‘It’s Gone From Great To Nothing’ In Florida
The housing bubble is a hot topic in Florida. “Following articles such as ‘Home flippers’ investments flop,’ Sunday, May 21, a reader sometimes comments along the lines of the one who said: ‘The same bad housing news does not have to be reported every Sunday. I am not questioning your statistics, just the frequency, which seems to be every Sunday.’”
‘”If real estate prices go up, we write about it,’ Managing Editor Bill Rose said. ‘And, conversely, when real-estate prices go down, we write about it. If they go down a lot and for a long time, we write about it a lot.’”
“‘Nor do I think our stories are driving down the prices. The prices actually go down before we write our stories. No one complained when we wrote a whole bunch of front-page stories on the hot real-estate market.’”
“Who got rich in the recent real estate boom? Some sellers, certainly, especially investors who got in and out of the market fast. One group who didn’t will surprise you: real estate agents.”
“From 2002 to 2004, the height of the hottest boom in recent real estate history, the annual median income of Realtors actually fell, to $49,300 from $52,200, according to the National Association of Realtors. Most agents earned less than the median income for Palm Beach County.”
“That means real estate agents could sell the median-priced home in Palm Beach County, but they certainly couldn’t afford to buy it.”
The St. Petersburg Times. “Jill Jackson is not your average real estate investor. Jackson takes home about $24,000 a year from her job at a credit services company. She rents an apartment in St. Petersburg and, until this year, her assets totaled about $8,000 and her financial statement showed a negative net worth.”
“She had zero experience in real estate acquisition, until Feb. 28. That day she bought three Tampa homes for $560,000. In the next few weeks, she bought seven more properties. She used 10 different mortgage lenders and managed to borrow 100 percent of the cash she needed for every deal.”
“The grand total for this greenhorn investor: 10 weeks, 10 purchases totaling $1.84-million, not a single penny down.”
“Jackson won’t say much about her sudden foray into real estate. She won’t discuss why she paid a huge premium for a handful of lower-value homes in Tampa or reveal how her financial statement and meager income qualified her for almost $2-million in mortgage loans.”
From the Panhandle. “Real estate experts in Panama City Beach say the condo bubble may have finally burst. Real estate developers, managers and agents throughout Bay County say in the last six months they’ve experienced a major decline in the number of new condominium buyers.”
“The new condos continue to go up, but the number of prospective buyers doesn’t.”
“Jeff Mynard has been selling condos for 20 years and says 2004 and 2005 were his best years ever. ‘So together that’s about 80 units, or a third of the property turning over in two years,’ said Mynard of Panama. ‘In contrast this year, we’ve sold two units. Actually, only one of them has closed. It’s gone from great to nothing.”