Region’s typical home price tops $500,000 [Southern California]

Region’s typical home price tops $500,000 [Southern California]

The median price of a Southern California home punched through the half-million-dollar mark for the first time in March even as sales remained soft, an industry tracker said on Tuesday.

The sales decline is in response to rising interest rates and a market past its “frenzy phase,” said La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems.

The median for the entire region increased an annual 14.1 percent to $501,000. In Los Angeles County it rose an annual 15 percent to $506,000, also a record, the company said.

Home sales slip, condos soar [Central Florida]

Home sales slip, condos soar [Central Florida]

The number of homes on the market in Orlando ballooned again last month as sales of single-family houses continued to cool and the momentum shifted strongly to condominiums, according to figures released Wednesday.

The Orlando Regional Realtor Association’s inventory reached a record 14,559 homes in March — a strong bump up from 12,966 in February and nearly five times the count from a year ago.

Existing-home sales totaled 2,781 in March in the local Realtors’ “core market,” which is mainly Orange and Seminole counties. That was 10 percent better than a year earlier and a record for March.

Glut keeps rental rates down

Glut keeps rental rates down

Think the auto industry is tough? Try the office market.

Back in the mid-’80s, developer Peter Burton built the Arboretum office park in Farmington Hills and advertised space at the going rate of $18 per square foot.

Today, in an office market awash with high vacancies and low demand, the rental rate Burton can charge is stuck at that same $18 per square foot — or about 50% less than 20 years ago, once inflation is taken into account.

On the waterfront?

On the waterfront?

Home buyers pay plenty to have view of fake lakes.

Mughis Chaudhry wanted a house on the water and an easy commute to his office — just like many people in the Orlando metropolitan area.

But unlike most home seekers, Chaudhry, 36, was willing to pay nearly $600,000 for a lakefront lot, even though it is a fake lake being carved out of the ground.

Residential developments have long dressed up retention ponds and presented them as lakes, but because of a diminishing supply of waterfront property, the practice is reaching new heights in west Orange County.

New York firm pays $20 million for Vero apartment complex [South Florida]

New York firm pays $20 million for Vero apartment complex [South Florida]

A New York real estate firm has purchased the Walker Woods apartment complex in Vero Beach for $19.72 million.

Benchmark Properties Management Corp., managed by Clarke Narins, acquired the 29.18-acre property at 2898 71st Circle from Altamonte Springs-based Walker Woods Inc., public records show.

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“It had a certain type of long-term financing that was attractive to us,” Narins said of the purchase.

Condo conundrum: Insurance costly, elusive

Condo conundrum: Insurance costly, elusive

With two consecutive hyperactive hurricane seasons, local condo associations often find that their single biggest expense is hurricane insurance, not the cost of operating and maintaining their facilities.

And even though Bradenton has been spared a direct hit the last two seasons, finding an insurance carrier willing to write a policy can be difficult.

Such was the case at Wildwood Springs, located south of Cortez Road. Despite having no problems and filing no claims, the condo association was forced to turn to Citizens Property Insurance, Florida’s insurance of last resort.