The Housing Bubble

The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. “The Resort at Singer Island opened to rave reviews in 2007, attracting the likes of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and tennis star Jennifer Capriati. Conceived at the height of the sizzling real estate boom, the resort is a condo-hotel. The resort has become a living hell for many who thought they could make money by buying one of its 239 units. Court records show nearly 60 units are in foreclosure. At least $1.5 million in assessments hasn’t been paid. And those numbers are expected to increase. ‘I have no intention of paying any more of those fees,’ said George Melillo, a retired pharmaceutical company executive who lives in Naples. ‘At the first of the year I decided to take my $300,000 loss and go on my way.’”

“‘It’s just been a devastating thing,’ said Sam Lasorda, whose $750,000 two-bedroom unit is now appraised at $240,000. ‘It’s been a financial disaster.’”

The Associated Press. “Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater told his chamber’s budget writers Wednesday not to raise taxes or fees during this election year to close a projected spending gap of up to $3.2 billion. Lawmakers last year relied on $2.2 billion in fee and tax increases as well as spending cuts and federal stimulus dollars to balance a $66.5 billion budget, but Atwater told the Senate Ways and Means Committee that Floridians ‘do not have one more dime to send us.’”

“Legislative economist Amy Baker said Florida will lag the rest of the nation in recovering from the Great Recession due largely to the state’s housing surplus. She said unemployment, which hit 11.4 percent in November, likely will peak at 12 percent later this year.”

“Baker also had some advice for budget writers. ‘Do nothing that adds any more houses to Florida’s inventory until it can work itself down some,’ she said. ‘Be wary of anybody promising a panacea or quick fix because they do not exist.’”

From Florida Today. “December home starts in Brevard County were at the highest level of the year. That’s the good news. The bad news? December was the best month of the second-worst year ever for the county’s home building industry.”

“Florida Tech economist Michael Slotkin said a housing rebound is key to easing the county’s unemployment woes. More than 20,000 jobs — 9,000 of them in construction — have been lost over the past four years. ‘We are not going to recover 20,000 jobs until there is a healthy housing recovery,’ he said.”

The Miami Herald. “Even though South Florida home prices are still dismal and foreclosures are expected to take years to sell off, two high-profile developers are taking a chance on building a 1,600-home community in Cooper City. partners Armando Codina and Jim Carr are betting consumers are ready to buy a brand-new home they say will be comparable in price per square foot with short sales and foreclosures. Prices will range from the low $200,000s to more than $400,000.”

“The 500-acre community will be built over the next several years on the largest undeveloped tract of land in the county. The partners say sales in the area are starting to inch up, and the timing is right.”

“‘I think we have come to the intersection where a new home price and a foreclosed price are meeting,’ said Codina, chairman of CC Devco Homes, a 2-year-old development company he and Carr founded. ‘And that is to me a watershed point and the reason I feel comfortable.”’

The Ledger. “2009 was the weakest year on record for Polk County’s construction industry. The 1,072 single-family building permits recorded here fell nearly 52 percent from 2008’s total, and made for the lowest annual sum in Ledger records dating to 1994. The county’s previous low was 1,625 permits in 1995.”

“‘We’ve truly hit bottom in activity,’ said Mike Hickman, a Lakeland builder. ‘It definitely is a reflection of the retraction of the market. There’s a lot of good buys on existing homes, so there hasn’t been a demand for new homes.’”

“Builders in Polk and across Florida struggled to stay afloat this year as the recession flooded the market with cheap, distressed properties. Soaring unemployment contributed to a record 10,747 foreclosure cases filed in Polk, according to the Clerk of Courts.”

“Median sale prices also have continued to fall as buyers gravitate to distressed properties, which accounted for roughly 60 percent of Polk’s existing home sales in 2009, according to data from the Home Encounter consulting group in Tampa. ‘Prices are still falling, so it’s a disincentive for builders to build new homes,’ said Alex Miron, an associate economist who tracks Polk for Moody’s Economy.com.”

The Tampa Bay Business Journal. “For Sale: 10 acres of prime real estate in the heart of West Tampa. Great spot for a hotel, ice rink or even a creative arts community. Must keep historic 80,000-square-foot building intact. Heritage Square LLC, which won a contentious and drawn out selection process three years ago to build a 300-room hotel and spa on the site where the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory sits, has shelved its plans for reasons apparently protected by a confidentiality agreement.”

‘Florida Department of Military Affairs public information director Jon Myatt… said Heritage Square simply became the latest victim of the economy where financing for projects like this is nearly impossible. ‘We had already negotiated a plan and both sides were comfortable with the plan,’ Myatt said. ‘And then the housing crisis struck and the available money for financing kind of evaporated. They couldn’t do what they had committed to doing, but that really had to do more with economic issues.’”

“So for now, five years since the redevelopment process began, the armory building will just sit and wait. Empty. Unused. Searching for that purpose that will keep it relevant, even 70 years later.”

The Charlotte Observer. “The parent company of Boyles Distinctive Furniture emerged today from bankruptcy, seven months after filing for Chapter 11 protection to reorganize and shed debts related to a failed expansion into housing bubble-plagued Florida.”

“At its peak, the company operated 34 stores in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, most under names other than Boyles. However, the collapse of the housing market and an accompanying decline in home furnishings spending forced it to shrink significantly. ‘We’re grateful to be emerging from this difficult but necessary process,’ Hendricks president Chad Hendricks said in a news release. ‘Now we embark on a new path, refocused on being America’s retail leader for well-styled, well-priced home furnishings – and on creating sustainable value for our employees, community and stakeholders.’”

The Sun Sentinel. “The Federal Housing Administration, which accounts for half of all first-home purchases, is making it tougher for borrowers to get loans by increasing the amount they have to pay for upfront mortgage insurance and cutting sellers’ contributions for closing costs.”

“‘This is going to create a greater hardship for first-time buyers,’ said Louis Spagnuolo, vice president of mortgage banking for WCS Lending in Boca Raton.”

“‘For some people, it will mean the difference between whether they buy or not,’ said Scott Tennell, VP of the Florida Mortgage Professionals Association.”

“The FHA rules could have a significant effect on the housing market once the first-time home buyer tax credit expires April 30, said Michael Citron, a real estate agent in Coconut Creek. ‘I think it’s going to put more buyers back on the fence,’ he said.”

“But other housing market observers doubt the rule changes are drastic enough to hurt home sales. ‘We’ve been trying to counsel people not to ask for more than a 3 percent seller contribution anyway because otherwise you’re sending a message that you don’t have enough money to buy a home,’ said Randy Bianchi, co-owner of Paradise Properties of Florida in West Palm Beach.”

From TC Palm. “Treasure Coast bankers are applauding recent efforts by federal agencies to level the playing field for them and other mortgage lenders. Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development subpoenaed 15 mortgage companies to seek out possible fraud in an effort to stem losses on loans insured by the FHA. HUD officials, who oversee the FHA mortgage insurance program, said they haven’t found any evidence of wrongdoing by the lenders, and were singling out those with the highest default rates. None of those lenders is based in Florida.”

“W.D. Acosta, executive VP of Mortgage Lending Division at Stuart-based Seacoast National Bank, said the policy changes won’t have a big effect on mortgage lenders, a step-up in enforcement of regulations to rein in lenders with loose practices. ‘One of the problems leading up to our present debacle was the refusal of the agencies, and particularly FHA, to properly enforce their own rules,’ Acosta said. ‘This allowed some well-known lenders to ‘advertise’ reduced credit standards as being available through their organization; the understood nod and wink.’”

“Chris Russell, senior VP of Fort Pierce-based Oculina Bank, said he also favors the FHA actions to help level the playing field between banks and other mortgage lenders, which had not faced the same level of government regulations. ‘I don’t see this as any negative at all, and it won’t harm housing sales,’ Russell said. ‘The FHA is still allowing people to purchase homes with very low down payments.’”

“Florida Bankers Association President and CEO Alex Sanchez said only two of the 15 lenders involved are banks. Sanchez said he had been wondering when the federal government was going to act. ‘It’s about time we did this, for god’s sake,’ he said. ‘I’ve certainly talked about it since last year, saying we’ve got to regulate what we call the ‘shadow banking industry’ like the banks are regulated.’”