First-time home buyer? You’re in luck

First-time home buyer? You’re in luck

Is now the time to buy a house in Central Florida?

The answer to that question is hardly simple, given the prolonged housing slump and the nationwide recession. It also depends on a complex mix of personal issues and factors, including, of course, “The Fear Factor.”

If you own a home and need to sell it before you can afford to buy a better one, you might find that difficult for another year or so — maybe longer — because of the glut of properties still on the market and the state of the U.S. economy.

But if you are a first-time buyer, the situation is different. Do you have enough cash for a down payment — at least 3.5 percent for a Federal Housing Administration loan, as much as 20 percent for a conventional bank loan — plus closing costs? And is your job or career relatively stable?

Unpaid fees put Florida condo owners in foreclosure

Unpaid fees put Florida condo owners in foreclosure

Sitting in her small condo in one of Tampa Bay’s biggest retirement communities as her hands tremble, a 75-year-old woman reads a letter threatening to put her out of her home. Like so many other Floridians, Ann Studen is facing foreclosure. But in her case, it has nothing to do with her mortgage. She’s four months behind on her $280 monthly maintenance fees, and her condo board has put a lien on her $70,000 unit.

It happens more often than you might think. While no one tracks foreclosures prompted by homeowner boards and associations, there are a rising number of people in Studen’s situation, according to civil court judges and condominium officials.

In a shaky economy, this is one more way that people are falling through the cracks.

“I have no place to go. Where could I go?” says Studen, her face contorting in anguish. She’s out of savings, low on cash and running out of time.

Off The Wall [Manhattan New York]

Off The Wall [Manhattan New York]

How weak is the Manhattan rental market these days? Well, if things keep going the way they have been, you might want to slip your next rent check inside a sympathy card before giving it to your landlord.

According to numbers from the Real Estate Group New York, rents are down across the board in Manhattan. Non-doorman studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms and doorman studios and one-bedrooms are all renting for less than they were at this time last year. Only doorman two-bedrooms saw prices rise compared to those of the previous year, and the average rent increase was less than 1 percent.

Bond New York principal Bruno Ricciotti says that since the Wall Street crisis came to a head in September, he’s seen rents for some units fall 10 to 30 percent.

“They’re the steepest price drops that I’ve seen in the 12 years that I’ve been in the business,” he says.

Florida’s bargain homes beckon

Florida’s bargain homes beckon

Ever dreamed of owning a vacation home in Florida? Maybe a nice one- or two-bedroom winter getaway near the beach and a swimming pool in the courtyard?

U.S. developers are hoping that snowbirds from cities such as Toronto will take advantage of bargain-basement prices to make that dream a reality. With one in about 454 U.S. homes now in foreclosure and a huge oversupply of condos on the market, prices for Florida condos are indeed at fire-sale levels — as much as 50 per cent below what they were selling for last year.

That means prices as low as $200 (U.S.) — or about $240 — a square foot compared with average condo prices nudging the $500-a-square-foot mark in the Greater Toronto Area.

Why target Canada? Simple, Canadians are the largest single foreign buyer of U.S. residential property. Last year alone, Canadians snapped up 56,000 Sunbelt properties, says Brian Ellis, vice-president of Brampton-based Florida Home Finders of Canada Inc.

Royal Palm hotel heads for bankruptcy

Royal Palm hotel heads for bankruptcy

Six years after opening the Royal Palm, developer R. Donahue Peebles has put the entity that owns the South Beach hotel into bankruptcy protection amid a dispute with a lender trying to foreclose on the property.

The bankruptcy filing of Royal Palm Senior Investors marks the latest twist in a complicated legal battle over the 417-room hotel that Peebles built with city subsidies at the start of the decade.

Lenders claim the primary owner, Coral Gables real estate investor Guy Mitchell, defaulted on loans that he and his partners secured when they paid $124 million in 2005 for 88 percent of the hotel. Peebles maintained a 12 percent stake and has been feuding with Mitchell almost from the start.

The latest fight involves Carbon Capital, a division of the Blackrock investment giant, which made a loan to Royal Palm Senior Investors for a condo-hotel conversion that ultimately fizzled. The bankruptcy filing lists a $30 million debt to Carbon, the only liability mentioned for the holding company.

Pa. investor buys 26 condos in West Palm for $5 million

Pa. investor buys 26 condos in West Palm for $5 million

In a sign that bargain hunters are taking advantage of West Palm Beach’s condo glut, the head of a large Pennsylvania-based roofing company has snapped up 26 units at The Edge.

Ed Dunlap, chairman of CentiMark of Canonsburg, Pa., paid $5 million for condos at The Edge, according to a deed recorded this week. Dunlap couldn’t be reached for comment.

Dunlap paid $165 per square foot for the 26 units. To understand how cheap that is, consider that:

# The buyers who closed on 155 units at The Edge in 2007 paid an average of $368 a square foot, and as much as $475 a square foot.