Florida’s existing home and condominium markets reported higher sales in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. It was the third consecutive year for statewide home and condo sales activity to end the year on a positive upswing – higher year-over-year sales also were reported at [...]

Luxury Sarasota Home Sales Dec 2011
Sarasota – Connecticut residents Neal and Sandra DeFeo bought the most expensive luxury property in Sarasota County in December – a 4,239-square-foot house off Shell Road on Siesta Key. The DeFeo’s paid $3.015 million, or $1.1 million less than Kevin D. Cogan paid in May 2006.
All told, 18 luxury homes [...]

In Florida and a handful of other states, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will sell homes it owns for only a $100 downpayment, providing buyers meet certain conditions.
Buyers must plan to live in the home and pay full list price. They must also take out an FHA loan, and standard underwriting rules [...]

Citizens Property Ins. raising costs by looking at details
but when you look into details you find, they are screwing their customers with intension.
Florida-owned Citizens Property Insurance can increase its rates no more than 10 percent per year, but the company has two options that allow it to raise rates without impacting that cap: nixing discounts [...]

Bradenton real estate home sales on the rise
MANATEE — Existing real estate home and condo sales rose throughout the Bradenton-Sarasota area in November to mirror upswings nationally. The Bradenton real estate market overcame an uptick in contract cancellations to continue the momentum built earlier this year. November is a historically busy month for housing and [...]

Starting Dec 1st, many homeowners with “underwater” mortgages can apply for a new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinance program geared for pretty much everyone who owes more on a home than it’s worth – including landlords and second-home owners.
The federal government’s previous foreclosure-prevention efforts, such as the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), lowered the [...]

Pending home sales rose strongly in October and remain above year-ago levels, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, surged 10.4 percent to 93.3 in October from 84.5 in September and is 9.2 percent above October 2010 when it stood at [...]

ORLANDO, Fla. – Nov. 21, 2011 – Florida’s existing home and existing condo sales continued to show gains in October, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Existing home sales increased 13 percent last month with a total of 13,755 homes sold statewide compared to 12,145 homes sold in October 2010, according [...]

Though the past four years have seen many cities suffering from large  numbers of foreclosures and a loss in home values, ten of these real estate  markets are now leading the nation towards a general recovery and stability of  the housing sector.  The six markets included – Miami, Orlando, Ft. Myers/Cape Coral, Ft. Lauderdale, Sarasota/Bradenton [...]

Florida’s existing home and existing condo sales continued to show gains in third quarter 2011 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest housing statistics from Florida Realtors®.
Existing home sales rose 12 percent in 3Q 2011 with a total of 46,759 homes sold statewide; during the same period the year before, [...]