A new development is catching home buyers off guard as the spring sales season gets under way: Bidding wars are back.
From California to Florida, many buyers are increasingly competing for the same house. Unlike the bidding wars that typified the go-go years and largely reflected surging sales, today’s are a result of supply shortages.
Peter Earl McCollough for The Wall Street Journal
Debbie and Bill Wetherell received multiple offers for their home.
“It’s a little surprising because we thought bidding wars were done with,” said Andy Aley, who is looking to buy his first home in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The 31-year-old attorney was outbid this year when he offered up to $23,000 above the $357,000 listing price and agreed to waive inspections and other closing conditions.
Competitive bidding in the current environment isn’t producing huge price increases or leaving sellers with hefty profits, as occurred during the housing boom. Still, the bidding wars caused by tight inventory provide the latest evidence that housing demand is starting to pick up after a six-year-long slump.
An index that measures the number of contracts signed to purchase previously owned homes rose in March to its highest level in nearly two years, up 12.8% from a year ago and 4.1% from February, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday.
“We very much believe we’ve hit bottom,” said Ivy Zelman, chief executive of a research firm, who was among the first to warn of a downturn seven years ago. Earlier this week, she raised her home-price forecast for the year, calling for a 1% annual gain, up from a 1% decline.
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The Wall Street Journal’s quarterly survey found that the inventory of homes listed for sale declined sharply in all 28 markets tracked. Real-estate agents consider a market balanced when there is a six-month supply of homes for sale. At the height of the housing crisis, in 2008, there was an 11.1-months’ supply. In March, there was a 6.3-months’ supply.
Inventory levels in many markets were at the lowest level in years. At the current pace of sales, it would take just 1.5 months to sell all the homes listed in Sacramento, Calif., and 2.4 months to sell all the homes listed in Phoenix. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., each have 3.4 months of supply, while Miami has 4.1 months of supply.
Other markets have plenty of homes. Chicago, for example, has 9.4 months of supply, while New York’s Long Island has 16.1 months of supply. Even in those markets, the number of houses for sale is edging down.
Increased competition is frustrating buyers and their agents. “We’re writing a record number of offers, but we’re not seeing a record number of closings and that’s because it’s so competitive,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. in Seattle with offices in 14 states.
Nearly 83% of offers that Redfin agents have made on behalf of clients in the San Francisco Bay area this year and 71% in Southern California have had competing bids. Redfin represented a buyer that made the winning bid on a Gaithersburg, Md., home earlier this month after agreeing to adopt the dog of the seller, who was relocating and looking to find a new home for “Buddy,” a white toy poodle.
Inventories are declining for a number of reasons. Some sellers, unwilling to accept prices that are still down from their peak by one-third, are taking their homes off the market in anticipation of higher prices down the road. Meanwhile, investors have been outmaneuvering consumers for the best properties, often making cash offers that are quickly accepted by sellers.
In addition, some economists say that inventory levels are being held artificially low because Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the nation’s biggest banks have been slow to list for sale hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes they currently own. The lenders slowed down foreclosure sales and repossessions after record-keeping abuses surfaced 18 months ago.
Banks and other mortgage investors owned nearly 450,000 foreclosed properties at the end of March, and another two million mortgages were in some stage of foreclosure.
Inventories could rise, putting more pressure on prices, if the banks and other lenders step up their efforts to sell their properties. Real-estate agents say they aren’t concerned. “There’s an enormous appetite for foreclosures. Release the inventory. It will sell,” said Richard Smith, chief executive of Realogy Corp., which owns the Coldwell Banker and Century 21 real-estate brands.

The declining inventory of older homes is spurring sales of new homes. New home sales are up 16% so far this year, compared with a year ago, while inventories of new homes fell in March to their lowest level since record keeping began in 1963.
Meritage Homes Corp., a builder based in Scottsdale, Ariz., reported Thursday a 36% increase in orders for the quarter ending in March versus the previous-year period.
Even though bidding wars are pushing prices higher, many homes are still selling for prices far lower than a few years ago. Increased demand is “entirely affordability driven, which tells me there will be strong resistance to price increases” by buyers, says Jeffrey Otteau, president of Otteau Valuation Group, an East Brunswick, N.J., appraisal firm.
Rents are rising at a time when mortgage rates have fallen to very low levels. The result is that the monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home is lower than any time since the 1990s. Freddie Mac reported on Thursday that mortgage rates fell to 3.88% for the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage, near its lowest recorded level.
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Rates are “so low that we can afford a house that was out of our price range before,” said Aarthi Srinivasan, who is looking with her husband for a home around Palo Alto, Calif., one of the country’s hottest real-estate markets.
Ms. Srinivasan says she fears that prices are being bid up too quickly. She says she had her “aha moment” earlier this year while touring a 50-year-old house that needed extensive remodeling. The home, listed at $1.1 million, received nearly 10 offers and eventually went under contract for more than $1.3 million to a buyer who hadn’t even viewed the property.
“There are only so many buyers who are going to be in such a hurry, so we’re hoping it’ll top off soon,” she says. On Monday, they offered to pay more than the $1.2 million list price for a four-bedroom, bank-owned foreclosure. They haven’t found out if they made the top bid.
On the other side of those transactions are sellers like Debbie and Bill Wetherell, who had 17 offers in four days for their four-bedroom home in Danville, Calif. “I was floored. It was so fast, it was surreal,” says Ms. Wetherell. The home sold on Wednesday for $796,000, more than $50,000 above the asking price.
Still, the sale is for nearly $180,000 less than what they paid for the house in 2005. Ms. Wetherell’s husband has commuted to Reno, Nev., for five years and they have decided to relocate.
Housing markets face other headwinds. More than 11 million homeowners owe more than their home is worth. It is a big reason that the “trade-up” market has been stalled. These homeowners can’t sell their current homes, let alone come up with the down payment for their next home.
Mortgage-lending standards remain tough. Real-estate agents say an unusually high share of deals are falling apart because homes won’t appraise at the price that buyers have agreed to pay sellers.
Still, borrowers with stable jobs are looking to make deals. Kelly Pajela-Fu and her husband offered to pay the asking price of $600,000 for a four-bedroom home in Marblehead, Mass., within a day of the property hitting the market.
“We just knew this house would go quickly,” says Ms. Pajela-Fu, a 31-year-old doctor who had lost out on an earlier offer. Their strategy to avoid a bidding war paid off: The sellers accepted their offer before having an open house.

With mortgage rates still low and the home prices so affordable, now is the time to purchase instead of rent……

Congress has extended FHA loan limits in 2009, 2010 and 2011 on an annual basis, but on October 1, 2011, the loan limits for the FHA will decline due to changes set in law. FHA loan limits are set slightly differently than those for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. By law, the lowest limit for any county for one-unit homes is $271,050. The ceiling for FHA currently cannot exceed $729,750, but that ceiling is set to decline on October 1, 2011 to $625,500.
For counties that lie between these limits, the mortgage loan limit is equal to the area median house price multiplied by 125% (currently) or 115% (as of October 1, 2011).
According to the limits published by the Federal Housing Administration, 620 of 3143 counties in the United States, or 20% of the total, will see a decrease in the applicable FHA loan limit. Many, but not all, of the affected areas are concentrated along the coasts and other high cost areas such as California. It is also worth noting that every county that will realize a decrease in its applicable GSE loan limits is also among the 620 counties that will face a decline in the FHA loan limit.
We use the American Community Survey (ACS) to demonstrate that these counties include significant concentrations of population and housing, more than the share of the counties affected (one in five) would suggest. In fact, the affected counties contain 44.3 million owner-occupied housing units of the 75.3 million nationwide or 59% of all owner-occupied housing in the U.S.
For counties facing a decline, the average decline in the FHA loan limit is $58,060 or 14% from current levels. For Pinellas and Hillsboro counties there is a $21,450 decline, $157,300 for Manatee and Sarasota counties.
To estimate the range of homes that will be affected by the change, we assume an average 3.5% down payment (the minimum required under present law by the FHA). Using home value data from the American Community Survey (ACS), we interpolate prices by county. With this approach, we estimate the following impacts concerning affected homes:
• Under present law, 8.32 million owner-occupied homes are priced above the existing FHA loan limits
• Under the changes set to take place on October 1, 2011, an additional 3.87 million owner-occupied homes will be put above the limit, bringing the total number of homes that are not eligible for FHA-insured mortgages to 12.2 million.

U.S. housing prices overall are expected to hit bottom by spring 2011 and begin a gradual rise in 2012, Frank Nothaft, chief economist and vice president of housing lender Freddie Mac said on Wednesday.

“I do think we’ll see these housing prices bottom out, maybe by the spring,” Nothaft said.

Nothaft presented Freddie Mac’s January 2011 Economic Outlook to reporters at the annual International Builders’ Show in Orlando.

Nothaft predicted that potential home buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines will start to get back into the market. He said this prediction is bolstered by historically low mortgage interest rates and other positive economic indicators, a small drop in the rate of unemployment, increases in purchases of durable goods and a slight slowing of serious delinquencies feeding the glut of foreclosed housing stock.

“This is the time to come in the market if you’ve got the financial resources and wherewithal,” Nothaft said.

However, the housing market will continue to recover unevenly around the country with regions of Florida, Nevada and California continuing to slog through the effects of the economic bust, he said.

Homebuilders and suppliers at the home builder event, where attendance is off nearly 50 percent since the show was staged in Orlando in 2005 through 2008, viewed the forecast through the lenses of their home communities’ experience of the recession.

“I’ve been in a crash for four years,” millwork supplier Jeff Thompson of Vero Beach, Florida, told Reuters. “But I’m almost seeing a glimmer of light in getting new projects.”

“We’ve pretty much already bottomed out,” said Jeffrey Capogrossi, a custom homebuilder from Columbia, South Carolina, said. “Now, how long we’re going to stay flat is hard to tell.”

Custom home builder Robert Leslie said his company in Fargo, North Dakota, never stopped growing through the national housing bust.

“Our markets, if anything, just leveled off for awhile. So now, they’re starting to move up,” he said.

Freddie Mac and the National Association of Home Builders are projecting a 20 to 21 percent increase in new housing starts – from 475,000 in 2010 to 575,000 in 2011, according to Nothaft and David Crowe, the NAHB’s chief economist.

“Twenty percent may sound like a really big increase, but keep in mind it comes off a very low base,” Nothaft said.

Justifying the projection for new housing starts, Crowe said the national inventory of new homes is at a 40-year low. In addition, Crowe estimated that 2 million people who normally would have moved into their own homes stayed put through the recession, many of them young adults who remained in their parents’ homes or continued to share living quarters with roommates.

“We have an enormous pent-up demand for households,” Crowe said.

Thompson believes Florida, one of the hardest hit states, is well positioned for a resurgence as a result of the precipitous fall in housing prices and appraisals. “You put all that together and Florida has become affordable again like back in the 1960s, 70s and 80s,” Thompson said. “I think there are a lot of opportunities that are coming our way. We are on the cusp.”

(Editing by Greg McCune)

The Saturday TAMPA TRIBUNE came out with a strong, well-written objection to Amendment 4.

Suggest you forward this to every Florida voter you know — and SOON!

And come to FGCAR HQ to pick up some yard signs, bumper stickers, and postcard-sized flyers to distribute.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/02/co-a-power-you-should-not-want/news-opinion-editorials/

A power you should not want

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2010

Approval of Amendment 4 would give voters new power to reject local land-use plans at the ballot box. The motive of supporters of this ill-conceived change to the constitution is to make growth decisions more democratic.

Having to vote on every land-use change would slow down economic growth without guaranteeing neighborhoods any real protection from the encroachments they fear most.

The amendment is supported by a group called Hometown Democracy, whose name is itself a false promise. Your home community would have only a minority voice in countywide and citywide land-use decisions.

Under the existing system, community groups have a big impact when they show up in force at public hearings to lobby for their interests. If Amendment 4 is passed, concerned citizens would be faced with organizing a countywide campaign to sway a majority of voters.

If the issue were, for example, where to put a tent city for the homeless, most people wouldn’t care as long as it wasn’t near them. Some of the hottest growth disputes involve rezonings and compatibility issues that wouldn’t be affected by passing Amendment 4, but many more complicated decisions would go on the ballot.

The biggest flaw in requiring everyone to vote on a bewildering list of land-use issues is the difficulty of educating the public. The loudest voices you would hear explaining things would not always be trustworthy.

The assumption that we the people are always smarter than our elected representatives isn’t true on issues requiring lots of homework, such as the proper level of service for rural areas, the right size for setbacks, where to put a new school, and the proper density for a transit-oriented development.

It is hard to imagine how a 20-page, highly technical land-use issue could be reduced to 75 words or less on the ballot. It is even harder to imagine a majority of voters wading in deep enough to understand it and get it right.

We don’t think passage of Amendment 4 would solve any of the legitimate complaints of its supporters.

The Legislature each session comes up with bills designed to weaken growth rules. Passing Amendment 4 would only inspire lawmakers to find more loopholes.

Some local elected officials are influenced by contributions from wealthy land owners and developers. In some jurisdictions growth plans are changed so frequently they lose their backbone. But voters should remember that Amendment 4 only gives veto power, not the power to make growth rules stronger.

Taxpayers in many areas have seen the costs of rampant growth shifted to them and away from those profiting from it. They have seen their roads become congested and their water supplies run low. But Amendment 4 promises no quick fix.

Developers might move their projects to remote areas where no one objects, and thus cause more sprawl and higher public costs.

Those in the stop-growth camp should understand that Amendment 4, while opposed strongly by business groups and city and county organizations, would not be a reliable roadblock to growth. Florida has some 300,000 empty houses and apartments, and many more projects have already won approval.

Amendment 4 seems more likely to discourage desirable new development than to stop the kinds of projects neighborhoods find objectionable. Companies are unlikely to pursue job-creating projects if they are faced with such a costly political hurdle.

In Hillsborough and its three cities, about 30 or 40 land-use changes are proposed each year. The process is time-consuming and deliberate. To add a public vote to each change would slow things down to the point that many developers would just give up and move to another state.

In any case, the unpredictability and expense of running everything past voters would be a significant barrier to progress.

It’s human nature to accept an offer of more power. But once every land-use change appears on the ballot, voters eventually will realize their mistake and repeal it. The best solution is to vote no on Amendment 4 before it brings the state costs and confusion we cannot afford.

Download the Hurricane Guide for Pinellas County by clicking HERE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – June 9, 2010 –Gulf coast property owners impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could get a property tax break. Gov. Charlie Crist wants that issue to be discussed as part of a special session of the Florida Legislature that he hopes to call as early as next month.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink pushed Crist to embrace the tax reduction plan Tuesday as the governor and Cabinet heard presentations about the effects of the massive spill from BP, and state environmental, wildlife and revenue officials.

The economic impact of the spill – which a University of Central Florida economist estimates as potentially $2.2 billion to as much as $10 billion – is proving difficult to gauge.

“This is going to be an incredibly complex legal tangle to untangle, and to ensure that everybody is compensated fairly,” said Sink, who said she’s been advising businesses, individuals and city and county governments to carefully document losses stemming from the encroaching oil.

The tax-break proposal emerged in a joint letter to Crist from property appraisers in the Panhandle’s Santa Rosa and Escambia counties. They said that property owners are likely to endure a loss in value this year because of the spill but will face tax payments this fall based on assessments in place at the start of 2010.

“We are concerned for the taxpayers of our respective counties who are already struggling with the economic downturn and the resulting declining property values,” Gregory Brown, of Santa Rosa, and Chris Jones, of Escambia, told Crist. “When property values decline along the coast due to BP’s negligence, the affected citizens should be allowed some adjustment to their tax burden.”

Tinkering with property taxes is not new. Property tax relief has followed five disasters already, according to Lisa Echeverri, executive director of the state’s Revenue Department. The most recent property-tax break was issued to Central Florida counties battered by tornadoes in 2007.

But those relief efforts may have proved easier to implement. The 2007 legislation offered as much as $1,500 in property-tax reimbursements to residents whose houses were destroyed or heavily damaged in the tornadoes. By contrast, losses stemming from a lack of tourists coming to commercial properties or the diminished value of residential or vacant land may prove tougher to calculate, officials acknowledge.

Similarly, the loss of tax revenue to state and local government caused by the spill could require lawmakers to approve a scheme for distributing dollars coming from BP. The company Tuesday promised Florida another $25 million – on top of an earlier $25 million issued the state.

Crist has sought as much as $200 million from the company to offset damage, for advertising and continued coastal monitoring.

“We’re trying to figure out how the models may need to be adjusted,” Echeverri said of state revenue forecasts that could be shaken by the disaster. Economists were anticipating a $6 billion budget shortfall next year before the Gulf spill changed some variables.

Crist has been pushing lawmakers for a special session in order to create a proposed constitutional amendment to put on the November ballot that would ban oil drilling in Florida waters. So far, the call for a special session has been rejected by House leaders, including incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon (R-Winter Park).

Cannon sponsored legislation in 2009 that would have allowed drilling as close as three miles offshore and this spring conducted public hearings that minimized the risks of oil and gas exploration.

Crist also wants the special session to include a discussion on ways Florida can draw at least 20 percent of its energy needs from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources within 10 years.

But pulling temporary property tax relief into the session may finally give him an issue an otherwise reluctant, Republican-led Legislature can embrace this election year.

May 24, 2010 – Sales of existing homes in Florida rose 27 percent in April, which means that sales activity has increased in the year-to-year comparison for 20 months, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Another positive sign: Last month’s statewide existing-home median price of $140,100 was 1 percent higher than the statewide median price in April 2009.

Existing home sales rose 27 percent last month with a total of 16,781 homes sold statewide compared to 13,244 homes sold in April 2009, according to Florida Realtors. Statewide existing home sales last month increased nearly 3 percent over statewide sales activity in March. Meanwhile, April’s statewide existing-home median price was 2.3 percent higher than March’s statewide existing-home median price of $137,000. It marks the second month in a row that the statewide existing-home median price has increased over the previous month’s median.

“Buyers responding to the federal homebuyer tax credit before it expired helped to boost home sales across Florida,” said 2010 Florida Realtors President Wendell Davis, a broker with Watson Realty Corp. in Jacksonville. “And buying conditions remain favorable, with a variety of housing options available in local markets at attractive and affordable prices. Plus, current mortgage interest rates are at historically low levels, which gives buyers more ‘bang’ for their buck.”

Florida Realtors also reported a 55 percent increase in statewide sales of existing condos in April compared to the previous year’s sales figure; statewide existing condo sales last month rose 2 percent over the total units sold in March. Though April’s statewide existing-condo median price of $103,600 was down 3 percent compared to the year-ago figure, it was 6.9 percent higher than March’s statewide existing-condo median price.

Seventeen of Florida’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) reported increased existing home sales in April while all but one MSA had higher condo sales. A majority of the state’s MSAs have reported increased sales for 22 consecutive months.

Florida’s median sales price for existing homes last month was $140,100; a year ago, it was $138,100 for a 1 percent gain. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.

The national median sales price for existing single-family homes in March 2010 was $170,700, up 0.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). In California, the statewide median resales price was $301,790in March; in Massachusetts, it was $280,000; in Maryland, it was $235,785; and in New York, it was $209,900.

According to NAR’s latest outlook, two trends are influencing a broader stabilization of home prices in housing markets across the nation: months of increased sales activity and lower levels of inventory. “Foreclosures have been feeding into the inventory pipeline at a fairly steady pace and are being absorbed manageably,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “With home values stabilizing, a revival in homebuying confidence will likely help the housing market get back on its feet even as the tax credit impact disappears.”

In Florida’s year-to-year comparison for condos, 7,291 units sold statewide last month compared to 4,703 units in April 2009 for an increase of 55 percent. The statewide existing condo median sales price last month was $103,600; in April 2009 it was $107,200 for a 3 percent decrease. The national median existing condo price was $170,600 in March, according to NAR.

Interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.10 percent in April, up from the average rate of 4.81 percent during the same month a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac. Florida Realtors’ sales figures reflect closings, which typically occur 30 to 90 days after sales contracts are written.

Among the state’s smaller markets, the Panama City MSA reported a total of 128 homes sold in April compared to 108 homes a year earlier for a 19 percent increase. The market’s existing home median sales price last month was $160,000; a year earlier it was $156,800 for an increase of 2 percent. A total of 65 condos sold in the MSA in April compared to 53 units sold the same month a year earlier for an increase of 23 percent. The existing condo median price last month was $187,100; a year earlier, it was $172,900 for an 8 percent gain.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

If you are like many American’s who purchase or refinanced their home during the heat of the real estate boom this could be the program that was designed to help YOU! Over the past 2 years I’ve been working to help many clients who have found themselves upside down and need financial help to correct their housing situation. It’s been a long and hard road for many of these good people whose lives have changed in one way or another.

Finally it looks like our government has taken a step in the right direction to streamline the process of helping these good hardworking people.

There are two program: The first is called HAMP, and this is how it works:
The Home Affordable Modification Program is designed to help as many as 3 to 4 million financially struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure by modifying loans to a level that is affordable for borrowers now and sustainable over the long term. The program provides clear and consistent loan modification guidelines that the entire mortgage industry can use.

Borrower eligibility is based on meeting specific criteria including:
1) borrower is delinquent on their mortgage or faces imminent risk of default
2) property is occupied as borrower’s primary residence
3) mortgage was originated on or before Jan. 1, 2009 and unpaid principal balance must be no greater than $729,750 for one-unit properties.

After determining a borrower’s eligibility, a servicer will take a series of steps to adjust the monthly mortgage payment to 31% of a borrower’s total pretax monthly income:

•First, reduce the interest rate to as low as 2%,
•Next, if necessary, extend the loan term to 40 years,
•Finally, if necessary, forbear (defer) a portion of the principal until the loan is paid off and waive interest on the deferred amount.
Note: Servicers may elect to forgive principal under HAMP on a stand alone basis or before any modification step in order to achieve the target monthly mortgage payment.
The Home Affordable Modification Program includes incentives for borrowers, servicers and investors – For More Info Click Here

If you can’t complete the HAMP program for one or a number of reasons than you maybe (should be able to) go in to the second program call HAFA.

Here is the info on HAFA: How HAFA Can Help

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) Program was designed to complement the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by helping current homeowners with mortgage debt who are eligible for HAMP but still cannot keep their home.

When a borrower applies for help from HAMP, not everyone succeeds with the program. Sometimes their lender is unable to approve a loan modification. Other times the borrower declines the terms of the loan modification. Some borrowers are approved and accept the terms of the modification, but fail to complete the program for various reasons. Before HAFA, these borrowers were usually headed for foreclosure.

HAFA gives those borrowers a viable alternative to foreclosure. If they have or want to find a buyer for their home, they may request approval for a short sale with pre-approval short sale terms and minimum acceptable net proceeds. If not, they may request approval for a deed-in-lieu . When a borrower applies for help with one of the HAFA solutions, the program already has their financial and hardship information from their HAMP application.

HAFA also imposes limits on the lender to help the borrower. Under the terms of this program, a lender must release the borrower from all future liability for the first mortgage debt. The lender may not ask the borrower for cash or a promissory note, and the lender may not ask a court for a deficiency judgment. The program also prohibits the lender from asking the listing real estate agent to discount their commission at the closing of a short sale.

All documents have been standardized and procedures, time frames, and deadlines have been streamlined under HAFA to make the process easier for both borrowers and lenders.

HAFA also provides financial incentives for both borrowers and lenders to participate in the program. Borrowers are entitled to receive $1,500 in relocation assistance , to be paid at closing. Lenders or loan servicers may receive up to $1,000 to help with administrative costs. There are also financial incentives for the lender or investor on the first mortgage to allow some of the proceeds from the sale of the property to be paid to subordinate lienholders.

Finally, participation in the HAFA program puts the foreclosure process on hold for the borrower. The lender may initiate the foreclosure process, but if the borrower is in the middle of the application process, or if any approved short sale or deed-in-lieu agreement has not been completed or reached its deadline, the lender may not complete the foreclosure process.

For more information Click Here

There are a lot of people who need this information so please forward to a friend or RT on twitter

Florida expected to start adding residents again after population decline.

March 3, 2010 – It’s a small bounce, but Florida’s population should rebound this year from its first loss in more than half a century in a hopeful sign for the struggling state economy, new estimates from the University of Florida (UF) show.

The Sunshine State is expected to add about 23,000 residents between April 1, 2009, and April 1, 2010, following a loss of almost 57,000 residents the previous year, according to population projections released yesterday by UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

“Based on changes in electric customer data, we believe Florida’s population has increased slightly over the past year,” says bureau Director Stan Smith who led the research. “This may be an indication the state’s economy is no longer declining at the rate it had been before.”

Although the state’s unemployment rate remains very high, there are signs that the housing market is starting to pick up in a number of places. “It appears the state’s population loss was a one-year occurrence,” he says. “Even so, Florida’s growth will be very slow during the early years of the new decade.”

Not until 2014 or 2015 will the state return to annual population gains that are close to 300,000, the average annual increase over the past 30 to 40 years, Smith said. Population grew by more than 400,000 residents a year during the housing boom between 2003 and 2006.

The economy has such a big impact on Florida’s population growth because it drives migration, Smith says. People in their 20s, 30s and 40s who move to the state for jobs are the largest group of newcomers, followed by retirees and foreign immigrants.

“Even retirees are affected by economic conditions because of the housing market,” he says. “If it’s difficult for them to sell their homes, they may have to delay a retirement move to Florida even if that is what they had been planning to do.”

Due to the bursting of the housing bubble and the severe national recession, Florida lost more than 800,000 jobs between the fall of 2007 and the fall of 2009, and the state unemployment rate rose from about 4 to 11 percent. The declining economy led to a huge slowdown in population growth between 2007 and 2008 and a population loss between 2008 and 2009. The loss was the first since military personnel left the state at the end of World War II.

The bureau estimates the total number of state residents will grow from 18,750,000 to 18,773,000 between April 2009 and April 2010. According to long-term projections, state population is expected to reach approximately 21,247,000 in 2020, 22,574,000 in 2025, 23,821,000 in 2030, and 24,971,000 in 2035.

The biggest numerical increases forecast between 2010 and 2035 are in large counties. Orange County is projected to add the most new residents, 512,200; followed by Hillsborough, 471,800; and Miami-Dade, 457,200.

“Population growth has a lot of momentum in the sense that places that have been growing rapidly in one time period tend to grow rapidly in the following time period as well,” Smith says. “Large markets attract businesses and have more opportunities to draw job seekers. Also, migrants are often attracted by social and family connections with people who moved to an area previously.”

In terms of percentage increases, the biggest leaders over the next quarter century are projected to be Sumter and Flagler counties, growing by 111 percent and 109 percent, respectively.

“The main driving force to Sumter County’s growth is The Villages, a huge retirement community that has been adding a large numbers of residents,” Smith says. “Flagler County also has added a lot of retirees but has a rapidly growing working-age population as well.”

Monroe is the only county projected to lose population over the next 25 years, declining by about 4 percent. The county has little vacant land that can be developed and the area has a high cost of living. Some counties are expected to grow quite slowly, such as Pinellas, with an expected quarter century population increase of less than 2 percent. As the state’s most densely populated county, it has little available space.