News About Properties

Home prices are up, long-vacant houses have families moving in, but fear of what the future might bring has prompted some of the homeowner associations in the unincorporated area of West Boca to limit who might move in.

Some of the 125 master homeowner associations have either banned or are considering a ban on a certain kind of renter — those who pay with the help of Section 8 government housing assistance.

Earlier this year, Boca Winds outlawed Section 8 housing in its community of 800 homes. Boca Falls residents are currently voting on the issue, and a subdivision of the mammoth Logger’s Run, Winding Lakes Estates, is considering whether to ask residents to vote on a ban.

via Communities in West Boca seek to ban government rental assistance.

A lot of people are down on home ownership these days, some for good reason.

• Young people with student debt can’t be enthusiastic because it’s too painful. Their debt takes them out as homebuyers.• Those who overreached during the bubble are still recovering. At best, they are a long way from having the trauma of being “upside-down” become nearly a bad memory. At worst, they are renting a single-family home they would once have purchased.

via The Amazing Arithmetic of Home Ownership.

The rise of all-cash deals in places like Miami has made it difficult for high-end home buyers planning to use a mortgage. In response, many of these borrowers are turning to lenders able to close loans quickly or offer a range of financing options.

In Miami-Dade County, for example, 62% of all closed residential real-estate sales in 2013 had no mortgage, says the Miami Association of Realtors.

For homes priced $800,000 and above in Miami-Dade, all-cash sales accounted for 58% of the total sales in that price range. The all-cash share in that range was 27% in 2008.

via How to beat out all-cash home buyers.

Q: I am about to buy a home and just did the final walk-through before closing. We agreed to buy the house as-is and did thorough inspections about a month ago, as per the contract, and everything seemed fine. Now the refrigerator doesn’t work and the toilet is completely stopped up. Do I still need to close? – Carlos

A: In a typical as-is purchase, the buyer is allowed a certain amount of time to have the property inspected. If the property is not to his or her liking, the contract may be canceled and the deposit money returned. If the contract moves forward, the seller has no obligations to make any repairs for existing issues the buyer finds.

via Ask a real estate pro: Sellers must make repairs.

When a landmarked house on a historic street enters the market, it’s always a newsmaker — and doubly so when the home has been maintained to a standard that honors its original era while offering a comfortable lifestyle today.

And when the residence in question turns out to have been part of an even larger house, its history becomes all the more interesting.

via Golfview Road home still resonates with the charm of its….

Sick of the cold, Una and Howard Kemper followed the warmth 1,000 miles south to a field of asphalt in the Florida pine flats, a mobile home park named CountryWood. • They bought a double-wide a third the size of their Baltimore rancher — with a manicured palm out front, like they had seen on TV — and filled it with angel figurines. That was 24 years ago. Una is 76 now, a widow on a fixed income. But this will always be her home. • “As far as I’m concerned, I’m in paradise,” she said. “When I leave I want to leave the same way (Howard) did — not going anywhere else, except straight up.”

About 1.8 million Floridians today choose to live in a mobile home, a crowd five times the size of Tampa and mostly earning less than $30,000 a year.

via Mobile home park investors bet on older, poorer America.