News about properties and real estate
With some 10,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every day over the next 20 years, more potential retiree havens are rolling out the red carpet in an effort to attract them. Favored hotspot Florida may be groaning under the strain of development and comparatively high real estate prices while facing stepped-up competition from other retiree-friendly …
Continue reading “Clearwater, Fla.: Coastal city a great value”
When Capt. Louis Roberts and his wife, Ocean Hansen Roberts, made their home on Siesta Key (then known as “Sarasota Key”), the island was known for its mosquito swarms, snakes, wild cats and ornery wild boars. There was no bridge to the mainland, and everything had to be ferried out by boat. The Robertses left …
Continue reading “Market Snapshot: Roberts Point on Siesta Key”
Douglas Luckett, 29, of Louisville has been on his own since he was 16 years old, but the apprentice electrician has never found his income so stretched. “It went from not so hard to getting rougher,” he said. “Each year, stuff keeps getting more expensive, but my pay’s not going up.” What hits Luckett especially …
Continue reading “The rental squeeze: Louisville renters feel the pinch of the economic downturn”
Here’s an odd side effect of South Florida’s foreclosure crisis: Some immense homes with pools and three-car garages in gated communities are being rented out to unlikely tenants — poor people paying with Section 8 aid. Among the properties are homes with up to 4,500 square feet of space in private communities with guardhouses and …
Continue reading “Large gated South Florida homes rented by Section 8 tenants”
A public housing tenant could become a casualty in battle between the Cocoa Housing Authority and HUD over a $1.3 million debt. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will sanction Cocoa Housing Authority board members if they fail to justify not repaying another Brevard County housing authority’s Section 8 voucher program, according to a …
The jackpot of a lifetime arrived last month inside a letter from GMAC Mortgage: an offer to make more than $200,000 in debt instantly disappear. The lender, the letter said, would slash what the homeowner owed to ribbons, including shrinking her $204,000 mortgage principal to about a third its size. Far be it from a …
Continue reading “$8 billion in mortgage relief arriving in Florida mailboxes”