According to the 2007 Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index, Sarasota is an affordable housing market. (more…)

Dennis Black has operated under the radar screen in the most southern city in the Sarasota County housing market for a decade. (more…)

Sarasota County’s impact fees could become the second most expensive in the Florida housing market by the end of the summer. (more…)

A local Realtor’s sales push launched a few months back, “Time2Buy,” seems to be having positive results, so it is a safe bet that Kathy Roberts and Joe Hembree are feeling vindicated this week. (more…)

The Manatee County housing market continued to be among Florida’s most expensive in 2005, even less affordable than Sarasota County, the Bradenton Herald reports.

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Florida mortgage demand is slowing and home sales are way down. But that hasn’t swayed a local real estate brokerage, which is growing by 14 real estate agents.

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Florida’s burgeoning Puerto Rican population traditionally has been rooted in and around the Orlando housing market.

But that is changing, and the Southwest Florida housing market is feeling the effects, both with an increased Puerto Rican population and business presence.

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According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Warren Hickernell looked like the boldest contrarian in the Southwest Florida housing market last year.

He spent millions changing motels and apartment buildings into condominiums long after the condo conversion trend seemed spent.

But with banks filing for foreclosure on six of his 18 condo conversion projects - demanding repayment of more than $17 million - Hickernell now looks like a gambler whose luck ran out after he kept letting it ride on red.

In December 2005, Hickernell purchased the 46-unit Bermuda Apartments in Sarasota for $10.23 million, court records show. The seller had paid just $5 million nine months earlier.

“Hickernell had to have a lot of courage to pay that much at that time,” said Kent Davis, a former Anna Maria Island motel owner.

“Everyone knew the market was dead in late 2005. No one expected a happy ending at that point. It was game over.”

But like so many other real estate investors during the recent housing market boom, Hickernell believed prices would keep climbing on a massive wave of retiring baby boomers.

Hickernell thought that by continuing condo conversions of motels and apartments, he would have the cheapest product available in the most expensive areas of the region - the barrier islands and the city of Sarasota.

“Warren is a very sharp guy,” said Richard Dear, a Siesta Key vacation resort owner and friend of Hickernell’s.

“He just had too many partners and too many projects. It’s hard to be successful when you have so much on your plate, especially when your projects are spread out over a wide geographical area.”

Hickernell was not always careful about his Florida mortgage choices or with whom he did business with, however.

Though an associate, Daniel Prewett, was recently arrested on drug-related money laundering charges and is being sued by six investors for misappropriating money, Hickernell has continued to do business with him.

Sarasota County court records show that Hickernell launched his first motel conversion in June 2003. That is when he and a team of investors took out a Florida home mortgage of $900,000 from Sarasota’s Bank of Commerce to buy the 12-unit Tiki on the Bay Resort in Englewood for $1.1 million.

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While the sales of existing homes nationwide saw their first gain in eight months last month, sales throughout the Sunshine State remained much lower than where they were last year. Florida mortgage applicants continue to wait out the uncertain conditions.

That may change for buyers in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, however. That region has seen prices plunge nearly $65,000 from last year, providing an opportunity for lower-income workers to make a purchase.

Sarasota-Bradenton’s median existing home price fell to $277,900 - from $340,700 where is was just one year ago. But falling prices haven’t sent buyers banging on doors just yet, as sales remained 24 percent lower than last year.

Condos continued a steeper descent in both sales and prices, with sales down 51 percent from last October and prices down nearly $80,000. This makes such purchases an even better dealfor those taking out a Florida mortgage loan.

Condo sales statewide fared far worse than single-family home sales, according to numbers released by the Florida Association of Realtors today.

According to a report released by Taylor Woodrow, there was a 31 percent increase in new-home sales in its communities in Sarasota, Manatee and Hillsborough counties for the year.

Sales in 2005 topped $113 million, compared to $86.1 million in 2004. The average new home price was $621,253.

Communities that experienced the strongest sales increase for Taylor Woodrow included Palma Sola Trace in Bradenton and Grand Hampton in New Tampa. Palma Sola Trace is a 104-acre, 546-home community on 75th Street West north of Cortez Boulevard.

Taylor Woodrow offers single-family homes there as well as condominiums, with pricing beginning at $300,000 and $240,000 respectively. If you’d like to see if you can afford a Florida home loan along these lines, there are notes you can be conscious of in order to learn more about the process.