Red-hot Keys housing market feeling a chill

Red-hot Keys housing market feeling a chill

Some Keys residents who figured a year ago they were real estate millionaires are now scrambling to unload properties damaged by Wilma’s flooding.

This time last year, real estate agents along this island chain couldn’t keep most properties in stock, as eager buyers snapped up trailer lots, pushed prices for ordinary wooden homes beyond $1 million and spawned bidding wars that had many locals believing they were paper millionaires.

What a difference 12 months make.

As Baby Boomers hit 60, the retirement home undergoes big changes

As Baby Boomers hit 60, the retirement home undergoes big changes

As Baby Boomers start hitting 60, the retirement home isn’t what it used to be.

Neither is the family home.

Two show houses built for the International Builders’ Show, which drew about 100,000 people in the home-building industry here recently, illustrate the changing shape of houses.

The Baby Boom generation, 78 million strong, is healthy, wealthy and wise to the marketplace. With the money they have amassed, Boomers want their retirement residences — often a second or third home — to emulate resorts with fine amenities. They’re realistic enough to know that they might be sharing their house with aging parents with limited mobility, or that they might one day need a live-in caregiver. But they want their homes to reflect their vitality rather than vulnerabilities associated with aging.

For some investors, real estate may have lost its rosy glow

For some investors, real estate may have lost its rosy glow

Will investors continue to purchase residential real estate at a record pace, or will they return to the stock market, where analysts believe moderate gains are on the horizon?

If there is a wild card in the nation’s housing this year, it’s the investor market, according to housing analysts.

“We can’t find a period when the investor share of home sales has been higher than in the last year,” said David Berson, chief economist with mortgage company Fannie Mae, the largest player in the lending industry’s secondary market. “However, in the fourth quarter, it looked like investors were starting to step back. We just don’t know for certain how far that’s going to go.”

What Condo Purchasers Want: Fine Art?

What Condo Purchasers Want: Fine Art?

“It needed more culture and authenticity if we expected to sell 450 units at prices ranging from $550,000 to $4.5 million,” said Tom Harrison, a Colony Capital principal.

So Harrison did what some other apartment and condo developers are doing to woo sophisticated city dwellers: He created a sizable budget for art that would set the Azzurra apart from other towers nearby.

Report: Commissioner didn’t get special deal on land (miami)

Report: Commissioner didn’t get special deal on land (Miami)

An investigation has concluded that Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez did not underpay when he purchased a vacant lot from one of the county’s biggest developers in 2004.

An inspector general’s report concludes that Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Joe Martinez received no special privileges and ”did not underpay” when he purchased a vacant lot from one of the county’s biggest home developers in 2004.

The report comes in the wake of a Dec. 12 Miami Herald article in which real estate experts had described the deal’s terms as favorable to the commissioner — ”the kind of terms you would do for a relative or a friend,” one analyst had said.

Part 2: Minimizing home-sale taxes

Part 2: Minimizing home-sale taxes

Home sellers benefit from adjusted cost basis:

The starting point for avoiding long-term capital gains tax on the profitable sale of your personal residence and investment real estate is its adjusted cost basis. This number is needed because it must be subtracted from the property seller’s “adjusted sales price” to arrive at the long-term capital gain when the property is sold. Most property owners think their adjusted cost basis is their purchase price. As we will see, that is often wrong!

1. The basic “adjusted cost basis” rule. The starting point is usually (a) the property purchase price, plus (b) any purchase expenses that were not tax deductible at the time of purchase.

EXAMPLE: If you bought your personal residence for $200,000, paid $2,000 in tax-deductible loan fee points to obtain your home acquisition mortgage, and paid $5,000 in various non-deductible closing costs such as transfer fees, attorney or escrow charges, and title fees, your home’s adjusted cost basis is $205,000. The $2,000 mortgage loan fee points qualify as an itemized income tax deduction in the year of home purchase. Each “point” equals 1 percent of the amount borrowed. But the mortgage amount doesn’t matter for determining the adjusted cost basis.