The Housing Bubble

A report from Florida Today. “Recent statistics compiled by the current president of the Melbourne Area Association of Realtors show that about 28 percent of the single-family homes for sale in Brevard County are foreclosed properties or involve short-sale agreements between the lender and the seller. That’s a sizeable number, real estate representatives say, but hardly atypical in communities where in the heyday of an overheated market a person could buy a house one day, sell it a few hours later and make a quick $70,000 profit.”

“Foreclosure and short sales are a big part of the market, Dale Young, president of the Melbourne Area Association of Realtors, said.”

“‘I would say a good 70 percent of the activity right now is people who are looking for bargains and at short sales. Whether it’s for their own residence or an investment, those seem to be the people that are out there,’ Young added.”

“Locally, Palm Bay leads Brevard, where 46 percent of 1,515 homes on the local Multiple Listing Service are foreclosed or short-sale properties, according to figures compiled by Young at FLORIDA TODAY’s request.”

“Thomas Stewart had been trying to sell his Palm Bay home on Appleby Street for nearly 13 months. Before he moved to South Florida, Stewart invested thousands of dollars in upgrades. He had the 1,270-square-foot, two-bedroom home on the market for $139,900. Unfortunately for him, he was forced to drop the asking price.”

“He sold it last month to Jody Ballard for $99,900. Stewart declined to comment on the sale. Ballard was thrilled to buy his first home.”

“‘I knew there was no way I could have afforded a home at the prices like they were three years ago,’ said Ballard. ‘This one kind of fit just right. He put a lot of money into the house and I took advantage of that.’”

The Palm Beach Post. “Lower property values mean lower taxes, and that’s something of interest to everyone. Given the precipitous decline of the real estate market, many people will be pleased to see the market and assessed values of their property decline.”

“But others will conclude their property value should be lower than the numbers determined by the country’s property appraiser. Experts predict a wave of property value changes by homeowners hoping to cut their taxes.”

“‘The economy is so bad, everybody is counting their dollars,’ said Jason Sharff, who has started a business to help homeowners challenge their property values.”

“Rebel Cook, of Rebel Cook Real Estate in Palm Beach Gardens, said she’s noticed ‘dramatic’ decreases in property values among residences she’s checked. For instance, a West Palm Beach home in a 55-and-over community was valued at $73,000 this year, down from $103,000 last year, she said.”

The Miami Herald. “Alfonso Llanes of Palmetto Bay, is one of more than 400,000 South Florida homeowners who are discovering that taxes are going down — but not by much, and not nearly as much as the dramatic dives in real market values over the past two years. ‘I was expecting a lot more than this,’ said Llanes.”

“Llanes is facing a scenario that will be quite common across Florida during this fall’s budget season. The market value of the 2,800-square-foot home that Llanes acquired when his wife died four years ago plummeted by $157,000 between last year and this year. Yet, the taxable value increased by $15,000.”

“‘My market value is down almost 30 percent. Thirty percent! I have more exemptions than I did last year because I’m a senior now and they passed the tax reform. But I’m paying almost the same in taxes. How can that be?,’ he said.”

“Coky Michel is struggling to pay the taxes and upkeep on a South Miami rental property that she and her husband inherited when her mother died six years ago. Appraisers pegged her house’s market value at $408,000, Michel said. ‘I guarantee you I can’t sell that house for $408,000. My point is: If prices have been going down for more than a year, why isn’t my tax bill showing it?’”

“‘There’s a lot of confusion out there,’ said Broward Appraiser Lori Parrish, who is answering 300 e-mails a day from angry taxpayers. ‘There usually is this time of year, but it’s gotten worse.’”

“In recent months, several South Florida agents have started offering bus tours as a way to dispel myths about buying foreclosures while capitalizing on consumer interest in bank-owned property.”

“‘Five years ago, we took orders: It was ‘Which one do you want and when do you want to close?’ That’s all we did. But now, in order to be successful you have to be different from every other agent out there,’ said Kimberly Castellotti, a Wellington-based real estate broker.”

“Broker Roy La Fontaine said he scheduled and advertised a bus tour. The tour required buyers to pay $25 to get preapproved for a loan. He abandoned the idea. ‘I thought we would be overwhelmed with calls on it and the response was anything but,’ La Fontaine said.”

“Julio Sanchez, who, with a partner, launched Miami Home Tours in March, hopes to schedule another tour this month in the Brickell area. ‘Basically, it’s just, ‘Get on the bus so you can get a deal.’ And they take a look at property that is 60 percent off,’ Sanchez said. ”

The New York Times. “For sale: one newly constructed three-bedroom, four-bathroom home near the University of Miami, with South African wood in the kitchen, marble from India, Egypt and Spain, and a $4,500 top-of-the-line garage door.”

“Listing price two years ago: $979,000. Listing price now: $599,000.”

“‘I always figured the market trend wouldn’t catch me,’ said Rafael Diaz, the owner and builder. He turned down $770,000 more than a year ago, he said, and has come to accept that he will never get the $700,000 he said he needed to break even. ‘By the end of the year,’ he said, ‘I might just turn it over to the bank.’”

“Robert Falor is down on his luck. Although this real estate developer is hardly a household name, he cut deals with plenty of people who were. Deftly working the celebrity circuit, while claiming to be developing more than $1 billion worth of properties around Miami and Chicago, a newspaper called him the ‘condo-hotel king.’ Today, the king’s realm is nearly bankrupt.”

“His lawyer, Ariel Weissberg said Falor’s woes and those of his business partners are a reflection of a flawed business strategy and nothing more.”

“‘He got caught in a bad concept — which is the hotel-condo concept,’ he said. ‘That’s a failed concept. With a failed concept, he was swept along. That was a bitter lesson, and he is trying to learn how to deal with all that financial distress.’”

The St Petersburg Times. “The full extent of the financial carnage left behind by bankrupt Smith Family Homes was revealed in a court filing showing the Tampa builder stiffing lenders nearly $50-million.”

“What could be bad news for homeowners is that Smith is delinquent paying back $3.3-million in Community Development District bonds used to finance Hillsborough’s Panther Trace and Pasco’s Seven Oaks neighborhoods…In other neighborhoods, such large delinquencies have left homeowners on the hook for the debt.”

From Highlands Today. “Are deeply discounted home prices finally lifting Highlands County’s beleaguered real-estate market? Yes and no - depending on who you speak with - although some do say their phones have finally started ringing.”

“If 2007 was bad, 2008 was worse, according to statistics on residential property sales compiled by Steve Fruit, Realtor with RE-MAX Realty Plus. Fruit said that from January to July, only 591 residential properties were sold compared to 744 for the same period last year. That represents a 20-percent drop in sales compared to last year and the slowest sales in a seven-year period, according to Fruit’s numbers.”

“The highest sales are being seen in properties below $100,000 and the second-highest between $100,000 and $150,000. Fruit said that home prices have declined from 15 to 30 percent since their peak of 2005, although some areas have weathered the price drop better.”

“To some like broker Greg Karlson, today’s home prices couldn’t get better, and buyers should stop waiting. At some point, sellers will be more picky about their offers and are ‘not going to take (offers on) such home prices any more,’ he added.”

The Destin Log. “It’s been a month since the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was passed and The Log questioned whether it would jump start the sluggish real estate market in Destin. In a word - no.”

“‘I wish that were the case, but it’s not the silver bullet some people might think,’ Ed Smith, owner of RE/MAX Coastal Properties, said. ‘The majority of the properties in this market won’t qualify.’”

“In the Destin area, home prices still remain 40 percent lower than they were just two years ago and the supply still far outweighs the demand. Smith said that interest rates are still comparable at about 6.25 percent.”

“‘It’s unprecedented to have a buyer’s market and low interest rates at the same time, but that’s what we have right now,’ Smith said.”

The Herald Tribune. “Sarasota and Manatee counties together now have 23,265 people officially out of work — up 8,400, or 56 percent, from July 2007. Dry statistical facts, unless, like Don Howk, you are one of the ones whose jobs went away.”

“Howk has made an exploratory trip to Elkhart, Ind., where he has family and friends. He may need to move in with them because he is about to lose his Sarasota home. He has owned the home for 17 years, but refinanced during the real estate boom.”

“‘If I hadn’t done that, I would be in good shape now,’ he said.”

The Ledger. “Polk County’s July unemployment rate (the most recent available) of 7.3 percent was the highest in a decade, and there are untold numbers of displaced workers who are more qualified and interview-hardened. Polk, like numerous other communities in Florida, has seen jobs and businesses disappear at an increasing pace as the state limps its way out of the wreckage of a once-booming housing market and economy.”

“‘Certainly, the data we have right now looks worse to me than the 2001 recession. This has hit the financial sector, hit the housing sector,’ said County economist Gordon Kettle.”

“Local population growth is still robust, Kettle said, and businesses will undoubtedly rebound as they have before, though the record performances in housing and job markets in 2005 and 2006 should probably be forgotten for now.”

“‘I think what you’ve seen in the last few years was unsustainable so you knew there was going to be some kind of correction anyway,’ Kettle said.”

The News Press. “Fort Myers resident Brent Edwards has watched the local economy boom and bust, taking his short construction career right along with it. Edwards, 26, said every dollar he has ever earned came through construction. But his days on the job site are over.”

“‘I was working here before the construction boom, when everybody from all over the country came in, built everything in sight and killed this market,’ the third-generation Fort Myers resident said. ‘All they did was ruin it for me. I can’t go through this again.’”

“This Labor Day, Edwards isn’t the only one who doesn’t feel much like celebrating. Across Southwest Florida, more than 44,000 people are out of work - more than half of them in Lee County.”

“Not all of the job losses have come through construction, of course. But the losses in the building trade kicked the foundation out from under much of Lee’s economy. When the supply of homes exceeded demand, real estate agents had listings, but few buyers. Mortgage brokers had few takers. Furniture stores had few customers. Layoffs mounted.”

“James Moore, the interim director of Lee’s Economic Development Office, has said that diversifying the economy must be the No. 1 goal of the office. Moore said his office has long understood that the local economy is ‘way too reliant on two big industries - tourism and what I will call real estate-related industries.’”

“That must change, he said. ‘In the best of all possible worlds, we will never be reliant again on a single industry to have that strong of an economy,’ he said.”

“Sean Snaith, an economist with University of Central Florida, said much of Florida has suffered, but it has been especially pronounced in Southwest Florida.”

“‘When the housing boom was raging and the economy was being fed by construction, you had tremendously low unemployment and good economic growth,’ Snaith said. ‘When the housing market went bust, there was no safety net. Economic diversity is very, very important.’”

“Gladys Pascua, 42, worked for Nestle in New York and thought she could find a similar job easily in Southwest Florida after reading how much the area had been growing. When she and her husband arrived here earlier this year, things were more difficult than they expected.”

“‘I would think that in the 21st century that it would be about time that there would be some major corporations here, but it’s really just lots of mom-and-pop businesses and construction,’ Pascua said. ‘I was surprised by how few large companies there were.’”