The Housing Bubble

The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. “Statewide, existing-home sales fell 4 percent from last year, and the median price sank 20 percent to $186,900. South Florida condominium buyers in August responded to price declines. There were 550 sales last month, compared with 551 a year ago. The median price plummeted 25 percent, to $133,300 from $178,800 last year.”

“The housing slump is testing Patti Hall and legions of other South Florida sellers. Hall’s three-bedroom home has been on the market for about six months. After two price reductions, she’s asking $309,000 and may go even lower.”

“‘I’m getting all emotional about it because it’s so frustrating,’ Hall said this week.”

‘Pamela Orr of Balistreri Realty in Lighthouse Point said sellers shouldn’t take the market personally. ‘Forget about what you could have gotten for the home in 2005 because that’s never going to happen,’ Orr said. ‘Be realistic.’”

From Florida Today. “In August 2005, in the frenzy of an overheated real estate market that swept the country, the median selling price of a single-family home in Brevard County swelled to $248,700. On Wednesday, the Florida Association of Realtors reported the median price in Brevard was $155,500, a 37 percent drop from its peak and more than 23 percent less than in August 2007.”

“‘It’s not an era that I’d like to see again,’ said Dale Young, president of the Melbourne Area Association of Realtors, who said greed seemed to overtake common sense in too many cases.”

“Young, like others, called for lawmakers to pass tighter lending regulations to stop some of the abuses that led to the current economic problems.”

“Michael Pruitt, president and broker/owner of Pruitt Real Estate in Melbourne, called the period of 2005 a ‘feeding frenzy’ that was ‘fueled by opportunity or greed, which ever you choose.’”

“David Denslow, a professor and research economist at the University of Florida, said government regulators could have intervened to ensure property appraisals were more accurate and not artificially inflating values.”

“Instead, agencies such as the Federal Reserve took a hands-off approach in not recognizing or interfering with market ‘bubbles,’ Denslow said.”

“The Fed also could have signaled its concern about fast-rising housing prices by raising interest rates to slow down the supply of various financing vehicles for homebuyers. Instead, Wall Street got heavily involved in mortgage investments, Denslow said.”

“‘The financial gurus on Wall Street created various mortgage and investment vehicles,’ he added. ‘They were going to play (the housing market) while it was there.’”

The Miami Herald. “Numbers released Wednesday by the Florida Association of Realtors showed existing single-family home sales in Miami-Dade County increased 22 percent and Broward sales increased 12 percent compared to the same period a year ago. The market still has a long way to go: The inventory of homes for sale actually rose in Miami-Dade County compared to a year earlier.”

“Prices were at least 20 percent lower in August than a year ago for single-family homes and condos in Miami-Dade and Broward. The median price for a Miami-Dade single-family home was $276,000 in August, a 30 percent drop from last year. For Broward single-family homes, the median price was $269,800, down 27 percent.”

“The median condo price in Miami-Dade was $210,400, a 20 percent decline; it was $133,300 in Broward, off 25 percent from last year.”

“Adam and Jennifer Clarin purchased a four-bedroom Palmetto Bay home in July for $405,000 from a seller who bought the home two years earlier for $670,000.”

“‘People are saying the market is horrible,’ said Jennifer Clarin, 26, who moved from Plantation to the Miami-Dade city because her husband took an optometry job there. ‘But the market is not horrible if you are a buyer right now.’”

“Retirees who depend on investment income to help buy groceries and pay the bills, are among the most vulnerable groups scrambling for cover in the current market upheaval. South Florida, with its wealth of retirees, may suffer disproportionately because of its large number of older souls whose financial well being is closely tied to Wall Street.”

“Gene Jencarelli, 72, of Miami, who invests in securities through his IRA, had to get a part-time job taking bets at Calder Race Course. Jencarelli follows the markets closely but was caught off guard by the sudden failure of mortgage lender IndyMac in July and the recent problems at AIG, which cost him several thousand dollars.”

“While he has fared OK so far and decided to ride out the storm, when the market rebounds his gambling is over, he says. ‘If the thing goes up again, I’m just going to withdraw it all and just get the heck out,’ Jencarelli said.”

“Ruth Schwartz of Hollywood, who was waiting for a bus outside a senior center Wednesday to return to her Hillcrest condo, said she has not invested in stocks but is coping with rising expenses.”

“Still, she remembers the Great Depression, when her mother used to put on a pot of boiling water to pretend she was cooking because there was nothing to eat. ‘But we managed,’ said Schwartz, who has ‘two lovely daughters,’ one of whom is 62, the other 71. ‘I’m happy to be alive at 96,’ she said.”

The Herald Tribune. “Looking for any way to help the city’s stagnant home building industry, North Port is freezing impact fees, postponing increases that would have added about $3,000 to the cost of a new home.”

“Years of overbuilding and inflated prices across the region have left North Port and surrounding areas with a glut of homes and dropping values.”

“‘Right now the economy, no matter where you look, is in the dumper,’ said City Commissioner Fred Tower. ‘And I think if we even made the impact fees zero, right now, you might get two or three homes.’”

The Naples News. “Orion Bank’s leaders are taking the good with the bad when it comes to both the state of the economy and federal regulators’ recent ‘enforcement action’ against the bank. Loans that may have caught the eye of regulators are the 5.25 percent of the bank’s total loans which were 90 days or more past due and non-accrual loans. Since 2007, Orion has filed approximately 40 foreclosures in Lee and Collier counties.”

“Jerry Williams, president, chairman and CEO of Naples-based Orion Bank, provided an example of the types of loan losses the bank is experiencing:”

“‘A wealthy man and his wife invested in excess of $1 million in a project. Their partner, a developer, invested 50 percent in the project. The development is a great place. It looks gorgeous. The problem is it’s too gorgeous, too expensive. They missed the price point in the market, so he didn’t sell. The developer can’t make the payments any longer. The wealthy guy says: ‘We need to do something because I can still make payments. I want my portion of the profit in the end.’ The wealthy person comes to us and says, ‘foreclose and I’ll buy it at the courthouse steps.’”

The News Press. “The developer of half-built Prentiss Pointe at Winkler and Summerlin roads in south Fort Myers wants the 50 condo owners to pay for all the community’s operating expenses. Condo owner Marilyn Boyer - who has the only non-developer seat on the condo association board - said he’s told residents he’s broke and can’t pay.”

“With declining property values and many projects sitting incomplete, conflicts like this are a sign of the times, said attorney Joe Adams. For condo owners, he said, ‘One of the risks is that the developer will run into financial problems.’”

“In a strong housing market, problems like this are usually resolved because ’someone’s willing to come in and buy them out because of increasing values. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this in the last 15 years,’ Adams said.”

The St Petersburg Times. “The Tampa Bay area’s median home price has returned to what it was in December 2004, but those discounts helped keep home sales from falling further in August. Tampa’s median home price stood at $171,200 in August, 20 percent below the $214,100 median price in August 2007. ”

“‘I looked at 30 properties for a client wanting a house for $150,000, and all but two were short sales or bank-owned properties,’ said St. Petersburg Realtor James Tuten.”

“But the slump seems to be intensifying across Florida Panhandle cities previously buffered from housing pain. Panama City sales were down 29 percent, Pensacola’s were down 31 percent and Tallahassee’s dropped 42 percent.”

“A onetime financial savior of the Trump Tower Tampa project pleaded guilty Tuesday to evading more than $170-million in federal taxes. Frank Amodeo, former head of Mirabilis Ventures Inc., is accused of buying up companies, many in payroll services, and using withheld employee taxes to buy more companies.”

“‘I erroneously believed that we were allowed to defer payment. … That was not the case, and I deeply regret my failure to fully comply with the tax code,’ Amodeo said in a statement after issuing a plea in federal court in Orlando.”

“As part of Amodeo’s defense, witnesses said the former financial wizard suffers from a bipolar illness that has left him with delusions of ruling the world.”

The Tampa Tribune. “When Florida’s housing market was surging a few years ago, city leaders began bracing for the demands that would come with 3,000 new homes. They paid millions to double the size of the wastewater treatment plant and started planning for a new library and fire station.”

“But the homes didn’t come. Now, city leaders are focusing on attracting more industry. Most of the subdivisions approved by the city council in the past few years sit idle.”

“Hidden River, for example, was slotted for 325 homes on 150 acres along the Hillsborough River. The developer installed roads, utilities and streetlights, but hasn’t built a single house.”

“‘They went back and green-belted it,’ said Todd Vande Berge, the city’s director of development services. ‘They’ve got cows grazing on it now.’”