An Islands View (Davis Islands Real Estate) 6/24/09

In this edition of  an Islands View we are going to focus on short sales and foreclosures currently on the islands.  In the past to see a foreclosure on Davis Islands was a rarity, however with the current housing slump continuing, albeit at a slower pace in the last few months, we are seeing more properties follow this path. 

Whether it is a $115K condo listing or the $3Mplus mansion, the short sale or bank foreclosure knows now specific property size or price.  Currently, now there are 10 properties in the various phases of the short sale or foreclosure process.  The one good thing is that the prices for these properties are prime for the right buyer. 

I do not believe we will see prices or buyer leverage this strong for decades to come.

Tampa Real Estate Market View 6/24/2009 – New Home Sales

The real estate market for new home sales continued it slow pace.  The commerice department reported today that sales on new homes dropped .6% to an annual rate of 342K.  In a year over year perspective we are down some 33%.  Economist had estimated sales of 360K so this number was disappointing.

Real Estate Market View 6/16/2009: Housing Starts

New Housing Starts and Permits moved forward in May from the lows set in prior months.  Housing starts increased 17.2%  to an annual rate of 523,000 units according to the Commerce Department.  Additionally, New Building Permits rose 4% the largest gain since June of last year.

These are encouraging numbers, inparticular if we can continue to see Building Permits increase over the next few qtrs.  Since Building permits indicate future growth, that will certainly be a positive sign.

Real Estate Market View 6/2/2009 – Pending Home Sales

The National Association of Realtors announced today that Pending home sales for April were up 6.7% from March.  This is the third month in a row that pending sales have increased.  Slowly it seems that we are creeping out of the bottom of the real estate market.

Additionally, we see that 30yr mortgage rates are beginning to increase from their prior lows.  Once again we want to riterate that housing really has bottomed and while prices might still decline slightly, the risk is more to the upside than down.