http://www.srqrealtor.com Sarasota's Real Estate Resource Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:46:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Southwest Florida could net a healthy number of visitors this winter, but the local competition for their business is fierce. People who manage hotels and condos are starting to realize that visitors have many, many options. After three years of raising rates, they are now focused on making sure guests return. David Teitelbaum, ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/florida-real-estate/hotels-resorts-and-condos-work-to-get-their-tourists/ The commercial real estate markets continue to grow with record investment, and individual sectors in many areas are seeing tighter vacancy rates and higher rents, according to the latest Commercial Real Estate Outlook from National Association of Realtors® (NAR). “The office and industrial markets continue to shine, supported by job growth ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/florida-real-estate/investors-buying-commercial-properties-at-record-pace/ What homeowner wouldn't be ecstatic over a 25 percent cut in the property insurance bill? Probably the one whose premium just jumped by 200 percent. State lawmakers will consider proposals next week that could roll back property insurance rates from 25 percent to 40 percent. At The Inlets in Venice, where the condominium ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/economy-market/impact-of-rate-relief-in-question/ Sarasota-Bradenton posted a pricing decline -- 9 percent -- to $291,500, though the area's median has been trending up when compared with the last several months. The varying pitch of pricing in the region makes perfect sense to David Lipstein, founder of Manasota Key Realty. "Buyers are looking for bargains -- there's ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/florida-real-estate/sarasota-a-decline/ A new housing community is going up in North Englewood. Beechwood Builders will build Heritage Creek, a single-family community to be located off State Road 776 in Englewood, a half-mile south of Manasota Beach Road. Beechwood Builders is a custom home and remodeling builder and has been in business for more ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/florida-real-estate/new-single-family-community-to-be-built-in-englewood/ Officials from Four Seasons, which hopes to open as many as eight new properties annually, according to its Web site, did not return a telephone call for comment. If Four Seasons does commit, it would mark the second time the Toronto-based hotelier has considered Sarasota. A decade ago, when plans to develop ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/sarasota-county/posh-hotel-could-join-ritz/ Many of the health care workers, police and teachers that communities rely on for vital services can’t afford to buy homes, and some even have trouble covering rental costs, a new study found. The Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference in Washington, D.C., found that ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/economy-market/study-finds-most-community-workers-priced-out-of-housing-market/ Imagine a Florida with twice as many people, double the congestion and another seven million acres of farms, forests and other rural lands paved over or converted into sprawling towns and suburbs. That’s the “frightening” future Florida will face by 2060 – just 53 years away – unless the state ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/florida-real-estate/studies-show-future-from-florida-growth/ Expect to see foreclosures on subprime or nontraditional loans – mortgages made to consumers with impaired credit – to accelerate, according to the Center for Responsible Lending (CNL) (http://www.responsiblelending.org), a nonprofit research organization. A recent CDL report, which analyzed more than 6 million subprime mortgages made from 1998 through the third ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/mortgage-news/prediction-trouble-ahead-for-subprime-borrowers/ At 64, and looking toward his retirement next year, Willie Lee Howard agreed to refinance his duplex in Northeast Washington, thinking that a fixed-rate loan would help stabilize his finances. What Howard got instead was a mortgage he did not understand. Baffled by the loan documents he was mailed after the ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/mortgage-news/mortgage-trapped/ Changing directions is part of Sarasota's problem Some Sarasota city commissioners leave us scratching our heads -- such as two months ago, when they rejected parking meters as too inhospitable, then requested higher parking fines instead. News flash: Joe Tourist doesn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling about downtown Sarasota when he's ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/sarasota-county/parking-reversal/ No longer as much of a bargain as they were before the Federal Reserve raised short-term rates, adjustable mortgages lost some of their share of the residential market in 2006. At the end of December, the market share for ARMs fell to 20.4 percent, the lowest since July 2003, according to ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/economy-market/arms-lose-a-bit-of-the-market/ As the number of homes available for sale goes up, it's no surprise that more homes are vacant - more than 30 percent during the third quarter of 2006 compared to a year earlier or 1.9 million homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau shows. That's about half of all ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/economy-market/nobody-home/ STAFF REPORT Occupancy rates in Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice apartment complexes dropped nearly 5 percent during the past year and could be an indication that average rents won't rise much in the months ahead, according to data released Thursday. The local increase in apartment vacancies reflects a similar trend in every metropolitan ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/florida-real-estate/rental-vacancies-showing-increase/ With the number of homes on the market more than double what they were last year and prices leveling out, many investors are searching for new properties. “We’re looking north and south,” said Roselyn Britton, an investor who owns several properties in Sarasota. A combination of low mortgage rates and more reasonable ... http://www.srqrealtor.com/economy-market/real-estate-club-aids-investors/