Merry Christmas & a gift for the New Year
December 25, 2008
Holiday Greetings to all who visit our site, we hope that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas.
This is a perfect time to announce that the Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate -Blog – and for that matter the entire Real Estate site has been mobilized by our web design team over at Virtual Interactive Systems. What does this mean to you ? If you currently have an iPhone or are lucky enough to have just received one for a gift, then you really want to open up your browser to our site and behold the wonder of actually being able to see and interact with the site and the content. Yes, you can now view all of our Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate listings in addition, you can search all Tampa Real Estate MLS listings or for that matter all of Florida from our site, via your iPhone, now how cool is that ?
By the way, there have been two really good articles written recently regarding Real Estate web sites and mobilizing them for the iPhone and other platforms. Here’s a great article from the Home Gain blog entitled “Is an iPhone Under Your Tree This Christmas?” featuring some of the screen shots of our new iPhone compatible site. Not to be outdone, the design team at Virtual Interactive Systems followed up with their article “Real Estate Mobility”.
Now this is truly a gift for viewers to our site, that will last through out the year!
NAR/DOJ settlement: Much ado about nothing ?
May 31, 2008
Seems that the Economy and the Political scene in this hot election year has caused the DOJ to re-think their approach on the battle with the National Association of Realtors. The case was settled this week or rather it appears that the DOJ gave up, because they did not want to seem unsympathetic to the plight of the industry as a whole, given the political climate et all in the U.S. right now.
The reason I and others say gave up is because, we do not think that the DOJ went far enough into really scrutinizing the MLS control issues.
One thing they did do was help free up the hold on VOWs, and that in it self may not have been a good thing depending on how you view the situation.
So what is a VOW anyway ? A VOW is basically a Virtual Office. One description I have often heard is in reference to the difference between an IDX platform and a VOW. VOWS differ from IDX by essentially taking the IDX platform at least one step further.” VOWS are “private business platforms that are designed to facilitate actual transactions” by registering consumers and delivering them as leads to other companies and sales agents, in some cases.
Here’s one of the key-issues that was discussed by NAR and various Multiple Listing Services on how VOWs operated.
“Some MLSs have objected to VOWs putting information on sold, expired or withdrawn listings on the Internet, saying that it makes it easier to mine data that belongs to their members.”
The settlement, in effect says the Internet and innovation is going to be supported, and you have to allow competition to come into this space. Some brokers don’t like the changes and are trying to protect their business. This says you have to compete fairly.”
To put it in laymen s terms.
If a consumer visits a Realtor or Brokers web site with MLS listing data supplied in an IDX (Internet data exchange) format, most likely the consumer will be able to browse and research data without being required to verify an email address or create a log-in account. However with a VOW site, the consumer has to create a log-in, or leave identifying information to be able to access the data.
One such site is ZIP Realty, whose CEO made the comment’s above. On their site you can enter search criteria for an MLS search however, you cannot view any details of that data, including pictures on their site without registering first.
Only time will tell now how NAR and the MLS’s continue to move forward in the integration of technology
One thing is for certain though, and that is that the monopolistic polices adopted by some MLS boards will continue to garner scrutiny by other state and federal agencies. In that venue the Justice Department is currently engaged in a lawsuit over policies adopted by an MLS in South Carolina, as an example, and the Federal Trade Commission is engaged in a lawsuit with a Michigan MLS.
If you interested in more details on the major talking points, I will defer to the excellent post by non other than Mr. Greg Swain of the Bloodhound Blog.
Look here for the details of the DOJ/NAR proposed Final Judgment,
In closing, I must confess that, Greg’s blog is what I one day aspire to be when mine grows up. Maybe not on this blog, but then again you never know ?
Q1 2008 Mortgage Statistics for Florida and Tampa Bay
May 1, 2008
The results are in for the first quarter and it is not a pretty picture on the foreclosure front here in Florida or for that matter the Tampa Real Estate Market.
Two reports this week that are interesting depending on how you can decipher the content ? The first report is by Trans Union. They put together a trended analysis report that reviews 2007 fourth quarter data to compile their latest statistics and then forecast for 2008. They are reporting that Florida delinquent mortgages have increased by 34 %.
The top three areas showing the largest growth in delinquency from previous quarters are Florida at (34 percent), California (33 percent) and Arizona (32 percent).
“The market continues to see the effect of the mortgage crisis in the steeply increasing mortgage delinquency rates among borrowers across the country,” said Keith Carson, a senior consultant in Trans Union’s financial services group.
The national 60-day mortgage borrower delinquency rate is expected to continue to rise throughout 2008 from a value of nearly 3.0 percent in the 4th quarter of 2007 to 4.0 percent or greater by year end.
On another note: Realty Trac released their quarterly report on the U.S. Foreclosure Market which states that “Foreclosure activity has increased by 23 % in the first quarter of 2008.” They are reporting that Nevada, California, Arizona posted the top state foreclosure rates.
“Foreclosure filings were reported on 87,893 Florida properties during the first quarter, the second highest state total and giving Florida the nation’s fourth highest foreclosure rate — one in every 97 households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter. Foreclosure activity in the state was up 17 percent from the previous quarter and up 178 percent from the first quarter of 2007.”
“The highest ranked Florida metro area was Fort Lauderdale, which ranked No. 8 with one in every 73 households receiving a foreclosure filing during the quarter. Other Florida metro areas in the top 20 included Orlando at No. 13, Miami at No. 14 and Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice at No. 15. The foreclosure rate in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater ranked No. 21.”
So this actually shows that the Tampa and St. Petersburg Real Estate areas are faring a bit better on the over all State level.
While the numbers on a whole do not look too promising, this is still a positive note for the Tampa Bay Area Housing Markets, and once again affirms the prediction by our States Economist that Tampa Real Estate markets will recover first starting with Pasco County.
If you want to find out specific information on Foreclosure statistics in your area and or find out which homes are in foreclosure or are on the auction list, you can go to RealtyTracs home page, click on the interactive map. For example click on the US Map, in the Florida area, this will then pull up a State Map where you can enter in a specific county. For example Pasco County and then click on search.
You will then be presented with the break down of total number of homes in pre-foreclosure, auction, bank owned etc. You can gain some pretty good information for free however, to see specifics on taxes etc you have to have a paid membership. The site looks complex but is fairly easy to navigate. Check back tomorrow and I will post a quick video over-view to walk you through the process.
Related Posts:
Florida’s indifferent real estate market in Tampa…huh ?
Exisiting home sales bottom still elusive
Buy your home in Florida NOW
Exisiting home sales bottom still elusive
April 22, 2008
NAR released their March 2008 report and the picture is still not very pretty.
Resale homes continued to drop and now stand at 19.3 percent off of March 2007 numbers. In addition, the media resale home price continued it’s spiral and fell another 7.7 percent compared to the same month in 2007. The median price in 2007 was $217,400. and as of March 31, 2008 it now stands at $200,700.
According to NAR “Regionally, sales rose in the Northeast and West but fell in the Midwest and South.”
So how does the picture differ her in the Tampa Real Estate Market ?
Well according to recent report by the West Pasco Board of Realtors, the Pasco County market has actually had two very good months back to back that prove while the bottom is still elusive in most places it appears to be settling some in other areas. It does appear that their is still more room for prices to drop before the national average stabilizes though.
What is interesting in the Pasco County scenario is that a Florida Economist “Hank” Fishkind, had predicted that areas within the Tampa Bay would recover before others in the state. It may be a bit optimistic at this point to say he his right only more time will tell.
If you are a regular reader to this Blog, then you might recall this post back in February “Florida’s indifferent real estate market in Tampa…huh ? The significance of this post is the comments made by Mr. Fishkind, with specific reference to Pasco County Real Estate he said”
1. HOME SALES: Pasco and Hernando counties’ housing markets have hit bottom and are most likely to start the the turn around ?.this will be seen later in the year. Hillsborough County is close to the bottom, but Pinellas County has a few more months in this downturn before home sales and prices will stabilize.
You can down-load a copy of Dr. Hank Fishkinds Power Point report in PDF format entitled **Economic Outlook U.S. and Tampa Bay/Bay Area Real Estate Council
.
** Be sure to check out pages 28 to 63 of the PDF for Tampa Counties (158 to 197 as listed on the lower right corner of the presentation).
Related Posts:
Florida’s indifferent real estate market in Tampa…huh ?
Buy your home in Florida NOW
1 in 3 Home Owners with Negative Equity according to Zillow
Earn Money Trashing your Home
April 9, 2008
I could not believe this latest information on the Foreclosure front. Just when you thought things were as unreal as they could be with the entire mortgage market meltdown, the amount of home owners that have walked away from their homes due to falling values and now add to this Trashing your Home for money ?
You heard me correct, check out this video segment. It appears that many homeowners angry with their banks refusal to work with them have been taking out their frustrations on the bank and the lenders by totally trashing their homes as they-vacate them. It has been so bad that many banks are now paying top dollar to the former owners to leave the property with a guarantee not to tamper with the home.
I believe that this footage is from the West Coast.