More than 5,600 new homes still sit unsold in the Orlando area

More than 5,600 new homes still sit unsold in the Orlando area

The number of individuals and families moving into new homes in Orlando-area subdivisions plunged 26 percent during the second quarter, and home builders continued to slam on the brakes.

Starts, or new homes getting under way in the region, fell more than 41 percent in the period ending June 30 compared with the same time a year ago, a report by Metrostudy showed Thursday.

And despite efforts by builders to entice buyers with discounts and deals, more than 5,600 new homes still sit empty in the Orlando area, a number that’s virtually unchanged from a year ago, the Houston-based research company reported.

Unsold inventory did fall overall, a helpful sign for the health of the industry, but it was mostly in the under-construction category, said Anthony Crocco, director of Metrostudy’s Central and Northeast Florida divisions.

Distressing development [South Florida]

Distressing development [South Florida]

he implosion of New York-based Boymelgreen Developers has reached Miami Beach.

Deposits are being returned at its 66-unit Vitri project on South Beach. Contract holders are upset about getting back their deposits of the developer’s project north of downtown with only 1 percent interest after two years. And brokers are threatening to sue over unpaid commissions.

Until April, the developer was known as Leviev Boymelgreen, after Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev and New York developer Shaya Boymelgreen. But the partners split, leaving Boymelgreen with three unfinished Miami-area projects in a dire condo market.

Construction at the seven-story Vitri project at Fifth Street and West Avenue stopped weeks ago. The foundation work is not finished and the developer has begun returning some deposits.

Towering Rage

Towering Rage

From his office on the 12th floor of the Las Olas Centre, Don Hall’s view stretches across the New River to take in regal yachts, fine mansions, and open skies. Hall says he likes open spaces. He even owned a ranch in Wyoming once, which explains his office’s Western décor. Yet blocking that expansive view of the New River is his “fondest wish,” he says — and Hall, a lawyer, is the corporate muscle to make it happen.

From his office perch, Hall can peer down at the Stranahan House, a two-story reminder of Fort Lauderdale’s pioneer past. That’s where he contends all the trouble began, with the house’s preservation-minded supporters. Hall’s clients, developers Related Group and Rabina Properties, have been trying for eight years to build Icon, a high-rise luxury condo building, next to the Stranahan House. Supporters of the house and the City of Fort Lauderdale have fought back, saying 42 stories of swanky skyboxes will cast a shadow over one of the few remaining pieces of the city’s past. There have been charges and countercharges, votes and scuttled deals. Now, Hall is spearheading a new tack: His clients are suing the nonprofit Stranahan House, its supporters, and a single critic of Icon, asking for unspecified damages. Why?

Like a piñata, bursting condo bubble will spill forth goodies [South Florida]

Like a piñata, bursting condo bubble will spill forth goodies [South Florida]

Even Cassandra must have thought once or twice about pie in the sky.

As Miami’s unofficial prophet of doom during a condo bubble that is no longer in dispute, I wrote column after column counseling caution rather than unbridled euphoria but claiming that even a bust would leave behind beneficial change.

Now the slide has become reality, Miami’s condo-construction wave is about to end, and completed units will soon hit the closing table. I’m no longer in the minority talking bubbles — but on the plus side, I’m also not alone in seeing value in the bubble.

Daniel Gross, in his new book, “Pop! Why Bubbles are Great for the Economy,” suggests, “the excess capacity in real estate will be marked down and sold (some of it at catastrophic losses) but not torn down. Some developers in South Florida might go bankrupt, but their half-finished condo towers will be completed and turned into hotels or office buildings or dormitories for rich kids at the University of Miami.”

More mobile homes are not being insured

More mobile homes are not being insured

More than half of Florida’s 800,000 mobile homes are no longer covered by homeowners insurance — another sign of the state’s soaring insurance costs.

The number of insured Florida mobile homes dropped from more than 500,000 in 2004 to less than 400,000 last year, according to the state Office of Insurance Regulation.

Insurance costs have soared across Florida, but the situation is worse for mobile home owners, who often find the cost of insurance is out of scale with the value of their home.

Insurers are exceptionally wary of older mobile homes that lack some of the wind protection required after 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, which scattered mobile home debris up to three miles.

Con artist or beaten spouse? [Tampa Bay Area]

Con artist or beaten spouse? [Tampa Bay Area]

She blames her ex. It’s an act, her victims in a housing scam say.

Who is Synthia Ippolito?

Is she, as prosecutors allege, a cunning con who bought the homes of 20 people under false pretenses, forcing victims to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy their properties back or to lose their homes entirely?

Or is she, as her lawyer claims, a victim herself who was forced into shady real estate deals from St. Petersburg to Hudson by an ex-husband who coerced her with physical violence?

In May, a jury heard both descriptions of Ippolito, 38, during a six-day trial in Pinellas Circuit Court.