Florida Realtors Optimistic About Home Sales
Florida Realtors are beginning to smile again.
March Multiple Listing Service figures showed a 16 percent increase in sales. There also are fewer homes on the market.
“A year ago there were 300 Realtors wait-listed to get a lock box,” Venice Area Board of Realtors Executive Vice President Marlene Merkle said. “We have 3,500. There’s no wait today.”
Merkle joined in a roundtable discussion with several area Realtors, builder David Hunihan and MLS Board President Laura Kopple. They met in the conference room of the Venice Gondolier Sun on Wednesday to share their thoughts on the Suncoast, Florida housing market.
Prices of single-family homes reached a peak at the end of the summer of 2005 and sales bottomed out about three months later, according to Trendgraphix.com data for Venice.
“It happened in October 2005,” Realtor Tim Paradiso said.
“We had the three biggest years in history,” Hunihan said. “Of course the prices would be down. You have to look in cycles of three to five years. There are a lot of people waiting to buy but they are still afraid. They are waiting for the media to tell them it is all right or for [Florida mortgage interest rates] to go up.”
Indicators: Unlike any time in history, all the economic indicators are positive for home buying, he said. The stock market is at a record high. Government debt ratios are at a four-year low and unemployment also is near record lows. Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice and Jacksonville were named among the best places to retire in both Inc. and Money magazines, he added.
“We have a great many cash buyers,” Michael Saunders Realtor Helen Moore said, adding that she also had buyers waiting for property to sell in Naples or somewhere else so they can buy here.
“I am seeing an increase in sales and in an interest to relocate here,” said SellState Realtor Dennis Gardner said, who sells from Venice to Naples.
Demand for second homes or Florida vacation homes in the area has been affected by a lack of liquidity because of weaker markets in the Northeast corridor and in the Midwest, and also by concerns about insurance and taxes, he said.
Lobbying efforts: The latter two problems are ones Florida real estate professionals are working on.
“Realtors are in the forefront of lobbying to do something about that,” Venice MLS Board President Laura Kopple said. “Fourteen went to Tallahassee for Realtor Day and they (the legislators) were listening to us.”
Realtor Day was an event sponsored by the Florida Association of Realtors to bring members to Tallahassee to lobby for tax and insurance reforms to benefit homeowners and future Florida mortgage borrowers.
“There will be meaningful property tax reform and it will happen this year,” ReMax Realtor Sandi Morris said. “There are 61 bills regarding property taxes on the floor.”
Kopple said Gov. Charlie Crist also was listening, and that many legislators thanked the Realtors for going to Tallahassee.
Coming months: “Traditionally, the second quarter is the best,” Merkle said. “April, May and June.
Hunihan said there is an eight-month supply of new homes available, pointing out that it takes about that long to build a new home.
“To replace the current inventory of new homes, we have to start building now,” he said.
Hunihan said the end users are the Florida home mortgage applicants of record today, rather than the “flippers” who were in and out of the market simply to make a quick buck during the recent boom years.Currently there are 1,616 listings, of which 79 have closed and 64 sales are pending. Realtors account for 50 percent of real estate sales. New homes and by-owner sales account for the rest and do not go through MLS.
“Last year was tough,” WCI Realtor Cheryl Youmans said. “I wasn’t here for the boom times, but I have enough listings. I don’t need anymore unless they are good. You can list your home or you can sell it.”
SOURCE: The Venice Gondolier
