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Sunday, December 16, 2007

Resources for statistics in Metro Tampa housing market

I found a new website that I thought was worth taking a look at if you are searching for a home in the Tampa Bay Area.

The site has Days on Market, Average Sales Prices, and How long your home will take to sell. They also have other statistics as well.

The only negative is that you only get a very broad search area. As we know statistics change based on your specific neighborhood.

Over all if you are looking at the big picture I thought it had some useful information.

About Altos ResearchAltos Research LLC pioneered real-time real estate market research. Founded in 2005, the company's information products serve investors, derivatives traders, and thousands of real estate professionals.

Because real estate market data is traditionally obscure and highly latent, Altos built the Real-Time Market Intelligence(TM) platform to monitor dozens of housing market metrics as they are right now in local markets across the country.

The company publishes analytical reports and data feeds each week for thousands of zip codes including all 20 S&P/Case Shiller markets summarized in this report. More information about Altos Research is located at http://www.altosresearch.com/.

For a market profile for the Tampa Bay Real Estate Market visit http://www.altosresearch.com/research/FL/TAMPA

For a more detailed buyer or seller market analysis we are happy to provide you the information based on your specific neighborhood. Click Here

Rae Catanese Shatto & Michelle Jordan
Realtors
Prudential Tropical Realty
813-784-7744

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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Savvy Woman: Questions to Ask Before Buying A Home with a Friend-Tampa Fl

Savvy Woman: Questions to Ask Before Buying A Home with a Friend
The answers to these six questions can make or break your decision.
By Tara-Nicholle Nelson Published: 11/01/2007




1) What is your Vision of Home?Ask anyone you're considering teaming up with for a house purchase to write a Vision of Home and fill out the Wants & Needs Checklist. Discuss the differences and similarities between theirs and yours. Especially discuss what you want your living space to be like, physically speaking -- everything from location, to the type of building, to the architectural style, to cute/old/charming vs. cool/new/modern. EVERYTHING. And make sure you know each other's must-haves and deal-breakers.



2) Will you be sharing a single family home or buying a multi-family home? Said differently, will you be living together or will you each get your own unit?Are you really committed to making a roommate-type relationship work over a long-term period of time, or do you each want your own private residence (complete with your own kitchens, bathrooms, and front doors - which you can close and lock if you need to be alone!).


3) Do you prefer to make decisions slowly and deliberately after lots of investigation or do you prefer to trust your intuition and act when you "feel" it is right?Nothing is more frustrating than for one person to be ready to buy the third or fourth property they see, when the other person has no intentions of buying anything until they've seen at least 40 or 50 properties. Get clear up front on how you both envision your house hunting process, so you are not unpleasantly surprised when you find the place of your dreams and your pal is not ready to buy, or when your buddy pressures you to buy a place way before you are ready. If you are a more intuitive buyer and your co-buyer is more deliberate, then you might want to have them do a lot of Open House looky-loo-ing before you go out and get serious about looking with your Realtor and vice versa. If you are a significantly slower decision maker than your friend, consider going out to lots of Open Houses to build up your comfort level with the commitment involved in actually buying before you, your co-buyer and your Realtor begin the formal house hunt.

4) Do you have a Realtor or mortgage lender?If either of you has a Realtor or lender, you should calendar a meeting with all buyers and all professionals to give every buyer a chance to meet and question the professionals, and choose with whom they would like to work.

5) Have you been pre-approved for a mortgage? If so, for what purchase price were you pre-approved and on what terms?The good faith estimate will show all this information. At the beginning stages of your discussion, you can roughly combine your approval amounts to get a general sense for

(a) how much you can spend on your home together, and

(b) what the monthly payment on that amount will be.


Nine times out of ten, though, you will need to jointly qualify as co-borrowers on a single mortgage in order to purchase a property held in TIC or Joint Tenancy. You should do so as soon as possible to uncover and iron out any potential glitches before you get too deep into the house hunting process.

6) What is your career situation (i.e., stability, earnings, future plans, etc.)? I know this seems strange, but you really do need and want to know where the money for your friend's share of the mortgage payments is going to come from, and how stable that source of funds is. You actually should find out how much she (or they) makes. I've literally had best friends get deep into the homebuying process prior to realizing that they each assumed the other made way more money than she actually did!


This information empowers you to do a reality check on the amount for which you collectively have been pre-approved. It is impossible to plan to spend almost every cent of your income on a mortgage -- and it might raise a red (read: preventive) flag if you realize that your friend is planning to do so.!

To start your Real Estate Search visit www.TampaBayDwellings.com or contact Rae Catanese-Prudential Tropical Realty-813-784-7744.


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Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Lennar Homes unloads 8,300 residential lots

Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Michael Hinman

Metro Development Group is getting a hold of nearly 4,000 acres of land in seven counties after completing its largest land purchase in company history.

Metro, based in Tampa, is buying nearly 4,900 home sites in Pasco, Hillsborough, Polk and Sarasota counties as well as 3,400 other home sites in Lee, DeSoto and Brevard counties from Miami-based Lennar Homes.

The purchase - which was completed on Friday for undisclosed terms - was part of "long-range acquisition strategies developed" by the company, said Rob Ahrens, spokesman for Metro Development. The deal increases Metro's land inventory by nearly 40 percent, and brings the company's total land holdings to 30,000 home sites.

"We have tremendous confidence in Florida and the resiliency of the state's residential real estate market," said Ahrens in a release. "We know that current concerns about homebuilding will be resolved in the coming months, and when they are, we plan to be a major player in providing finished home sites to builders who will need them."

The purchases include 3,905 home sites covering 1,700 acres at Epperson Ranch in Pasco County, 530 home sites on 140 acres at Waterleaf in Hillsborough County, 393 home sites on 94 acres at Leomas Landing in Polk County, and 98 home sites on 41 acres in Sarasota County.




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