Boca Raton FL Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com boca raton fl real estate news Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:56:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 en Florida Legislature Considers Plan to Overhaul Escalating Property Taxes http://www.best4boca.com/2007/06/01/florida-legislature-considers-plan-to-overhaul-escalating-property-taxes/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/06/01/florida-legislature-considers-plan-to-overhaul-escalating-property-taxes/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:56:33 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/06/01/florida-legislature-considers-plan-to-overhaul-escalating-property-taxes/ When the nation’s home prices were booming, Florida led the way. Now, with the housing market in a slump, the state is taking the lead in tackling one of the boom’s more onerous legacies: sky-high property taxes.

Florida’s legislature is considering various plans that aim not only to cut taxes, but also to change a system that many regard as unfair. Much like California, Florida protects existing homeowners, effectively capping the amount that their property taxes can rise from year to year.

As house prices have more than doubled in Florida over the past five years, the system has shifted the tax burden onto people who don’t enjoy the same protection: new homeowners, business owners, real-estate investors, people with second homes and “snowbirds,” nonresidents who have vacation homes in the state.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/06/01/florida-legislature-considers-plan-to-overhaul-escalating-property-taxes/feed/ Home buying with 5 questions that you can use to your advantage http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/28/home-buying-with-5-questions-that-you-can-use-to-your-advantage/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/28/home-buying-with-5-questions-that-you-can-use-to-your-advantage/#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 23:03:09 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/28/home-buying-with-5-questions-that-you-can-use-to-your-advantage/ Thanks to abnormally low mortgage interest rates, home sellers had an extremely favorable “seller’s market” for the last few years.

That means there were more qualified home buyers in the market than there were homes available for sale. Homes often sold in just a few days or weeks. Typical home sale prices appreciated 10 percent or more annually for the last few years in many communities. Since 2000, the average U.S. home has doubled in market value, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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Hunting for the perfect home in Grand Orchid? Realtor® Caesar Parisi is ready to help you buy your dream property.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/28/home-buying-with-5-questions-that-you-can-use-to-your-advantage/feed/ New homes are better than 30 years ago http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/25/new-homes-are-better-than-30-years-ago/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/25/new-homes-are-better-than-30-years-ago/#comments Fri, 25 May 2007 23:00:50 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/25/new-homes-are-better-than-30-years-ago/ New houses are much more durable. Modern copper water pipes, for example, will easily last the life of the structure, which certainly can’t be said for the rust-prone galvanized steel pipe found in most older homes. And the “engineered lumber” used in today’s houses — much of it made from mill waste that used to be thrown out or burned — is stronger pound for pound than the solid-sawn lumber used by builders of yore.

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Even modern glass is better: While the French doors in old houses contain plain glass that shatters into dagger-like shards, the tempered glass required in modern doors crumbles into harmless little granules when broken.

In the market for Delray Beach real estate? Consult with licensed agent Caesar Parisi. Caesar has assisted hundreds of buyers and sellers, giving sound advice on how to most effectively buy and sell property.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/25/new-homes-are-better-than-30-years-ago/feed/ Finding a superstar real-estate agent http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/22/finding-a-superstar-real-estate-agent/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/22/finding-a-superstar-real-estate-agent/#comments Tue, 22 May 2007 23:05:13 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/28/finding-a-superstar-real-estate-agent/ The woods are full of agents these days, and many are beginners. Here are the eight questions you can ask to separate the average agents from the experienced heavy hitters.

Whether you’re buying or selling, the difference between having an average real-estate agent or a superstar can mean thousands of dollars in your pocket. It can mean selling your home for top dollar (stellar) or losing the house of your dreams to a more organized buyer (decidedly not stellar).

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Looking for a home in Delaire Country Club? Realtor® Caesar Parisi is ready to help you buy your dream property.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/05/22/finding-a-superstar-real-estate-agent/feed/ Security Systems: Your Eyes and Ears http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/31/security-systems-your-eyes-and-ears/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/31/security-systems-your-eyes-and-ears/#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2007 09:38:17 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/31/security-systems-your-eyes-and-ears/ Most people have smoke alarms, many have carbon-monoxide detectors, and a good number even have devices that detect flooding or unexpected changes in temperature. But all of these alarms are useful only if someone is there to hear them.

“The untold story of professionally monitored security systems is that people are using them for a variety of reasons beyond burglar protection,” said Ann Lindstrom, a spokeswoman for ADT Security Services in Boca Raton, Fla. “We are the eyes and ears for people when they can’t be home.”

Better systems are monitored around the clock by companies like ADT. When a customer’s alarm system is triggered, Ms. Lindstrom said, the company will first call the house — or any other numbers provided by the homeowner — to make sure the alarm wasn’t set off by accident. If there is no answer, or if the owner answers but is away from home, the company will call the police or fire department.

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For more information on this and other real estate matters, your first source for Palm Beach real estate should be licensed agent and long-time resident Caesar Parisi.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/31/security-systems-your-eyes-and-ears/feed/ South Floridians look to legislators for solution to property tax woes http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/30/south-floridians-look-to-legislators-for-solution-to-property-tax-woes/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/30/south-floridians-look-to-legislators-for-solution-to-property-tax-woes/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:12:44 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/30/south-floridians-look-to-legislators-for-solution-to-property-tax-woes/ Owners who live full-time in Florida can take advantage of a 3 percent limit on annual property tax increases as long as they keep the same home. It is not available to snowbirds or absentee owners.

In an attempt to end inequities in the current tax system, legislators are considering a range of options during their current session. Among them: increasing sales taxes and reducing or possibly abolishing property taxes altogether; and offering tax breaks for first-time homebuyers, Floridians who want to move, snowbirds and small-business owners.

But as legislators debate these issues, local residents — landlords, renters, homeowners — worry about the future at a time when living in South Florida has become more costly because of rising hurricane insurance premiums, taxes and other costs.

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For more information on this and other real estate matters, your first source for Palm Beach real estate should be licensed agent and long-time resident Caesar Parisi.

]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/30/south-floridians-look-to-legislators-for-solution-to-property-tax-woes/feed/ MBA Urges Regulatory Restraint as Delinquency and Foreclosures Rise http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/29/mba-urges-regulatory-restraint-as-delinquency-and-foreclosures-rise/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/29/mba-urges-regulatory-restraint-as-delinquency-and-foreclosures-rise/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:05:30 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/29/mba-urges-regulatory-restraint-as-delinquency-and-foreclosures-rise/ The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) quarterly delinquency report is jammed full of information reported from dozens of different perspectives - all loans, prime, subprime, government guaranteed and not, national, regional, and by state, and by several different categories of delinquency. The information is important (witness the stock market reaction on Tuesday) and interesting but can be tough to read and understand.

Looked at in a historical overall delinquency should not be particularly alarming. In the last five years the rate for all loans has moved in a narrow range from a low of 4.31 percent during the first quarter of 2005 to a high of 5.27 percent in mid-2002. While prime delinquencies are in the upper range, there has been 5 quarters since the beginning of 2002 when the rate has been higher. However, sub-prime delinquencies were at the highest level since the third quarter of 2002, and FHA loans reached a new record.

But there has been a recent escalation that alarms observers, especially given the number of ARMs that will experience rate adjustments over the next few years. All adjustable rate (ARM) as well as fixed rate (FRM) loans had higher seasonally adjusted delinquency rates compared to the third quarter of 2006.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/29/mba-urges-regulatory-restraint-as-delinquency-and-foreclosures-rise/feed/ The forecast for foreclosures http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/28/the-forecast-for-foreclosures/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/28/the-forecast-for-foreclosures/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:14:34 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/28/the-forecast-for-foreclosures/ Many borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages are simply not prepared when the rates on those loans shoot up. Low-income borrowers and those with weak credit have felt the sting of the market slowdown the most, and now tighter lending standards brought about by increased defaults are ruling out refinancing for many who may have qualified for a better loan a year ago.

This is happening in states like Florida and Nevada, where speculation ran rampant during the years of double-digit home-price appreciation. “It isn’t adjusting $75 or $100—payments are doubling,” says Johnson of Nevada’s CCCS.

When price growth abated and rates rose, many buyers that stretched to purchase a home with the intention of flipping it have been forced to foreclose. Other states, like Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, have seen a spike in foreclosures over the last year because of crumbling industry and rising unemployment rates.

A record number of people could face the emotional trauma of losing a home in 2007, but some good may come of it. Long term, tighter lending standards will weed out possible foreclosure candidates.

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]]> http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/28/the-forecast-for-foreclosures/feed/ Which caved first, economy or real estate? http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/27/which-caved-first-economy-or-real-estate/ http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/27/which-caved-first-economy-or-real-estate/#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:07:04 +0000 smtarticles Real Estate News http://www.best4boca.com/2007/03/27/which-caved-first-economy-or-real-estate/ Recent data concerning mortgage delinquencies and home foreclosures has created a chicken-and-egg question about the current housing scare. Has a soft real estate market weakened the economy, or did economic weakness hurt the real estate market? Both cause-and-effect relationships might exist at the same time, in what economists call a vicious cycle. But the prognosis for investors and economic policymakers is different, depending on how you look at the problem. The latest evidence suggests that, once again, it’s the economy, stupid.

New-home sales in February deteriorated unexpectedly, with the worst declines in the Northeast and Midwest. Existing-home sales sank in the Midwest to 124,000 in February from 155,000 in January, the slowest pace since February 1997.

The bitter February cold snap helps explain home sales in the Midwest and Northeast. But other data suggest that a chill in the heartland manufacturing economy is playing a role.

James Hamilton, an economics professor at the University of California at San Diego, observes that many of the states with the worst mortgage delinquency rates are in the Midwest and South.

Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, reflecting the fourth quarter of 2006, include among the top 20 states in mortgage delinquencies Mississippi, Georgia, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois.

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Real estate agent Caesar Parisi stands ready with effective advice on buying or selling Boca Raton FL condos.

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