Bay area home prices defy trend

Business: Bay area home prices defy trend Statewide and nationwide, the housing boom shows signs of winding down. But in the Tampa Bay area, prices keep climbing. The median resale price among single-family houses rose 4.9 percent locally to $225,700 last month, up from $215,200 in September. By comparison, the median – or midpoint – …

Pension funds play catch-up with high rise of real estate

Pension funds play catch-up with high rise of real estate After several years of robust performance and enviable returns, public and private pension funds are hitching their bandwagon to the bull-run real estate market. Time will tell if their rearview-mirror investment strategies are too late. “The pension fund universe was underfunded in recent years,” says …

Rents in Palm Beach County climb hundreds a month due to rising insurance, property taxes

Rents in Palm Beach County climb hundreds a month due to rising insurance, property taxes: South Florida Sun-Sentinel Landlords in South Florida say skyrocketing taxes and insurance costs are forcing them to sell their units or raise rents — in some cases by several hundred dollars a month. Rental property doesn’t qualify for Florida’s Save …

Philadelphia Growing Up with a Slew of High-Rise Projects

Philadelphia Growing Up with a Slew of High-Rise Projects Until the 1987 opening of Murphy/Jahn’s 945-foot One Liberty Place, Philadelphians passionately defended an unwritten agreement limiting city building heights to below the hat topping the statue of William Penn atop City Hall. By 1991, four years after One Liberty Place opened, seven other office towers …

Wilma drubs used-home sales

Wilma drubs used-home sales Hurricane Wilma’s late-October winds pushed existing-home sales in the Treasure Coast to a double-digit decline last month, but prices continued their strong advance, a Florida Association of Realtors report released Monday shows. With the Treasure Coast dodging Wilma’s most punishing blows, home sales in Martin and St. Lucie counties experienced less-severe …

Investor bullish about economy, but fears storms

Investor bullish about economy, but fears storms Real estate investor and serial entrepreneur Mark Famiglio owns almost 500,000 square feet of commercial office, warehouse and retail space in Manatee County. He is also a co-owner of the one of the fastest growing technology companies in Southwest Florida — CopyTalk, which turns phone messages into e-mails.