Jacksonville Beaches Real Estate

Fannie, Freddie to Allow Walkaways in Some Cases

Wow! What a difference a few months make! The short and sweet version of what's going on in the Jacksonvile Market is this: Our inventory is DOWN to a 6 and a half month supply. A "normal" or stable market is considered to be a 5-6 month supply.  We're almost back to normal! Break out the champagne! Have you been house hunting lately? Good luck! The inventory is VERY low.  It's hard to find very many houses to look at. Guess what this (historically) means?  Yep. Supply vs Demand = Higher home prices .  Keep that in mind if you're still sitting on the fence. Need more proof?  How about these factoids?  New listings crept up a little in February, but not nearly enough to keep up with the number of sold properties.. I'm thinking that means that we're exactly where we were this time last year. Know what that means? Yep. The bottom is here or so close I can almost see it! More evidence?  The median sales price was down a ...

You can almost feel it in the air. Now that the inventory of homes on the market continues to drop........ Buyers really aren't in the drivers seat anymore. I sold a house last week and we (of course) got into a multiple offer situation. I explained to my Buyers how it works in great detail. Then I suggested that they "sleep on it" and consider their "highest and best offer". Keep in mind, they LOVE this house. We looked at a dozen others AFTER we looked at this one back in November. Everytime we left a home, they compared the others to this one. They asked me if I thought they should go in at full asking price. After another CMA and a lot of discussion, they decided they wanted it bad enough to offer full price. We did and we got it!  I had written a sweet cover letter and I'd like to think that helped the Seller make his decision. My Buyers are ecstatic and we're well into the process of getting the financing together. So there you go... Another home ...

Merry Christmas! I hope the holiday season brings you lots of rest and maybe a present or two. I'm showing houses tonight so maybe my Buyers will get a signed acceptance before Santa comes! Let's see what the New Year brings in the housing market. Wish I had a crystal ball... Warmest Christmas wishes,

Jacksonville Beach FL numbers are in for November. Let's take a look at the scoop. The average median sales price of Lender Mediated (short sales, foreclosures and REO's) homes was $204,750.  The average sales price was $237,402. The median sales price of Traditional Sales was $245,000.This is an increase of 30.7%. The average sales price of Traditional sales was $349,883.  This is up nearly 23%. November Days on Market is down 17% and the inventory of available homes is down a whopping 26.1%. Jacksonville Beach is down to a 7 month supply of homes. This is very close to what is considered a "normal market". Closed sales were up 18% in November. It appears that Jacksonville Beach is on the road to recovery. Inventory is down and prices are up!!! It looks like things are headed in the right direction for this market. Let's see if the trend continues. If you were waiting for "the bottom". We may be there. Don't wait . Interest rates remain ...

As they say, "the numbers don't lie".  The Beaches area markets are all over the place! Without giving out TMI (too much information), I'll give you the hightlights and the lowlights of the Beaches market. I'll give you the condensed version. Jacksonville Beach has fewer listings than it did in Oct 2010 (-31.7%) but the median sales price price was up 9.1% ($232,300.00) over October 2010.  Year to Date in Jax Beach median sale price is up only 1.4%.  BUT---the key word here is UP! Inventory is down 24.3% from the same time last year. We are down to a 7 month supply of inventory in Jacksonville Beach. That's a GREAT thing! Neptune Beach took a huge hit on the median sales price. It was down a whopping        -59.7% compared to October of 2010. Year to date numbers are a whole lot better -  up 16.7% to $280,000.  The median sales price in October 2010 was $501,500 and this year the median sales price was $202,000....

I've finally stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to try and list some REO properties! I'm a little spooked about it. I've heard the lenders can be difficult to deal with but I think I can handle it! You know that there are plenty of these listings to go around. I am so detail oriented and have been accused of being a little TOO concerned about the "small stuff". I have created a web site and would appreciate any comments about it. It's simple, all I wanted to do was give people a way to get in touch with me. In the meantime.... I've started doing BPO's. These are Broker Price Opinions and are critical in the process of selling a short sale. When the lender gets an offer on a property, they order a BPO so they'll know if the offer is a good one. They are time consuming but I think they'll keep me very active in my market. I will also have a better understanding of how to help MY buyers make offers the lender would accept. I won't ...

Sales in Jacksonville increased over last years numbers. There were 701 "normal" sales and 614 "distressed" sales in September. Inventory dropped an incredible 32%.  Guess what?  We're almost down to a "normal market". When we have a 5-6 month supply of properties on the market, we're considered "normal". In September we were down to a 7 month supply. Along with the good news, there is some bad news (for sellers anyway). Prices on normal sales dropped 6.5%  and prices on lender mediated (short sales and foreclosures) ROSE 4.5%!!! So in a nutshell: inventory down. Foreclosure prices up. Normal sales prices down. We are very close to a "normal" market!!!

Posting this story has become a tradition for me! I didn't want a year to go by without posting it. Unfortunately, the story rings true today like it did many years ago.................................. Halloween Horror Story for a REALTOR Once again it's time for me to repost the scariest real estate story ever! It's become an annual tradition to repost this article. I call it my "List Em and Leave Em" post. Don't let this happen to you! The names have been changed to protect the slackers and the victims... I continually hear people say that their realtor bugged them for weeks to get them to list their house with them. They finally agreed to list it and they never saw the REALTOR again!! I'm not exaggerating! Check out this story.... New example of a "list em and leave em" real estate company Wednesday, May 02, 2007JANESVILLE, Wis. - A couple checking out a house for sale were shocked to discover the 55-year-old homeowner dead in...

Home sales up 12.9% in NE Florida From WOKV News Talk Radio Jax Jacksonville, FL — In February home sales were up 12.9% from a year ago in northeast Florida. The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors is reporting sales are up but prices are down 12.9%. NFAR communications director Melanie Green says most of the homes sold last month were not traditional sales. "The sales that occurred in February were weighted heavily by lender mediated sales, those are your foreclosed and short sales." She says that's a bit of bad news but it does indicate that investors are coming back into the market. We also heard from consumer warrior Clark Howard. He says right now is the perfect time to buy, the reason being that the timing is right. "If you're buying a home now, man everything is smiling on you, the prices are phenomenal on the homes, the cost of money to borrow and finance those homes is still great, and this is not a gotcha this is an opportunity....

I read this today and thought it was definitely worth sharing. Working with a Real Estate Professional is More Important Than Ever in Today’s Real Estate Mark   RISMEDIA, February 17, 2011—In a landmark study examining the home buying and selling preferences of consumers in the Mid-Atlantic region, 95% reported that working with a real estate professional is just as important, if not more important, than it was just a few years ago. The survey results were released in a new research paper entitled Keepin’ it Real , by MRIS, the area’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and a leading developer of real estate information technology. According to the report, which can be found on www.MRIS.com , today’s consumers recognize this is not the time to complete a real estate transaction on their own, and are placing a stronger emphasis on the agent’s professional skills. As such, trustworthiness was ranked as the most critical factor in choosing an agent, followed by experience, ...

There are currently 328 homes listed for sale in Jacksonville Beach.  Of those homes, 11 are foreclosures and 75 are short sales. If history repeats itself, of those 75 short sales, most if not all of them will become foreclosures. The lenders are just not motivated to help us clean this market up. I was told by a local real estate attorney that specializes in short sales that the lenders make a LOT more money if they sit on a short sale than if they accept an offer and take a hit on it!  They'd actually rather let it sit on the market a long time and then foreclose on it!  What a mess!!! Call me today if you'd like to snatch up one of the deals in Jacksonville Beach.  I'll be happy to help.

Great article in the Biz Journal today. Here's a little snippet for you to ponder . Jax ranked No. 4 for in the nation for home sales in January Jacksonville Business Journal Home prices in Jacksonville improved by 3.5 percent quarter-over-quarter, according to the report, though they were down nearly 8 percent year-over-year. Real-estate-owned saturation, which Clear Capital defines as the percentage of REO properties sold compared with all properties sold in the last rolling quarter, was nearly 30 percent in Jacksonville. Could it be that we've hit bottom??

Currently there are 18 homes that are HUD owned or bank owned properties in Jacksonville Beach. These homes are priced at $48,000 to $370,000. Contact me today for detailed information on these homes and any others in the Jacksonville area. Better yet, please set up your own ListingBook account to search the MLS like a pro!  When you need more info--you can contact me in ListingBook.

I found a great site that I think you'll find VERY helpful.  It answers a LOT of questions you may have about your house and what steps you need to consider taking to save it. Visit this site today. Call if I can help.

Wow! Condo sells in Jax are up a whopping 90%. Yes. You read that right--90%. The median price of a condo in Jax dropped 42% to $74,200. That's the second highest drop in the state. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY A CONDO! And it's the time to buy a single family home. Prices are LOW and interest rates are still incredibly low. If you've ever wondered if you could qualify for a loan to buy a condo or a home, give me a call or shoot me an email. I'll be happy to put you in touch with some really good lenders.

Great house in family neighborhood! Posted using ShareThis

This is an amazing segment on people that are walking away from their mortgages. It's not just about that, it's very educational as far as the numbers go. It's unbelievable how many people are "underwater" right now. Are you in trouble with your mortgage? Don't walk away! Let's salvage some of your credit with a short sale. Call if I can help. Watch CBS News Videos Online