BrevardRealEstateBlog

I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you who read and keep up with the Brevard Real Estate Blog!

Well finally 2008 is behind us.  The question, most folks have now is, will 2009 be any better?  Based on what we see in the present Brevard real estate market I do not believe things will be getting “better” for quite some time.   I believe 2009 will continue to see housing declines to the tune of 1-2% a month.  I base this revelation on the fact the national economy is still in big trouble, lenders are very tight with their money, FHA just RAISED the down payment on their loans from 3% down to 3.5% down and lowered their maximum loan amount to $271,050.  Let’s face it, many people do not have the cash on had to come up with the 10-20% down payment for loans higher than the FHA limit.  To add insult to injury, I think we will be seeing even more people walking away from their homes as values continue to fall and they see no hope of their home ever being worth what they presently owe on their mortgage…many people owe 30-50% more on their homes than what they are worth and they are literally walking away from them. 

The good news is interest rates are low and if you can qualify for a loan you can find some great bargins in our market today!

Here are the number for December 2008:  In December 375 single family homes sold.  Historically December is a very busy month because folks want to be moved into their home before the end of the year so they can get the homestead exemption and save on their taxes.  Of the 375 homes that sold 271 were distressed sales.  As of January 2, 2009, there are 5893 homes on the market…this number will increase as the expired listing relist in the next few weeks along with all the fence sitters who were waiting to get in the market the beginning of the year.  There are presently 2889 distressed properties on the market for sale…this number continues to increase.  In my opinion, when we see this number start to decline we will be moving toward the end of our present declining market.

Happy New Year to ALL

Larry Fleckinger
RE/MAX Aerospace Realty
321-693-0771
www.BrevardRealEstateGuide.com
www.ShortSalesBrevardCounty.com

Side Note: Distressed Sale Properties include Short Sales, REO/Bank Owned Properties, Corporate Owned Properties

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Now on to the not so good news for Brevard County Real Estate Market…

I know the media has been saying real estate is looking better here in Florida and unfortunately Brevard County Real Estate is not doing so well…  In November single family home sales in Brevard County Florida went down to only 328 total Brevard home sales with around 6340 homes still on the market…of the 312 sales 238 of them were distressed home sales that closed.  There are 2193 Active distressed homes for sale or about 1/3 of all homes for sale are distressed sales…this has got to get better. 

Good NEWS for Buyers! 

I heard on CNBC this morning that the fed is trying to push interest rates into the mid 4% range to get homes sales started again and to start to turn this financial mess around.  If you are thinking about buying now is the time to start looking for your Brevard County Home!  Visit our web site BrevardHomeSearch.com and you can search all the listings directly on the Brevard MLS…more accurate than Realtor.com.

Until next time…Have a great day,
Larry Fleckinger
321-693-0771
realtorlarry@cfl.rr.com

It is election DAY…GET OUT and VOTE!

Well, for everyone who keeps thinking things are getting better, here is a rude awakening…In Brevard County Florida in October, there were only 370 Single Family home sales.  Down from Septembers sales of 426 (revised).  As of today there are 2642 Distressed Properties for sale in our MLS…this number continues to increase monthly.  Of the 390 homes that sold 209 of them were distressed sales.

We are still a long way from bottom in this market…and hopefully your choice for President Today will make the difference.  It is hard to read between all the hype and negativity, so do your due diligence and get out and VOTE!

More Real Estate Market News:

The real estate market report (Oct 24th – Oct 30th) “Open door …

The situation of overdue debts in the real estate credit shows a increasing sign, some real estate businesses appear signs of losing the ability to pay debts. “If the realty market has no liquidity by December 31st, 2008, …

More Federal Aid for Florida Foreclosures May Be Coming

In the Sarasota real estate market, there were 1437 foreclosures in September, up 39% from the previous month according to data released last week by RealtyTrac Inc. But, Hillsborough County showed the biggest monthly increase in the …

Signs of the Real Estate Market Bottom

The performance of real estate markets lags behind national economic cycles so these are important early indicators to watch. Since money supply is generated in part through the stock market, a recovery in that sector is a positive …

Below is an email I sent to all of my listing clients about the Brevard Real Estate Market and the bail out…

Hello To All My Listing Clients,

Ok, it has been a while since I updated everyone on the market so here goes…In August 475 single family homes sold in Brevard County Florida. Up from July.  As of this post, there are around 6700 single family homes for sale.  Now here is where things get interesting…of the 475 homes that sold in the Brevard MLS, 250 of the sales were distressed sales. i.e. Short Sales, REO/Foreclosures and Corp. Owned homes.  I constantly monitor the distressed homes coming on the market and they are increasing monthly.  This indicates to me we have not yet found the bottom of this market and probably will not find it for a couple more years.  The Brevard Real Estate Market is one of the worst hit in Florida and in the nation for that matter.   The good news is we have lots of buyers right now and that is a good thing…these are qualifies serious buyers, NOT investors or bottom feeders and they are having a difficult time getting their offer accepted by stubborn sellers who refuse to adjust to the changing market.   Fortunately I have some great clients who are always making adjustments to help us get their home sold.  If you need to sell your home give me a call and let me go over the detailed plan I am using to sell homes in this market!

Regards,

Larry Fleckinger
RE/MAX Aerospace Realty
321-693-0771
www.BrevardHomeSource.com

Well I hope everyone made it though the never ending storm without any serious damage.  My heart goes out to all that have water in their homes and still have flooded streets.  What a mess.  We personally were very lucky with flooding only in our detached garage, no damage.

Good luck to everyone!
Larry Fleckinger

Well in the month of July there were just under 6900 single family homes for sale in Brevard County and of that 6900 there were still around 2200+ Distressed sales that were in the Brevard MLS.  I believe that are many more distressed sales hidden in the balance…people who do not yet know they are “a distressed sale”.  The good news is sales in July were a 458 on down 3 from June sales of 461.  The overall market value is continuing to slide and the average cumulative days on the market are around 153. 

More articles about the Real Estate Market…

Where Housing Prices Tumbled Last Quarter

Fort Myers, Florida also took a big dunk, losing 33.1 percent of its housing value. Other cities joining the decline: Riverside/San Bernardino-Ontario with a -32.7 percent; Los Angeles/Long Beach with -29.5 percent; Anaheim/Santa Ana …

Home Prices Fall Further, But Sales Start to Rise!!!

Several Florida regions that saw big price gains during the recent housing boom have fallen sharply with the Gulf Coast city of Ft. Myers clocking a 33.1 percent drop in values. Tampa-St. Petersburg saw prices decline 18.8 percent in …

Everything We Knew About Real Estate Is No Longer True

That house was (worth) $300000. Nobody buys no more.’” The Herald Tribune from Florida. “My recent column about the war of words between the presidents of the state’s banking and mortgage-broker trade associations brought this reaction …

Ok, the Bill was passed and if you  are a first time buyer, it is time to get off the fence!  You have been graced with a one time Tax Credit of $7500 if you purchase a home from April 9, 2008 to July 1,2009.  NOW is a GREAT time to buy!  Not only do you get a Tax Credit, you will also make the purchase of a lifetime in a great buyers market, plus you will be doing your part to help stimulate our economy and on top of that you will be starting to build long term wealth and be ready to make a fortune when the next real estate bubble comes around.  Learn more here: FederalHousingTaxCredit.com   Give us a call and let the Fleckinger Team put use their 18+ years of helping buyers and sellers to work for you!  Karen and I are life time residents of Brevard County and will help you find the home that fits your needs.  Give us a call at 321-433-1323 or send us an email at realtorkaren@cfl.rr.com .

Have a great day,

Larry Fleckinger

Here is an interesting article I found in Forbes.  I shows the top areas that foreign investors are looking to invest here in the US.  Of course this is due to the declining value in the dollar.  Unfortunately I did not see Brevard County on the list.  Bottom line here is that it is a good time to buy  even though the market is continuing to decline.    Check out all the links within this article too, some great information!
Top Real Estate Investment Areas in the US
 

I finally found a great article that sort of explains how this new bill, the Housing Rescue Law, Hope for Homeowners Act for 2008, is going to work…click on the link below to get some good information. I for one believe it sounds good but I think the lenders will pick and choose and many people will still loose their homes…you read it and see what you think and let me know your thoughts.
Click Here to learn all about the new Bill!

If you need to talk with a knowledgable professional about your situation please give me a call at 321-433-1323 or visit our web site www.ShortSalesBrevardCouty.com

Have a good one,

Larry Fleckinger
Realtor - Re/Max Aerospace Realty
Brevard County Florida

Ok, hopefully you have been reading my other posts about short sales.  I have been on the phone this week with about 3 of my short sale clients and they all had very sad disheartening stories on how they ended up in the terrible situation of having to give up their homes.  I truly feel sorry for each and every person out there who is going through this mess. 

Short sales are increasing here in Brevard County.  Everyday there are more of them coming on the market and I personally feel that there are many more “hiding” on the MLS that are not aware they are short sales or do not want to accept their fate.  Lenders are not getting any faster in getting short sales off the market, it is taking them months in many cases to even respond to offers they receive.  So, the problem continues to grow and will unfortunately continue to drive our prices down. 

I hear people everyday saying ”it will get better in the next year or so and I will sell then”.  Based on what is going on in the Short Sale/Foreclosure market, this could be a costly move.  You see we are now able to put Short Sale listings into our MLS at a price we “feel” it will sell and to reduce it based on the level of interest in the home, to get an offer on the property.  Now here is where it gets sticky…the prices on short sale properties are NOT deliverable prices!  In other words we can put what ever price we want on a property and the Lender has the final say on exactly what THEY will accept, not the seller.  Of course  it IS the lender who is loosing BIG money on the loan.

So, with the lenders taking forever to get these short properties negotiated and if they do not sell it will take many more months to get it through Foreclosure, you can see that this is a receipt for disaster when it comes to declining home values and a lengthy period of time for all of this mess to get cleared up.  All of the adds up to a very long time before we even find the bottom of this market and in that time prices WILL continue to decline. 

Bottom line, if you HAVE to sell in this market it will be better to do it sooner rather than later as you hard earned equity will continue to fall though the cracks in our present market. 

If you or someone you know needs help selling their home or if they are facing foreclosure, please have them give me a call ASAP so we can help them protect their equity and get their home sold now!  Call Larry at 321-693-0771. 

New Fannie Mae Guidelines on Short Sales!

Here is the link to the revised and amended Fannie Mae lending guideliness: Once again we hope you will find this information helpful on your way to becoming a Short Sale Expert. And if you are one of our group Experts let us know if …

 Are Short Sales Shorting The Real Estate Market?

Today I would like to talk about the myth of “Short Sales” as a way to help homeowners save their homes from foreclosure, and as a means for buyers to make a lot of money. In fact, short sales are actually hurting the Real Estate market …

I have attached a chart that will show that the overall median price range of Brevard Real Estate sales continue to decline.  I am not trying to promote gloom and doom here, I am just posting the facts.  I have people telling me all the time “they read” that things are getting better in the Real Estate Market and based on our local Brevard numbers that is just not the case.  In my previous post you will see our sales were down in June from May numbers. 

I have a theory and I may be way off base here….

Our problem in this market is that it is flooded with distressed sale homes…short sales and forelcosures.  Right now there are 1400 visable short sales listed in our MLS, not counting all the folks who have not faced the reality they will have to be a short sale to get their home sold as this market continues to slide.  There are 310 REO (Bank Owned Homes) for sale that have already gone through the foreclosure process as of today and 100 corporate owned properties.  That is a total of 1810 distressed homes out of 7000+ total homes for sale in todays market.  At our present home sale pace and the total lack of response from the lenders involved in the short sale fiasco, it will probably take at least 2-3 years to get rid of this mess.  

You see, the short sale homes are in many cases taking months to sell due to the sheer numbers and the lack of bank cooperation.  If they do not sell as a short sale then they will roll into the foreclosure process adding more months to the time frame.  And of course when the foreclosures get on the market they too are taking months to sell and this is what is continuing to drive our prices down.

Now to my theory…

It is always about supply and demand… High supply and Low Demand means it is a buyers market and the market is declining.  Low supply and High Demand brings on the sellers market with prices on the rise.  The key in this market, in my opinion, is we need to reduce the supply and narrow the gap between supply and demand, that will bring us to a more normal market. 

There are 3 Seller types in this market… A, B, C seller types.  A’s in most cases HAVE to sell their home without question and they HAVE to MOVE,  B’s really want to sell but it will be ok if they do not and stay where they are for the time being,  C’s are the folks who could care less if they sell and will only sell if they get their price, otherwise they will stay put.

Here is what might be a solution…

We need to eliminate all of the C sellers and get them off the market to lower our supply immediately and we then need to approach all of the B sellers and really find out if the NEED to sell or just WANT to sell, if they can and eliminate all of the ones that WANT to sell but don’t need to sell.  If we took these actions, this would drastically lower the supply of homes and in turn narrow the gap between supply and demand and in turn have a drastic change on this market so thing will start to improve MUCH sooner…. 

Like I said, I may be out in left field here and I know on thing for sure, until the gap between the Supply of homes and the Demand of homes get narrower this market will continue to decline!

Love to hear you thoughts about my “theory”!

Here are some interesting articles about the topic…

Necessary Evil? Fed Says Housing Price Drop Needed

Allowing market forces to cause prices to fall keeps builders in check and will allow the supply to eventually match the demand for homes. And the current rash of foreclosures? “Unpleasant but essential,” claims Mr. Emmons. …

Housing Rebound?

Here’s how the numbers play out: Single-family housing starts are now running at fewer than 500000 a year. The normal demand for housing, based on immigration and household formation, is around one million units. …

Recovery Keys for Housing

Entry-level homes are the base of the housing market. From there households move up, creating the demand for more desirable and more expensive existing homes. Historically, much of the housing supply for first-time buyers has come from …