News About Properties

Tax switch could bring relief, pain

House leaders want to swap a sales tax hike for eliminating homeowners’ property taxes.

Lawmakers in the state House of Representatives are ready to stop charging many Floridians property taxes — by making the state’s sales tax the highest in the nation.

House Republican leaders just unveiled a package of proposals to halt runaway government spending and to eliminate homeowners’ property-tax bills by raising the six-cent state sales tax by 2.2 cents.

Mayor Trumpets Building Boom, But We’re Still Bursting at the Seams [New York City]

Record-breaking levels of home construction still aren’t enough to house the massive influx of residents pro-jected by 2030.

Pity popular New York City. Unlike many other American metropolises (Detroit, Philadelphia, even Cleveland), the city’s population keeps growing steadily, so much so that not even record new-home construction numbers can keep up with the rising demand.

Politicians and the press made much in recent weeks of new census data that shows a lot of permits for building privately owned homes were issued in the five boroughs in 2006—just like in 2005!

“The data shows that the pace of housing construction remains strong in New York City,” a City Hall press release crowed. “The years Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been in office saw the highest five-year total … since 1965.”

Area homes remain affordable [Central Illinois]

Central Illinois remains one of the most affordable regions in the country to buy a home.

According to Zillow.com, a Seattle-based online real estate service, the Peoria-Pekin area was listed as one of the top five least expensive metropolitan areas in the United States with a rating of $91,984 for the fourth quarter of 2006, a median home value based on all area homes - not just those sold.

Only the Quad Cities registered lower at $86,201 in the company’s listing of 76 select U.S. markets.

The San Francisco metro area was listed with a price of $684,459 with Honolulu at $626,452 and the Los Angeles area at $545,409.

Renting rooms, buying a dream

When Jason Tackmann was a kid, if you told him he’d grow up to be a landlord, he would have laughed.

But now, at age 36, he and his fiancée Elaine Morales are the new owners of an old South Bronx rowhouse - and hope to become landlords by summertime.

To leave renting behind, the couple plans to have other people pay rent to them.

But before they can start collecting monthly checks, their home needs lots of work.

Publix real estate: Where flipping is a pleasure

Looking to get rich quick in real estate? Forget flipping condos or snapping up fixer-uppers - that’s so 2004.

The real action these days is in Publix-anchored shopping centers, which have been soaring in value even as home prices have slumped.

For the latest example, look at the eye-popping profit generated by River Bridge Centre, a 27-acre complex at Jog Road and Forest Hill Boulevard in Greenacres. It sold for $66.75 million this month. Previous sale: $37.7 million in May 2005.

Real estate agents see marked improvement

Across Southwest Florida, real estate agents are reporting sales, showing activity and buyer interest that suggests the region could be emerging from its real estate doldrums.

In January, Michael Saunders & Co.’s call center received 3,375 serious inquiries, “which matches almost exactly the call activity at the height of the boom,” said spokesman Tom Heatherman.

In January 2006, the center received only 2,310 calls.

Saunders closed on 134 units in October, but last month, it closed on 178.