Mobile home park investors bet on older, poorer America

Sick of the cold, Una and Howard Kemper followed the warmth 1,000 miles south to a field of asphalt in the Florida pine flats, a mobile home park named CountryWood. • They bought a double-wide a third the size of their Baltimore rancher — with a manicured palm out front, like they had seen on TV — and filled it with angel figurines. That was 24 years ago. Una is 76 now, a widow on a fixed income. But this will always be her home. • “As far as I’m concerned, I’m in paradise,” she said. “When I leave I want to leave the same way (Howard) did — not going anywhere else, except straight up.”

About 1.8 million Floridians today choose to live in a mobile home, a crowd five times the size of Tampa and mostly earning less than $30,000 a year.

via Mobile home park investors bet on older, poorer America.

Orlando area home prices see biggest recovery in outlying neighborhoods

To find the Central Florida neighborhoods where home prices have bounced back the most in the past year, look at newer communities at the region’s outer edges.

Growth pockets in Eustis, Paisley and Montverde in Lake County showed price gains of about 30 percent from February 2013 until the same month this year. So did portions of St. Cloud and rural parts of south Osceola County, including Harmony.

Overall values in the four-county Orlando metropolitan area increased 20 percent during that period, according to a new Homes.com study that compared sales of the same homes over time by ZIP code.

via Orlando area home prices see biggest recovery in outlying neighborhoods.

Brazilian Avenue townhouse site sells for $6M

On the market for more than three years and green-lighted last month for a new four-unit townhouse complex, a vacant lot at 215 Brazilian Ave. near South County Road has been sold to the project’s developers for $6 million, according to the price recorded with last week’s deed.

The developers shouldn’t have any problem recouping that cost, considering that the townhouses have been priced, pre-construction, at between $6.25 million and $6.75 million each, according to agent Chris Deitz of Fite Shavell & Associates. He was involved in the deal recorded May 1 and is the listing agent for the townhouses.

via Brazilian Avenue townhouse site sells for $6M.

Why are rich Russians so obsessed with buying up London property? | Cities

What is it about London that wealthy Russians can’t get enough of? Thanks in no small part to the crisis in Ukraine, their takeover of the London property market is growing apace.

According to the Financial Times £, well-to-do Russians – and Ukrainians too – “are trying to shift more cash into London property … amid indications that eastern European oligarchs are using the capital’s housing market to conceal their assets from international sanctions”. And this despite a recent “tax crackdown” by George Osborne, apparently.

via Why are rich Russians so obsessed with buying up London property?.

Abandoned homes haunt Florida’s housing market

Florida’s real estate market remains haunted by decaying and abandoned properties even as new foreclosures slow and home values rise.

These so-called “zombie” foreclosures — properties forsaken by both the bank and borrower — number 54,900 statewide, including 14,600 in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.

The concentration in Florida makes it tops in the nation for zombie foreclosures, with South Florida ranking first among large metro areas.

via Abandoned homes haunt Florida’s housing market.

Miami Luxury Condos Revived With Buyer Cash Deposits

Gil Dezer, a Miami-area developer, five years ago had 850 unsold condominiums on his hands and almost $500 million in loans coming due as credit markets froze and buyers disappeared.Today, he’s back in the market with what he sees as a safer bet: a 132-unit luxury project for auto enthusiasts called the Porsche Design Tower. Condos at the 60-story building, featuring an elevator that transports cars directly into the homes, range from $4.5 million to $32.5 million for a 17,000-square-foot 1,600-square-meter four-floor penthouse.

via Miami Luxury Condos Revived With Buyer Cash Deposits.