The event is run on a 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course that fronts St. Petersburg’s bay front and runs along Bayshore Drive. This year’s event will once again feature races from both the IndyCar Series and the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) as follows:

• Friday, April 3 - Action will include practice and qualifying for the ALMS event and practice sessions for the Firestone Indy Lights and IndyCars.
• Saturday, April 4 - Taking to the streets will be the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg’s American Le Mans Series race and the first race of the Firestone Indy Lights.
• Sunday, April 5 - Early action will include the second race of the Firestone Indy Lights. The 2009 IndyCar Series season opener, The Honda Indy St. Pete roars to life in the afternoon.

Other activities include drifting exhibitions, driver autograph sessions and live musical entertainment. In addition, don’t miss these fun activities:

• Thursday, April 2 - Winding through downtown’s beautiful waterfront, the St. Petersburg Festival of States Honda Grand Prix Illuminated Night Parade will once again kick off the festivities.
• Friday, April 3 - Fans will be looking up to Florida’s clear skies for the annual air show.

Race weekend is a family-friendly affair with activities taking place in the Bright House Speed Zone, located near Al Lang Field. Racing simulators, face painting for the kids, a rock climbing wall and Euro bungee jumper are just some of the excitement to be found off the raceway.

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For those who are interested, here is the wording of the Refundable First-time Home Buyer Credit as announced by Congress in a statement issued this morning.

Essentially it bumps up the level for first time home buyers to $8,000 and waives the repayment requirement.

Refundable First-time Home Buyer Credit.

Last year, Congress provided taxpayers with a refundable tax credit that was equivalent to an interest-free loan equal to 10 percent of the purchase of a home (up to $7,500) by first-time home buyers. The provision applies to homes purchased on or after April 9, 2008 and before July 1, 2009. Taxpayers receiving this tax credit are currently required to repay any amount received under this provision back to the government over 15 years in equal installments, or, if earlier, when the home is sold. The credit phases out for taxpayers with adjusted gross income in excess of $75,000 ($150,000 in the case of a joint return). The bill eliminates the repayment obligation for taxpayers that purchase homes after January 1, 2009, increases the maximum value of the credit to $8,000, and removes the prohibition on financing by mortgage revenue bonds, and extends the availability of the credit for homes purchased before December 1, 2009. The provision would retain the credit recapture if the house is sold within three years of purchase.

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Market Change

Smith and Associates Real Estate has been tracking the Bay area real estate trends for years and at their annual meeting released those trends providing some insight into what is effecting seller and buyer decisions in the resale market of condominium and single family homes. Listing Inventory in Hillsborough County

In both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties the listing inventory is lower today than it has been in the past 5 years.  This statistic compares both residential and multifamily- condominium properties.  The factors that will continue to support a reduction of inventory are the federal programs that have been established to assist seller’s in keeping their homes by reconfiguring existing problem loans to reduce short sales and foreclosures.  In addition, the fiscal policies that are providing monetary programs have reduced interest rates so consumers can enjoy refinancing at historic low rates.

Many sellers had to rent their properties placing longer term leases into effect for several years holding out for conditions favorable to sell and obtain value.  Housing values took their greatest adjustment in 2008, with sellers having to adjust value competitively to meet buyers perceived purchase power.  That total dollar volume remained below records kept over the past 5 years.  By late November into December the volume began to trend back up.  That signaled stabilization in values as sales increase and inventories continue to stabilize and in some neighborhoods decrease.

A push of closings at year end allowed the Greater Tampa statistics to be out in front of 2007 for total closed units of 14,886.  The difference was small but after a year that began with some stability and consistencies, by September with the collapse of the markets, so went real estate.  Based on contracts written late 2008 into 2009 there is a great disparity between how the market began to taper off in late 2007.  This trend, along with the diminishing listing inventories, further supports stability in values for homeowners but that also may be a marker for the buyers who were hoping to have bought at a perceived “bottom” of the market.  Again, fiscal and monetary policies have not been fully felt in sales.   As further capital becomes earmarked to conforming and jumbo loans with the competitive rates now available it is expected that 2009 sales will again improve over 2008 with some consideration towards values of some of the areas of the county improving in late 2009 into 2010.  The average price of a single family home $233,961, along with the low interest rates, makes the affordability factor high based on number of households that are able to purchase.

Condominium Sales

The total dollar volume of closed sales $325,081,733 is 20% less than prior year 2007 closings (1,619 units vs. 1,732 yr prior).  Throughout 2008 properties that were considered condo conversions had accounted for the majority of unsold inventory, remaining inventories were reduced to sell gradually or converted back to rental.  Entire condominium developments such as “The Place” in Channelside were sold in their entirety and have since converted to rental units.  The Element condominium in downtown Tampa  released its buyers and have restructured ownership in order to provide the offerings as a luxury rental tower.  As the activity has ended on new developments and without capital for any new projects in the near future it allows the buyers to have confidence in an existing condominium purchases.

Pinellas County Sales Activity

Sales were off from 2007 to 2008 in Pinellas County by 6% over the year prior.  This gap had begun to get closer in the last quarter of 2008, the turn around was in September  as residential sales began to exceed the prior year as a consistent trend.  The average price of an existing single family home is likely to rebound from the low of $249,000  as properties are expected to begin a slow rebound.  The absorption rate further supports the stabilization although the increase from year to year is within a point that shows a trend from July forward that both condo and single family had increased over a year prior. (Determined by number of units sold during the month by the total number of listings in the MLS).

You may know that Florida is the 2nd largest state for foreclosures last year due to new construction, investors, bad mortgages, and increased purchases prices. 107,833 homes were filed for foreclosure in the state of Florida. That is approx. 1.71% homes for every 1,000 household. Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, California, Michigan, and Colorado all have a higher percentage of foreclosures than Florida in the past year.

www.smithandassociates.com

It is the New Year, and as many race to forget about the past… let’s think of the opportunties that are now amongst us. It is not entirely a clean slate as we all wish, foreclosures and short sales still represent a chunk of the housing industry and more are going to be on the books. Prices have declined as a result, and sellers are having a tough time competing with the discounts available by banks and builders. On the positive side, inventory is dwindling, and homes are being purchased at one of a kind prices.  The mortgage industry is providing all time lows in rates, and re-financing is at a 5 year high. Many people are thinking about their budgets, and how to save money… it is a perfect time to start thinking of restructuring your largest debt. On the opposite side, people have been on the sidelines waiting for prices to fall and become affordable are now getting homes at the best price with best mortgage and moving up from a rental home or upgrading their home. We are at the beginning of the year, and we all should be thinking about the dream home that is now obtainable or the mortgage we wish was less expensive.

To find your dream home, sign up for our new listing alert at New Listing Alert
To look at financing options and contact a consultant about refinancing click Smith Mortgage

www.smithandassociates.com

The National Association of Realtors says pending home sales increased 7.4% from July to August; highest since June 2007.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Association of Realtors says pending home rose 7.4% from July to August, an unexpected piece of positive news for the battered U.S. housing market.

The group said Wednesday its seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose to 93.4 from an upwardly revised July reading of 87. The reading was the highest since June 2007.

Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR had predicted the index would fall to 84.9.

The index, which sunk to a record low of 83 in March, stood at 85.8 in August 2007. 

As posted on CNN Money online 10-8-08

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October 8th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: Real Estate

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This is good news as the combination of lower prices, low interest rates, and pent up demand may be coming to a head.

Pending homes sales in a report issued by the National Association of Realtors are up 7.4 percent in August compared to July, 2008. The numbers are up 8.8 percent over August, 2007.

While it is not time to crack open the champagne bottles, it is a sign that consumer demand and pricing are finding an equilibrium. Now we need to hope that the other external forces in the economy do not drag down the momentum that seems to have been built.

But after the meltdown on Wall Street does real estate look like the better investment now?

Pending home sales for August rose in all four of the regions tracked by the NAR.

Gains amounted to 18.4% in the West, 8.4% in the Northeast, 3.6% in the Midwest and 2.3% in the South.

July’s pending home sales index was revised to a decline of 2.7% from a prior estimate of a 3.2% decrease.

NAR says pending home-sales activity rose because of buyers taking advantage of low prices and affordable interest rates. August’s results show an “unleashing of pent-up demand” before the credit crisis worsened in September, Yun said. via Marketwatch

www.smithandassociates.com

It appears that we will see a consistent FALL season for the real estate industry in Tampa Bay. The prices have been reduced where first time home buyers are entering the market and new buyers are finding opportunities to purchase dream homes at obtainable prices. FHA loans have certainly been the key financing mechanism for those homes with minimal down payment. Inventory seems to be slowly absorbed as people are getting great deals and values from new home builders. The foreclosure and short sale market is not significant in the South Tampa market and there appears to be a constant sales pattern over the last few months. Although the short sales and foreclosures do exist, they are observered more in the price points under $250,000. The Tampa trend appears to be moving in a slight uptick of sales volume, while the sales prices stay firm. Our luxury market continues to have (luxury sales stat). Our developments in downtown Tampa, Skypoint & Ventana, have recent sales success; builders continue to move forward with Clearwater’s, Water Edge, and downtown St. Petersburg’s, Signature Place. Our open houses have had increased traffic with qualified buyers looking to write a contract. We encourage all of our clients, prospects, friends to continue to be environment conscience and utilize our website for all of your home needs.

For more information please refer to www.smithandassociates.com

Loving your house again

Forget the doom and gloom about a tanking market. You made a smart investment.

By Chris Ayres
Los Angeles Times - Opinion
August 17, 2008

First, let me say this: Of course I have regrets. After all, the purchase of our family home in Hollywood with an adjustable-rate mega-jumbo mortgage closed a mere 119 days before Countrywide Financial Corp. announced that — whoops! — it had, uh, run out of money. Of all the financial horror stories of last summer, this was the one that seemed to mark the official start of what is now commonly referred to as the “credit crunch” — the symptoms of which, if you’re an L.A. homeowner at least, include weeping openly in front of CNN real estate bulletins and waking up three or four times during the night to check the tumbling digits next to the satellite image of your home on Zillow.com.

So yeah, I have regrets. Like wishing I’d borrowed more money and bought a bigger house.

No, there’s no asterisk here, no small print, no catch. And yes, I’m aware that if I tried to sell my house now, I’d probably have to pay the buyer and throw in both my kidneys. Yet, this weekend, as we mark the one-year anniversary of Countrywide’s implosion — and by extension the end of the era when a real estate agent could add half a million dollars to an asking price just by installing a stainless steel refrigerator (sorry, I mean “chef’s kitchen”) — it seems appropriate for me to make a rather bold statement: Those of us who purchased nonspeculative property from 2004 to 2007 for the gratuitously self-indulgent purposes of raising a family and investing in our neighborhoods will ultimately have the last laugh.

OK, maybe not the last laugh — that pleasure is almost certainly reserved for New York hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made a handy 10-digit profit in a matter of months after finding a way to short-sell subprime mortgages.

But if you’re a boom-time buyer who can still pay the mortgage (not only do we exist, we’re in the majority), you have more than you think to feel happy about. You certainly shouldn’t harbor any envy toward the likes of Peter Y. Hong, author of an article in this very newspaper earlier this year with the headline, “How we cashed in before the crash; a Times reporter just couldn’t ignore the warning signs” — which, it has to be said, set a new standard for the sheer quantity of smugness that can be contained within a mere 2,000 words.
I can tell you’re not convinced, so let’s do some arithmetic. Say a real estate agent with a particularly reassuring grin talked you into buying a home in a decent neighborhood for $1.2 million in 2005, using $200,000 of your own cash and a million-dollar mortgage given to you by some dude you found on Craigslist. This is the higher end of the market, to be sure, but not out of the ordinary during the mortgage mania of the go-go Greenspan years. Now let’s pessimistically assume that the credit crunch has destroyed a third of your home’s value, so it’s now worth a paltry $800,000.

Chances are, you feel like impaling yourself on the three-pointed star on your real estate agent’s Mercedes. Before you do that, however, consider inflation. At its current unbowdlerized rate of 5%, inflation alone will devalue your million-dollar loan over the next decade to the “real money” equivalent of about $600,000, while at the same time causing your home to appreciate to $1.3 million (according to online inflation calculators).

Here’s another reason to pat yourself on the back: You got a mortgage before banks stopped lending to anyone other than the king of Saudi Arabia, which means your interest rate is almost certainly much lower than the rate that will be offered to the likes of Mr. Hong when he tries to get back into the market on the cheap.

Indeed, interest rates are just as important as the asking price in calculating the true cost of a house. When foreclosure vultures whine about how even post-crunch house prices are too high compared with the growth in American wages since the 1970s, they conveniently fail to mention that interest rates have moved in the opposite direction since then and even now are cheap by historical standards. In the darkest hours of the Carter administration, a loan at 20% wasn’t unheard of.

Aha, I can hear you say, but what about the dreaded A-word? Aren’t we all doomed to bankruptcy because our mortgages will adjust? In a word, no. The payments on most pre-2007 adjustable-rate mortgages would go down if they reset today, because the indices on which they’re based remain in the low single digits. Sure, if you have an interest-only loan, the payments will go up when you start paying off the principal — but by then, inflation almost certainly will have started to work in your favor. Of course, you’ll also have to pay property taxes, but thanks to California’s Proposition 13, your property taxes won’t change dramatically until the house is sold; and as with your loan, inflation will reduce the real-money burden over time. And let’s not forget that property taxes can offset your income tax. Which brings me to my final point: the glorious all-American institution that is the home mortgage interest tax deduction.

Say you’re paying 6% — fixed for 10 years — on that eye-watering million-dollar loan. This allows you to deduct $60,000 from your taxable earnings, thus saving about $20,000 a year in the 33% tax bracket. In a decade’s time, that’s a potential saving of $200,000. Throw in another $30,000 of savings from your property tax deduction; the $200,000 you’d be theoretically saving over the same period on the difference between a pre-crunch 6% rate and, say, the 8% rate you might be offered now; and the $700,000 of equity you’ll potentially end up with after inflation’s gone to work on both your loan and the value of your home: Net result? The penalty for having bought at the height of the worst real estate bubble in history adds up to a potential $1.1 million gain.

Feeling better? Thought so. And if you ever meet someone who brags about having gotten out when times were good, ask them what inflation’s doing to their rent, how much tax they’re saving on that home-office deduction (a few hundred bucks, woo-hoo!) and, more important, where they parked all that filthy boom-time lucre they made. If they put it anywhere near the stock market, give them a hug. They’ll need all the sympathy they can get.

Chris Ayres is the Los Angeles correspondent for the Times of London and the author of “Death by Leisure: A Cautionary Tale.”

August 4th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: 2009 Real Estate Forecast • Featured • Real Estate Internet • Real Estate Sales • Top 10 Real Estate Lists

‘The real estate market crash continues as home values plummet….’

‘Home sales continue to decline as the housing bubble bursts….’

‘Is the real estate market hitting a recession? Find out tonight at 11!’

Sound familiar? Those are just a few of the headlines that have been thrown around by the media lately. In a time where people are very much influenced by what’s in the news, it seems a bit irresponsible for the media to be feeding the housing panic with such gloomy headlines.

Of course, the media isn’t the only channel to blame - consumers, speculators, politicians, real estate professionals, the economy and a ton of other factors all have a hand in the state of the market. And the majority of them are being pretty pessimistic about the whole thing.

What they don’t seem to get is that pessimistic speculation can hurt the market just as much as tangible factors such as mortgage rates, employment rates, etc. The fact is, the strength of the U.S. economy, while relying on many different factors, also relies heavily on the sales industry in general and sales people specifically.

That’s right, when it comes right down to it, sales people are a driving force of our economy. An analogy may help in this case: say suddenly, all over the country, sales forces in radio advertising just stop working. No more prospecting, no more aggressive sales calls, nothing. What would happen? The radio advertising industry would plummet, crash, grind to a halt - mostly.

The bottom line is, there are many factors contributing to the appearance of a housing market crash, when in reality, the majority of the market is just leveling out and still making positive gains in value. You cannot generalize the real estate market of the entire country and expect to be accurate with your findings.

It’s time for the media to quit all the doom and gloom reporting, even if it gets more ratings than fluff stories; and for everyone to realize that what we’re REALLY seeing across most of the country is simply the leveling out of a major housing boom.

Don’t believe it? Check out these 26 facts you AREN’T hearing or reading through mainstream news media.

Our first facts come from a government study done by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight:

1. Coincidentally, the 3 states that have had the sharpest decline in home sales & prices are also 3 of the states that experienced the biggest booms (sharpest appreciation) during the early 2000s
2. Over half of all metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) are showing price appreciation each quarter.
3. Only 15 out of 50 states have shown any actual price decline in the past year. The rest still show modest appreciation in home values.
4. Only 3 states have shown significant price declines from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008.
5. There are still many areas showing 5% or more appreciation over the past year, including but not limited to Bayou Cane LA with 11.22%, Wenatchee WA with 8% and Idaho Falls ID with 5.06%.
6. The type of annual appreciation we’ve seen since 2005 (ranging from 1.8% to 3.7%) is similar to the type of appreciation the U.S. experienced in the mid to late 90s, right before the real estate boom.

Let’s look at some other facts:

7. A “boom” in economic terms means a period of unsustainable growth - with the term unsustainable being the keyword. In the real estate world, a boom market is considered one in which prices have risen over 30% in 3 years, while a bust market is one in which home prices have dropped by at least 15% over a 5-year span. By that definition, very few markets are experiencing a bust. It is more likely that prices are simply bottoming out from the big boom. (According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.)
8. Rural land is much more valuable due to rising food costs, demand for corn-based ethanol, and city-folk desiring to get away to the country.
9. Demand for big boat docks is so high that having one in your backyard can double your property’s value. A dock that sold for $700,000 in 2004 sold for $2 million last year. (Facts 9 & 10 are courtesy of June Fletcher over as the Wall Street Journal.)
10. Areas that did not experience skyrocketing home values during the big boom (like Houston TX) still have hot real estate markets. Agents in Houston give the market a 3.5 on a scale where 1 means prices are falling hard and 5 indicates prices skyrocketing.

Our next facts come from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and from their Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun:

11. A recent online study shows that nearly a quarter of potential homebuyers are waiting for the right time to buy - if something can spur the group on as a whole to start buying, it could be just the push the market needs to take off again.
12. The national median existing-home value for all house types is down 6.1% this June from June 2007, however, there have been way more short sales and foreclosures this year than last, which skews the numbers and makes it impossible to do an apples to apples comparison.
13. The average 30 year, fixed-rate mortgage is still lower than it was in June 2007 (meaning it’s still a smart time to buy).
14. Many markets are seeing home sales double from last year - like Colorado Springs CO, Sacramento CA and Spartanburg SC.
15. It’s still a very attractive market for buyers, with large inventory, attractive interest rates and sellers willing to negotiate.
16. Housing affordability is likely to improve by 15 percentage points to 127 for all of 2008, according to NAR’s housing affordability index.
17. Our economy is not headed into recession - not yet anyway. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth is forecast at 1.6% for 2008 and 1.4% for 2009 - not spectacular growth, but still positive gains.

To be fair, some media outlets ARE posting positive news about the market, with CNNMoney.com being one of the biggest contributors. According to several stories on their site:

18. June’s home sales may be down a bit (a little over .5%) but it still came in well above economists’ predictions - meaning things aren’t as bad as people think and the market is much stronger than many professionals believe.
19. The housing inventory is lowering slowly but surely - June came in at a 10-month supply, while May’s numbers showed a 10.4-month supply.
20. Most of the decline is seen around 2 main types of markets: weak, industrial economies that are under pressure from the struggles of the Big Three automakers; and the areas that were previously part of the biggest boom markets.
21. A third of the market still shows significant gains in pricing (such as Binghamton NY) and in general the Northeast is still seeing home value increases.
22. Surprisingly the condo market is booming - just not in the area you might expect. Condo values in Bismarck ND rose a whopping 36.4% compared to last year.
23. A housing rescue bill is being passed around the Senate (having already been passed in the House) that will allow thousands of at-risk borrowers to refinance their old, unmanageable mortgages into low-cost fixed-rate loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

And our last 2 significant facts:

24. Many real estate agents are helping to fuel the supposed ‘market bust’ by giving in to fear and worry. They believe what the media and politicians are saying and are simply giving up, using the excuse that ‘the market’s no good.’ If agents’ were out there working hard, cultivating prospects and persuading people to buy or sell, the market would show definite improvement.
25. Somehow, even though the residential real estate market is apparently ‘in shambles,’ there are still agents doing nearly $750 million in real estate transactions (congratulations to Dolly Lenz) while in 2005, with the market still in boom mode, the highest sales volume only hit close to $250 million (by Mr. Harald Grant). If the market was really as bad as they say, Dolly wouldn’t have been able to hit those kind of numbers. (courtesy of The Wall Street Journal’s 2007 Real Estate Top Professionals).

There you have it - 25 little known facts the media’s not hot to spread around. While the state of the market isn’t the media’s fault (at least, not ALL their fault) it’s important for the news media to be aware of how their reporting can affect the U.S. Just as it’s an agent’s responsibility to be aware that if they give up on aggressive prospecting, they’re also adding to the problems of the real estate market.

The bottom line is that the market isn’t nearly as bad as everyone says. It appears that Americans took the boom for granted, and just can’t cope with leveling prices. It’s just about time for the media, the agents, and the government to step up and shine a little ray of hope onto the real estate world.

This guest post was submitted by Ashley White who works in in the real estate marketing industry.