News About Properties – Page 316 – News about properties and real estate

Second-home sales surge in U.S., abroad in 2005

It came as a big surprise to the real estate industry last year that second homes were accounting for more than one-third of annual sales.

Newly accurate or not, the percentages don’t tell the whole story: Though baby boomers make up a large part of the second-home market, a growing number of foreign buyers are in it, taking advantage of a weaker dollar. And the opposite is true, too: Many U.S. buyers are finding the dollar buys more in foreign markets, especially Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Vacant tower going condo

The downtown Fort Lauderdale office building that was once home to Blockbuster Inc. and ANC Rental Corp. is going condo.

The 11-story building and an adjacent restaurant, located at 200 S. Andrews Ave. and known as Museum Plaza, is under contract to be sold to North Miami Beach-based NRI Plaza LLC, which plans to convert the entire project to office and retail condominiums.

Bay area home prices defy trend

Business: Bay area home prices defy trend

Statewide and nationwide, the housing boom shows signs of winding down. But in the Tampa Bay area, prices keep climbing.

The median resale price among single-family houses rose 4.9 percent locally to $225,700 last month, up from $215,200 in September. By comparison, the median – or midpoint – price throughout Florida fell 2.7 percent to $241,000, down from $247,800. It was the state’s second such decline in three months, according to a survey by the Florida Association of Realtors.

Pension funds play catch-up with high rise of real estate

After several years of robust performance and enviable returns, public and private pension funds are hitching their bandwagon to the bull-run real estate market. Time will tell if their rearview-mirror investment strategies are too late.

“The pension fund universe was underfunded in recent years,” says Gary Koster, leader of investment funds services at Ernst & Young and a real estate market watcher. “According to classic portfolio theory, real estate should be part of any investor’s asset allocation strategy. Real estate should be about 6% to 7% of a portfolio. For pension funds as a whole, it’s at about 3.5.”

Rents in Palm Beach County climb hundreds a month due to rising insurance, property taxes

Rents in Palm Beach County climb hundreds a month due to rising insurance, property taxes: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Landlords in South Florida say skyrocketing taxes and insurance costs are forcing them to sell their units or raise rents — in some cases by several hundred dollars a month.

Rental property doesn’t qualify for Florida’s Save Our Homes property tax break, which limits annual property tax increases on homes to 3 percent.

Philadelphia Growing Up with a Slew of High-Rise Projects

Until the 1987 opening of Murphy/Jahn’s 945-foot One Liberty Place, Philadelphians passionately defended an unwritten agreement limiting city building heights to below the hat topping the statue of William Penn atop City Hall. By 1991, four years after One Liberty Place opened, seven other office towers transgressed the agreement, with fairly pedestrian designs, even for conservative Philadelphia. In the 15 years since, not one new building has risen above William Penn. This situation is now ending. Big time.