My favorite blog posts are ones that are inspired by reader questions, and today we respond to a doozy from “DC” who asks about investing and student housing.
We get all kinds of questions from our readers, but this one is very insightful in that I believe he suspects there could be a problem brewing for some of the investors in the Tallahassee real estate market.
And I believe he is correct.
Homeowners hit with substantial increases in their flood insurance as a result of recent changes in the federal program should do their homework, experts say, because there may be ways to lower their bills.
“A lot of people don’t know the flood map is not set in stone,’’ said Jason Cummins of Cummins-Cederberg, a coastal and marine engineering firm based in South Miami. Federal officials “understand they are limited in many aspects, budget, resources and time available, and you can challenge it.”
via TALLAHASSEE: Homeowners can challenge flood insurance rates.
Edgardo and Ana Cristina Defortuna purchased one of the best-known properties on this exclusive island enclave south of Miami—President Richard Nixon’s Winter White House—and tore it down.
The Defortunas, developers and managers of some of Miami’s priciest condominium buildings, had grand visions for the waterfront property, which features a rare private beach on Biscayne Bay. They built a 22,000-square-foot, six-bedroom white stucco home, inspired by Mediterranean and French architecture. A large patio with an infinity pool overlooks the beach and the Miami skyline.
“A site like this is hard to find,” said Mr. Defortuna, on a recent late-summer afternoon, shortly after the couple’s sons, ages 10, 7 and 6, returned home from school.
All year long, we’ve been hearing that the housing rebound is upon us. Yes, there has been some marked cooling in the market in the past couple of months, but by and large, the stars have remained aligned.
The economy is recovering, unemployment is inching down and the Federal Reserve is trying to keep interest rates low, helping create the greatest buyers’ market in anyone’s memory. Things are looking brighter for sellers, too. The often-quoted S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index is chronicling the biggest price increases in half a decade.
It no doubt makes a lot of people want to jump into the housing market again.
via The housing market is looking up. But don’t ignore the more sobering facts..
First-time homebuyers might long to buy a house in a hip, urban neighborhood in South Tampa, but area Realtors say the competitive seller’s market has forced younger buyers to settle in the suburbs.
Rae Catanese, a Realtor with RE/MAX Bay to Bay Real Estate Agency, said the prices in South Tampa are higher to begin with — and that’s before buyers get into so-called “bidding wars” that can drive prices even higher. Without the cash, many younger buyers can’t compete.
“It’s a really unhealthy market right now,” Catanese said. “We are down to three months of inventory in Tampa. A healthy market is six months of inventory and an equal number of buyers and sellers.”
via Realtors: Tampa market forces first-time buyers into suburbs.
When Citizens Property Insurance sends out its monthly customer bills, only 31 percent of them go to the same house that is insured.
The rest go to other mailboxes in Florida — and around the globe, according to data analyzed by the American Consumer Institute of Citizen Research.
More than 19,000 bills go to people who live in Canada, nearly 27,000 go to New Yorkers, almost 12,000 go to folks in New Jersey and hundreds more go to England, Germany and France.
via TALLAHASSEE: Report: Citizens insures thousands of out-of-state policyholders.
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