Bush added.

Bush wouldn't speculate on the chances of a special session but acknowledged that time is running out before hurricane season.

''We have a window of opportunity to act, and it's within the next couple of weeks.'' Bush said.

dedicated to New Orleans

Lyrics by Led Zeppelin



If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,
When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay.

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.

Don't it make you feel bad
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They got no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin' about my baby and my happy home.
Going, going to Chicago... Going to Chicago... Sorry but I can't take you...
Going down... going down now... going down....

What's up Joe ?

What should have been unnerving to investors, however, was the defensive nature of St. Joe's management on the conference call. CEO Peter Rummell stumbled and stammered his way through several of the more challenging questions. Executives tried to put the best spin on the results that they could, often talking in double-speak or refusing to answer questions outright.

bizjournals.com
St. Joe Co. earnings fall 76 percent in 1Q
Tuesday May 2, 11:37 am ET

The St. Joe Co. earned $3.7 million in the first quarter ended March 31, down 76 percent from $15.4 million in first-quarter 2005.

St. Joe (NYSE: JOE - News), the Jacksonville-based developer of residential and commercial real estate, earned 5 cents per share, down from 20 cents a share in first-quarter 2005.

Low priced lots in high priced 30-A areas

Last Month This Month Change


1. Cypress Dunes $240k $240k None

2. Draper Lake $499k $499k None

3. Forest lakes $279k $239k Down

4. Lakeside at Blue Mt. $335k $335k None

5. The Preserve $299k $279k Down

6. WaterColor $385k $285k Down

7. WaterSound $490k $465k Down

8. Seacrest Beach $319k $319k None

9. Rosemary Beach $595k $595k None

From west to east along highway C-30A

* numbers rounded up to nearest thousand.

State of 30-A

Suppose a buyer wants to look for a home in either Watercolor, Seaside or Rosemary beach, how many homes (condos not included) would they have to look at ?

241 is the number as of today.

And how many lots are for sale in South Walton for under 100K ? the answer 101.

Desperate in Miami

And you think it's bad here.... Our guest blog of the week, The Property Grunt
www.propertygrunt.blogspot.com

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Desperate Developers in Miami

Last night, the Grunt accepted the invitation to join a gaggle of brokers for a presentation by a Miami developer. Located at a posh hotel, all of the lambs, I mean brokers, were corralled into a room with two open bars and display tables featuring the development which was fine. But what was really disappointing was the scant amount of food. I mean, for the love of mike, an army runs on their stomachs and brokers are no different. All they had were waiters walking around with crumbs of chicken skewers, cheese on toast, deep fried asparagus and crab cakes. It was a night of disgrace for the hors d'oeuvre.

This is a word of advice to all the developers out there who want to drum up business in Manhattan. DON’T BE CHEAP WITH THE FOOD! Even if it is the greasy, overcooked, micro waved crap that they put out last night, as long as there is plenty of it to go around everyone will be happy. Brokers do not live on alcohol alone. A group of brokers nearly mauled a waiter when he came out with the crab cakes. When you skimp on food it is just a sign that you are in the red. If you can’t afford the high end sh*t, then you can get more bang with a bucket of Pluck U. Everyone loves wings and it goes well with alcohol.

Another bad sign was when the multimedia portion of the presentation went dead. Next time raid the AV department at Aviation High School and for 50 bucks your multimedia presentation will be flawless. But that didn’t stop the presenter who began his carny shtick talking about their luxury development in the Everglades. Apparently they still have units leftover and this is a last chance for buyers to do the Miami dance.

While accompanied by a blank blue screen the presenter droned on the following points to an inebriated and hungry audience.

Miami is a booming that is the last chance to buy great luxury apartments in the area.
The Everglades is like Park Ave.
The developer is the Donald Trump of South America
For a limited time the sales team will meet with brokers and their buyers but they better hurry up since they are overwhelmed with appointments.
The funniest part was when the guy denied that there was a bubble and Miami was bubble proof.

He also went down a list of incentives including:

A 5% referral fee for brokers for bringing in a registered client
Buyers earn 7% interest on their entire down payment
Guaranteed lease back
Buyers will be credited up to $2500 for traveling expenses if they come to the
Miami Sales Center.

First of all when I think of the Everglades, I think of hordes of mosquitoes, alligators, drug deals, Miami Vice gun battles, swamps and lots and lots of humidity. I do not think of luxury. I suspect what happened was that when the boom kicked in, the developer bought up some cheap swampland that had a Miami zip code and went to work to build up a condo in order to cash in. Two years ago, people would throw bales of money for something that farted Miami, but that’s not the case now since local buyers have dried up which is probably the reason why this developer has come rolling into Manhattan trying to find some rubes to unload their turkeys.

This developer’s timing is waaay off. Even before they broke ground they should have went on a campaign to pre-sell as many units as possible and should have brought their barnstorming act to New York before they even called their contractors.

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