The Housing Bubble

The News Press reports from Florida. “A year ago, at $89,000 it was the cheapest house listed for sale in Lee County. Now, three real estate agents and several price cuts later, the 578-square-foot cottage in Fort Myers is for sale at $29,900 — reduced again Friday from $38,900 and still among the least expensive. But one of the partners who owns the house — built in 1944 and assessed by the Lee County Property Appraiser’s Office at $47,870 — said she’s not worried.”

“‘It depends on what type of offer we get,’ Joyce Dean said. ‘We’re not going to just give it away. It’s holding its own so it’s not like we have to sell it.’”

“If an acceptable offer doesn’t materialize, that doesn’t bother her. The property, bought in 1990 as an investment for $5,000, is occupied by a tenant and isn’t a financial burden. Taxes for 2007 were $1,141.64.”

“Lisa Wiskowski of Florida Resale Properties, who represents the owners, said to sell quickly the house would have to be knocked down in price even more.”

“‘It should probably be around $19,900 for this market. It just might not be a price the owner wants to sell it for,’ she said. ‘If the owners can afford to hold them, the sun’s not going to stop shining.’”

“Real estate broker Denny Grimes noted: ‘If they’d listed it for $40,000 a year ago, it’d have been sold in a day.’”

The Herald Tribune. “Area gas prices crept up to yet another all-time record for Southwest Florida. ‘It’s affecting everything,’ said Jules Van Landuyt, owner of Victory Lane Sunoco in Sarasota. ‘People are bringing in change to pay, and I mean pennies. I’ve had more denied credit cards in the last six months than in the last 27 years.’”

“Business in Van Landuyt’s commercial accounts is down 22 percent as the cars and trucks used by electricians, plumbers and roofers sit idle because of the housing slowdown. It was not long ago when they were lined up when Van Landuyt opened his station at Fruitville Road and Lime Avenue at 5:30 a.m. Now he is lucky to have his first customer by 7 a.m.”

“‘People are just broke,’ he said.”

The Bradenton Herald. “The lobby of attorney Margaret Lambrecht’s office has been full of frightened homeowners fearing the worst. With more than 2,600 foreclosures recorded in Manatee County in 2007, Lambrecht said a growing number of residents this year are discovering their options have run out.”

“‘We’ve got some clients coming in that have between five to seven properties that would have never normally come to see us because we are more of the little-guy consumer office for people who don’t have a lot of money,’ said Lambrecht. ‘These are people who, even now, have very good incomes, but they cannot keep up with the properties and they can’t even get any decent rent out of them.’”

“The pace of this year’s foreclosure filings is staggering, according Very Reyna, an assistant supervisor for the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court’s office. For 2008, Manatee County has already recorded 756 foreclosures. During the same time last year, the clerk’s office had recorded a total of 276 foreclosures.”

“‘I hate to say it, but it looks like it is getting worse,’ Lambrecht said. ‘It used to be that we could put people in Chapter 13 in a worst-case scenario and they could catch up on their arrears. Then, after a year or so, they could refinance. But now people can’t qualify for loans.’”

“An increasing number of homeowners also are finding their home equity line of credit is frozen by lenders without any notice, she said.”

“‘Bank of America recently froze and reassessed the value of property and gave no warning around the middle of the month,’ Lambrecht said. ‘They just sent notices that said, ‘Your home equity line of credit is frozen.’ And a lot of people had that in case of an emergency. So all of a sudden their little lifeline is frozen, even though there is nothing wrong with their credit.’”

“Dawn Bates-Buchanan, managing attorney for Gulfcoast Legal Services in Bradenton, said she has seen a huge increase in the number of seniors facing foreclosure walk through her door.”

“‘In 2006, I might have seen one senior every three months regarding foreclosures. Now, I’m seeing one a week,’ Bates-Buchanan said. ‘In most situations, by the time they come to see me, they are already facing a sale on the courthouse steps.”

“‘You ask somebody who is on a limited income to pay another $500 a month, it just doesn’t work. Then, they started using credit cards to make these mortgage payments and they ended up further and further in the hole. Now, there is no where left to go,’ Bates-Buchanan said.”

The Tampa Tribune. “There’s no doubt that many homeowners are finding it more difficult to pay their mortgages, and the latest national numbers show that Florida and the Tampa Bay area continue to be worse off than most other parts of the nation.”

“Some local real estate professionals say the numbers don’t even show the full extent of the problem. ‘So many people are working out short sale deals with lenders, and many of those aren’t counted as foreclosure filings,’ said David Carter, a local real estate lawyer.”

“Carter said so many homeowners are seeking short sales that the Florida Association of Realtors is providing forms to real estate agents to help them market a home as a short sale.”

“Of Hernando County’s fifth-place ranking, Carter said: ‘The frenzy for investing in properties was much worse here than in other counties.’”

From Reuters. “Miami condo builder Jorge Perez, who recently formed a $1 billion vulture fund to take advantage of weak U.S. real estate prices, expects south Florida’s overbuilt housing market to stabilize in two to three years.”

“Miami’s condo market has been considered one of the most overpriced and overbuilt in the United States. Although the median price for Miami condos rose last year, analysts say prices have tumbled 25 percent or more in some areas of the city.”

“‘We’re going to the banks and saying we’ll buy that mortgage that you have on this building at a discount,’ he said.”

“Perez said the fund will help stabilize Miami’s overbuilt market by taking unsold units out of inventory and converting them to rentals for a time. ‘The main aim of course is to make money. The second one is to be positioned in a way that when the recovery comes in we will have inventory immediately without having to build,’ he said.”

The Palm Beach Post. “There’s no sign that Palm Beach’s housing market is slowing. Despite the severe real estate downturn pushing Florida into a recession and shaking up world financial markets, home prices in this tony town remain on the rise.”

“‘All these terrible articles in the newspaper’ just don’t apply, Palm Beach real estate attorney Leslie Evans said. ‘Maybe in certain areas, but not in Palm Beach. This is a different animal here.’”

The Daily Business Review. “Well-dressed potential buyers were on hand for the long-anticipated foreclosure auction of the 52-room mansion of Veronica Hearst, widow of newspaper heir Randolph Apperson Hearst.”

“The show didn’t last long as lender New Stream Capital bid $22 million for the 3.5-acre oceanfront property. Hearst owed more than $40 million to New Stream Secured Capital, in one of the largest single-family residential foreclosure cases ever in South Florida.”

“Hearst’s husband paid $29.87 million for the estate a few months before he died in 2000. Geoffrey Thomas of the Corcoran Group, had the house listed at $27 million for about a year.”

The News Journal. “Half as many permits were issued for single-family houses in the Volusia-Flagler area in 2007 as 2006, according to Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. Multifamily permits were just as bad, down 43 percent, the report shows.”

“‘We’re doing pretty much what the state trend is, about 50 percent off,’ said Bob Fitzsimmons, CEO of Gallery Homes of DeLand. ‘There are areas of the state that are much worse, with parts of Florida off 70 to 80 percent.’”

“‘On a percentage basis, I’ve never seen it off this bad,’ Fitzsimmons said. ‘In 1989-90, there was a building slowdown, but it probably was off 30 to 40 percent.’”

“Mike Sawdai, VP of operations for Palm Coast-based SeaGate Homes, which also builds in Daytona Beach, Edgewater and St. Augustine, said the permit activity shows the market is returning to levels experienced before the housing boom started four or five years ago.”

“‘I don’t get over-alarmed to see large drops in the (year-to-year) permit market,’ Sawdai said. ‘(Recent years) weren’t typical building levels.’”