A friend of mine asked me the other day “what’s the real deal in Southwood?” I responded “The real deal?” He said he heard all kinds of rumors about what is going on in Southwood, that taxes are up and values are down. I told him that I would do a thorough analysis of the real estate market in Southwood, as I knew it would make great material for the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog. So today we’ll take an analytical tour of the supply and demand of homes in th... Read Full Story

Yesterday, I received a great comment by a Destin, FL REALTOR® who pointed out that the shadow inventory of homes has many more components than just the defaulted mortgage pool. His example was of homes in a new neighborhood, developed in 2005, where all of the home owners are now upside-down on their mortgages. As he explained in his comment on the Tallahassee real estate blog, Jim noted Until that whole neighborhood turns over, it is going to have downward pricing pressure. We are talking ... Read Full Story

The Tallahassee area logged 163 single-family existing-home sales in October, down 5 percent over a year ago which is not as good as many other areas in Florida that seem to show gains in every market measured. Of course, those measurements are from REALTOR® MLS reports, which typically do not show much more than 1/2 t o 2/3rds of the entire market activity. The median price for those local sales gained 1.2 percent to $174,000 from $172,000 in October 2008. Fort Walton Beach was the only othe... Read Full Story

We have been keeping an eye on home foreclosures in Tallahassee for several years now and have warned that a log-jam of homes has been accumulating in the shadow inventory. In today’s foreclosure update, we’ll look at the location trend of homes that are being added to the “distressed properties” list in the Tallahassee real estate market. The foreclosure process begins with a lis pendens filing, so we make sure that we track not only the final foreclosure sale, but al... Read Full Story

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) last week announced that the maximum conforming loan limits for mortgages originated in 2010 will remain unchanged from the list provided in 2009. The maximum loan limits for Tallahassee and all other areas in the United States can by found in a download-able format in the right sidebar of the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, or by clicking this link to the list of FNMA loan limits by county. So why does it matter what the FHFA says about loan limits? Be... Read Full Story

If you have been following the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog over the past few weeks, you know that we have sporadically reviewed some neighborhoods in Tallahassee, and lately have done the first three units in Killearn Lakes Plantation. Today we’ll take a final look at Killearn Lakes, with a review of its 4th unit of homes. Killearn Lakes Unit 4 is also know as “Grandview” and features homes on lots that range from 1 to 10 acres. As you will see from the following real estat... Read Full Story

All across America this morning, people will be grabbing their morning paper (online most likely) and reading an article that was circulated through the Associated Press about the new home construction industry. As a matter of fact, the article features a picture of a home being built in Tallahassee (and that is how this feed caught my attention). Unfortunately, the article is grossly misleading. The authors of this article apparently do not consider “supply and demand” in real es... Read Full Story

I have heard the rumors, have you? Tiger Woods joins the Tallahassee Real Estate Team At CENTURY 21 First Realty? It’s not enough to hear the rumors, but do we have photographic evidence as well? Of course, the picture of Tiger Woods could just be the one where he is wearing the victor’s Gold Jacket after winning the Australian Masters golf tournament this past weekend, but who knows…. Speaking of golf tournaments, I was fortunate to play in a charity golf tournament at Gold... Read Full Story

Many people are wondering just exactly where this crazy real estate market is heading and how to anticipate its next move.  Unit sales have dropped and prices are continuing on a downward spiral. In the past three years, we have seen a very hot sellers’ market change to a very cold buyers’ market, but many people do not realize that there are five distinct stages that we must move through to  transition from a buyers’ market back to a sellers’ market. After posting yes... Read Full Story

The Tallahassee Housing Market is undergoing a pleasant change right now. Most of the key indicators signal that we might be starting a recovery. Is it due to the fact that we have spent two years selling roughly 50% of the number of homes that our market history sells? Or is it due to the Home Buyers Tax Credit (both the extension of the First Time Homebuyers Program as well as the extension into a program for all)? I think it most likely is a combination of both of these. I also think it is... Read Full Story