Archive for June, 2007

June Realtor Survey - What Are We Thinking?

June 29th, 2007 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tampa Market Conditions

I like to participate in Bank of America’s monthly market survey of Realtors and real estate agents. It’s a nice survey that they put together that gives investors an indication of where the market is headed.

“We survey real estate agents, as we believe that agents will provide an accurate assessment of housing market trends in both the new and existing home markets.”

And by participating each month, they send me the results as soon as they are released.

They ask five simple questions about buyer traffic, home prices and builder/seller incentives. As you can gather on the chart at left, all are on a downward trend, at least in Tampa.

 

Here are some quotes that different area agents offered:

 

• “Buyers are very cautious.”
• “Tax reform is not up to expectations, and customers are opting to wait until taxes are brought back into line.”
• “Buyers don’t realize how good a price they can get if they just make an offer.”
• “Mortgage brokers and underwriters are not on same page. Pre-approvals are being turned down when it comes down to the underwriting of the loan.”
• “The market is dead.”

Come on now, the market’s not dead. I guess it is for that agent, but people are buying. Just look at the numbers. “Dead” is relative term I guess, especially when comparing to the recent past.

I agree with most of the other statements however, especially about buyers being cautious and buyers not realizing how good of a deal they can get right now. But no one not many want to buy when there is doubt about where prices are going. When a buyer sees the inventory out there and realizes it’s not moving, and they don’t see many others out looking, you can sort of understand the trepidation.

But these survey reports are good because you get the opinions of the ones in the trenches, and those opinions will likely reflect the future stabilization and subsequent turn in the marketplace. Stay tuned.

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | No Comments »

Tampa Real Estate Market Conditions

June 29th, 2007 categories: South Tampa, Tampa MLS, Tampa Market Conditions

Stability

More of the same for the Tampa residential real estate market in the last 7 days. In fact, while it has been fun looking at the numbers on a weekly basis, I’m considering going to a monthly report instead. Any objections?

The past 15 months have had a huge increase in the available inventory together with a huge decrease in demand of homes for sale. But we’ve seen both of those numbers flatten out over the past few weeks. And the changes in the number of listings available for sale in Tampa, along with the number of pending contracts in place, has not been too great great recently.

So here are some numbers to consider:

Since last week 160 properties have gone under contract, with 8 of them priced at $1m or higher. Seven of the eight are in the South Tampa, Davis Islands, Harbour Island, Beach Park areas, and one of them in Tampa Palms. That’s pretty significant considering there have been only 74 sales of homes priced at $1m or above year-to-date in the City of Tampa.

On the sales side, 174 residential Tampa real estate transactions closed during the last 7 days, none closing at above the $1m threshold. Where are they selling? The 33647 (New Tampa/Tampa Palms) zip code was busiest with 25 sales in the past week. Next up was 33626 (Westchase) with 20 closed transactions. The busiest South Tampa zip was 33609 with 13 closings since 6/22.

Since size does matter (in real estate), how about the biggest home to sell? A new 4500 square foot home in Grand Hampton sold for $875k recently. Smallest? A 480 square foot, 1/1, single family home (did someone actually build a 1/1?) on a 30’ x 74’ lot, sold for $68k this week. Oldest? A 1921 Craftsman style bungalow in Hyde Park sold for $735k after only 7 days on the market.

But while these are interesting tidbits, what really gives us the best indication of the Tampa real estate market’s health, or lack thereof, are the numbers that indicate the relative level of supply and demand of Tampa homes and condos. Active and Pending brokered listings are the best indicators. So since these numbers have reached some stability, and we aren’t seeing big week to week changes, look for these regular reports on a monthly basis going forward. Contact us if you have specific questions about Tampa real estate.

Data used is from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS, city = Tampa, all brokers/agents included.

Subscribe to these reports.

 

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | 1 Comment »

How Long Can A Buyer Tie Up Property?

June 29th, 2007 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tips for Sellers

The title of this post was a question someone used in a search engine that ultimately got them to this site. So I figured, let’s answer the question.

The simple answer is “as long as both seller and buyer agree to”. That’s the easy way way out however. In reality, this is one of the biggest terms that is negotiated on a real estate contract for purchase. And in this market, sellers have to be careful that they are protected from buyers looking to “tie it up”.

What does “Tie Up” mean? It basically means to get a property under contract so that in effect it is taken off the market so that it is not available to other buyers. For instance, let’s say you’re a home buyer and you’ve found what you think is your dream home, but you’re just not sure. You don’t want to risk having someone else come along and take your dream home so you decide to make an offer and get the home under contract. In doing so you ask for terms that are favorable to you. Let’s say that you ask the seller for a period of 1 month to inspect the home, and you also ask for the right to cancel the contract for any reason within a few days after your inspection period. You could then take the next month to shop frantically to make sure you’re not missing a better deal. If you find a better option, you exercise your right to cancel the deal.

So in effect you “tied the home up” so no one else could buy it. Buyers are commonly looking for easy outs and sellers are looking to minimize a buyer’s easy outs and protect themselves accordingly.

So both home buyers and home sellers are each looking for the most favorable terms for themselves. Price is just one small part of negotiating a real estate contract. So the answer to the question really depends on all the factors that affect the transaction. In this strong buyers’ market some sellers will let a buyer tie a property up if other terms of the offer are favorable. But with so few buyers in the market currently, sellers would be well advised to seek ways to protect themselves should they face a buyer looking to tie the property up. Time off of the market is very costly currently.

So whether you’re a seller or buyer, having professional representation can make a big difference. As Realtors we are in the business of negotiating real estate contracts. We see contracts fall apart quite often for one reason or another. We know the tactics buyers and sellers will use to try to tip the hat in their favor.

See: Earnest Money Deposit

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | No Comments »

What You Can Get For The $$ In Tampa

June 22nd, 2007 categories: Tampa MLS, Tampa Market Conditions

So I received an e-mail from another Realtor this afternoon for a 4 bedroom home in Lutz on a 120 x 163 lot, pool, granite, stainless, garden bath, the works. All priced at $365k or about $167/sq ft.

This is the kind of listing that always gets me thinking about what you can get for a certain dollar amount in and around Tampa. Most of our business is in South Tampa where a similar home would sell for closer to $500k. But if you’ve got $365k to spend, let’s go shopping!

So what will $360–$370k get you throughout Hillsborough County (currently)?

In Hyde Park you can get a 1926 model 3/1 bungalow of about 1250 sqft. Too small you say? Ok then, how about a 4/3 in Westchase built in 1994 with a 3–car garage and 2246 sq ft of cooled space (down from $449k by the way)? But remember, for this one you’ll tack on an extra $1300 or so annually for the CDD fees. The developer needs their $$ back.

Still not big enough? Next in line then is Live Oak Preserve’s 4 bedroom home of almost 2500 sq ft built 2 years ago (at the top of the market). Hard to expect a buyer today to pay more than the seller did during the summer of ‘05.

In Tampa Palms you can get 2500 sq ft with a pool and 2–car garage. Valrico Oaks has a great 4/2 on over 1/3 of an acre with pool, wood floors, great landscaping, etc.

Well if it’s space you’re looking for, then head back to Lutz where you can get actually get a Tampa area home for less than $100/sq ft! That’s right. You’ll get 3800 sq ft. with 5 bedrooms on over 1/2 of an acre on a lake!

Location, location, location, right? See them all here.

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | 2 Comments »

Tampa Real Estate Market Conditions

June 22nd, 2007 categories: Tampa MLS, Tampa Florida Real Estate, News on Interest Rates, Mortgage Rate Watch

The Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, of which I am a member, has been running an ad lately that points out why now is a good time to buy residential real estate in Tampa. One of the points the ad makes is that there has never been such a great choice of properties available for sale. And right they are. In fact, there are almost 3000 more properties for sale in the City of Tampa than there were 12 months ago. But at the same time there are over 800 less properties under contract to be purchased as compared to June of 2006.

So yes, with respect to availability, now is a great time to buy a home in Tampa. And while sales are down as compared to recent years, buyers are buying. The City of Tampa alone has had 3420 brokered sales of residential properties year-to-date. Hillsborough County has had 6175 sales. Pinellas has had 5197 brokered sales since January 1^st 2007.

In the last 7 days, 124 transactions for properties in the City of Tampa have closed. (Report, sorted by price). These properties were, on average, purchased at about 96% of the list prices (not factoring in any previous price reductions).

Tampa’s residential real estate market can be summed up as follows:

• Fairly stable and historically low mortgage interest rates
• Increasing inventory
• Decreasing demand

This all points to advantage: BUYER. So while all buyers of residential real estate have differing situations, this is a good time to purchase generally speaking. There are very few buyers “in the store”, prices have been slashed, money is cheap, sellers are willing to deal, banks are willing to deal (see: short sale), and the shelves are stocked full.

Data used is from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS and does not include private sales/listings.

Subscribe to this weekly report.

Posted by Lenny Gurvich | No Comments »

« Previous Entries

Also Noteworthy

How's The Market In Your Neighborhood?

 

Real Estate Blogs

• Real Estate Blogs
• REagent
• Clearwater, FL Real Estate

What I'm Reading

• Dave's Backcountry Ski Blog
• Funny Stuff
• Get Your Grill On
• Retro Renovation
• Atomic Addiction

Tampa Blogs

• FloridaFoodHound
• Devil Rays Blog
• Sticks of Fire