Southwest Florida’s full-time residents are shifting inland

From Englewood to Anna Maria, changing demographics over the past decade have transformed the Southwest Florida coastline, as thousands of permanent residents fled the beach for a variety of reasons and were replaced by hordes of vacationers.

According to the latest figures from last year’s census, coastal communities from northern Manatee to south Sarasota County saw a population drop of 5,200 people last decade, including more than 1,000 full-time residents on Anna Maria Island.

Other counties in Southwest Florida, including Lee, Charlotte and Pinellas, saw similar drops along the coast, with a few exceptions.

via Southwest Florida’s full-time residents are shifting inland.

Couple struggles to cope in condo still damaged from ’05 hurricanes

Rainy days are a bane for Adrian and Beatriz Sanchez, a Miami couple embroiled in a lengthy legal battle with their condominium association over a leaky roof.

When a storm hits, the couple must cut off the electricity in half of their two-bedroom loft, bring out buckets to catch the droplets, and mop up pools of water after the rain.

Their watery predicament is the result, they say, of the brutal 2005 hurricane season, a stalled insurance claim, and a condo association board that has been “grossly negligent” for the past six years.

via Couple struggles to cope in condo still damaged from ’05 hurricanes.

Naples Rises From Florida Housing Swamp as Wealthy Buyers Return

Joshua Bahoff bought a three- bedroom luxury condominium in Naples, Florida, in December for $235,000, about one-third of the price that the seller paid near the height of the U.S. housing boom.

"It was a great deal," said Bahoff, 59, a Philadelphia dentist who plans to spend one week a month every winter in the 2,700-square-foot (250-square-meter) property in Fiddler’s Creek, a residential and golf development south of the city’s downtown historic district on the Gulf of Mexico. “We can’t see this market going down any lower”

While much of Florida’s real estate market remains depressed by foreclosures, buyers seeking a second home in the state’s affluent vacation enclaves are “finally getting off the fence,” Karen Van Arsdale, an agent at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Naples, said in a telephone interview.

via Naples Rises From Florida Housing Swamp as Wealthy Buyers Return.

Historic Callery-Judge Grove in foreclosure

Callery-Judge Grove, founded in western Palm Beach County in 1964, is being sued for more than $37 million in a foreclosure filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit filed Friday alleges that Callery-Judge Grove Limited Partnership, CJC Management LTD. and Managed Citrus owe Prudential Industrial Properties LLC $37 million in mortgages plus $8.7 million in interest. Nat Roberts, general manager, said Wednesday he is negotiating with lenders. The grove is privately held by more than 200 investors.

"We are confident we will come up with a solution," Roberts said.

via Historic Callery-Judge Grove in foreclosure.

IRS Targets Family Real Estate Transfers

As part of a new national hunt for gift tax evaders, the Internal Revenue Service has asked a federal court for permission to order a California state tax agency to hand over its computer database of everyone who transferred real estate to relatives for little or no consideration from 2005 to 2010.

If granted, the sweeping request could expose many Californians–especially those who didn’t file federal gift tax returns–to audits as well as penalties or even substantial back taxes.

The little-known lawsuit, called “In the Matter of the Tax Liabilities of John Does,” was filed in December on behalf of the IRS in federal court in Sacramento, the state capital. That’s the home of the California Board of Equalization, which oversees property tax issues across the state. No action has been taken yet on the request.

via IRS Targets Family Real Estate Transfers

Dominoes fall hard for loan cosigner

I bought a house over a year ago with a balloon loan that comes due later this year. I had to get this loan because I cosigned a loan for a friend and she missed some payments. At the time, this was the only loan I could get.

After I closed on my loan, my friend was laid off and stopped paying her mortgage, the loan went into foreclosure, but my friend and the bank came to some sort of agreement.

I am trying to refinance my loan, but no one will consider my application. Can you please tell me what route I can take? Is there a way to legally remove my name from her loan even if she is unable to refinance because of her credit?

via Dominoes fall hard for loan cosigner.