Centerline Building More Communities

Centerline Homes, a 15-year-old Coral Springs-based home builder that has been more active than ever in the Orlando area in recent years, is preparing to open two more communities in west Orange County.

One is called Preston Square, in Windermere. The other is Summerlake, in the big master-planned development near Winter Garden known as Horizon West. Click here for more information

Tax Break for taking a Mortgage

The break, called the qualified mortgage insurance deduction, lets taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of less than $100,000 write off the full cost of mortgage insurance. Folks who earn less than $109,000 can take a write-off for part of it.
Full Articles, please click here.

Morrison New Build Incentives

New-home sales are slower than builders would like, but discounts and deals and heavy marketing are beginning to show results, some builders report.

Taylor Morrison, the home builder and community developer created from the merger of Morrison Homes and Taylor Woodrow, for example, reports that its Central Florida sales in October and November were stronger than expected as incentives tap into pent-up demand.

Taylor Morrison builds single-family and town homes in 15 Orlando-area communities.
The various incentive packages now include a "Home for the Holidays" bonus worth $2,500 off the price of any new Taylor Morrison built home in any of the builder's Orlando-area subdivisions.

Maitland is the company's regional headquarters. Morrison had been considering making Maitland its national headquarters, with a move from the Atlanta area, until the merger took place and Taylor gained control.

Nemours Children's Hospital Moving

Nemour Children's Hospital was to be with the cluster of hospital to make up "Medical City" in Orlando near Lake Nona, has decided to purchase 118 acre tract of land near Boggy Creek Road instead. The CEO decide that this new location will give them much more needed land, than the 37 acre land at Lake Nona.

New Developement in Minneola

Minneola, a small town located just north of Clermont, and about 45-50 minutes from downtown Orlando is getting a new 700 home community spread called Minneola Ridge, to go along with other new development of Hills of Minneola a 4,000 home community next to Sugar Loaf Mountain a 2,000 home community. Commercial growth, and schools will occur with the residential developments.

Orlando Real Estate Comparison with Florida

Orlando recorded more single-family existing-home sales during the third quarter than any of Florida's other metropolitan areas except the far-larger Tampa-St. Petersburg market, an industry report showed Wednesday.

Sales in Orlando's four-county metro area were still down 39 percent from a year ago, when the market was cooling but still far hotter than it is now, the Florida Association of Realtors reported. But the 4,005 homes sold by Realtors in Metro Orlando bested all other metro areas except Tampa-St. Petersburg, which recorded 5,913 resales of single-family homes. Click Here for full story. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-homesales2207nov22,0,3513721.story

Blue Rose Condo-Hotel

Construction was supposed to begin this year on the Blue Rose, a massive condominium hotel planned for Universal Boulevard near the Orange County Convention Center. But plans are on hold for now. The developers are no longer writing sales contracts for units, priced at $350,000 or more. Instead, they are taking reservations that can be converted into contracts in the future. The project doesn't have a date for breaking ground, either. A project sales executive acknowledges the slump in the condo-hotel market but says the delays are largely due to internal issues and changing plans. She said pre-sales activity would resume when a firmer schedule is approved. The 1,600-room, three-tower project won't open until late 2011 at the earliest -- two years later than originally announced. Orlando is noted to have the 3 largest condo-hotel market.

Star Tower Condomimum

Star Towner Condominum another completed addition to Downtown Orlando Real Estate. This 100 unit condo tower is 80% sold out and ready for closing and resident move in. This building is located at 260 Osceola Avenue, and developers believe it well positioned for success with location and amount of residential and job growth increasing.

New Movie Theater In Downtown Orlando

As part of downtown Orlando's new multibillion dollar makeover, AMC Entertainment will be opening a new 12 screen movie theater on Orange Avenue, much needed thing for downtown's growing residential population. It goes along with the redevelopment of adding a Publix grocery store, new performing arts center, and renovated Citrus Bowl will make residential living an attractive option.

October Real Estate Market Statistics

Orlando Regional Realtor Association complied the latest October 2007 statistics.

• Average mortgage rate 6.21%
• Inventory: 26,330
• New Listings: 4,958
• New Contracts: 1,304
• Under Contract: 1,923
• Back on the Market: 310 Days
• Expired: 1,969
• Withdrawn: 2,181
• Sales Closed: 1,034
• Average Days on Market: 112

For historical statistics please click here: http://www.orlrealtor.com/Pages/marketpulse/MarketPulse1107.pdf

Florida Economic Forecasts

Florida Econmist came together to discuss forecasts although no hard numbers were presented.

Econmist indicates they do not expect the housing market to further weaken, but will take time into 2009 for full recovery.

State toursim industry indicates that tourism has been flat during 2007, and steady due to the strong value for Europeans and Canadians. High oil prices have held back domestic tourism.

Governor Charlie Crist predict the homestead portability proposal change will stimulate the housing market. Although other experts predict it to have a marginal positive impact.

Mercedes Homes Offering New Concept

Mercedes homes is building a new townhome community off Airport Blvd. in Sanford called Windsor Lakes will be opening a new swimming pool, cabana, and pushing an amenities center which will be featured in all town home communities throughout Central Florida. Windsor Lakes will be 203 townhome community.

Orlando Real Estate Doing Better than Others

Despite the slow down in real estate sales Orlando is still attactive to buyers. Based on number of sales Orlando is second best behind Tampa in September. Orlando sold twice as many homes in September than Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.

40 Million American Moved in 2006

The Census Bureau is reporting 14% of the popluation or 39.8 million people moved between 2005-2006. Here are some of the results:

• 18.4 Million or nearly half moved because they wanted a bigger or smaller home
• West US had the highest moving rate at 16%, followed by South at 15%, the Midwest at 13% and Northeast at 10%
• 30% of renters moved from another rental and 7% of owner occupied moved
• 62% moved within the same county, and 20% moved to a different county, 14% moved to a different state, and 3% moved abroad

Orlando Unemployment Rate

Orlando's Unemployment Rate is 4.0 percent in September, holding steady from August at 4.0 percent. This means 373,000 more jobless out of 9,270,000 work force. The nations unemployment rate is 4.7 percent. Orlando added 22,700 jobs in the past year. Florida has one of the lowest unemployment rates.

Lake Nona Room to Grow & Growing

The Lake Nona development in southeast Orlando is on solid ground financially, owned as it is by British billionaire Joe Lewis and controlled by his Tavistock Group Inc. in Windermere.

Just as importantly, it has plenty of real ground.

"We have more land mass than Winter Park," said Robert Adams, vice president of marketing for Lake Nona Golf & Country Club. The club is the crown jewel of the 7,000-acre spread, but it's just a tiny piece in the treasure chest of Lake Nona, now 21 years old.

These are slower times for local builders and developers, so the backing of a billionaire helps ensure Lake Nona's long-term success.

Many residential developers are scrambling for customers, cutting home prices and giving away cruises to get people to tour their empty models. Lake Nona, by contrast, is preparing the ground for a medical school, a veterans hospital, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a town center, and a 500-acre science-and-technology office park. Plus lots of homes.

There's room for about 20,000 people, in addition to the 1,000 homes already occupied, most of them since Tavistock took control in 1997.

The company-owned community has so much land, it recently donated 334 acres to Orlando for a city park.

That's eight times bigger than Lake Eola Park, at 43 acres, and 11 percent larger than the city's previous largest public playground, the 300-acre Turkey Lake Park on the southwest side of town."

All roads lead to Lake Nona," said Adams, speaking last week at the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties' monthly meeting at the Sheraton Downtown Orlando. "That's because all roads lead to the [Orlando International] Airport. And we're right next to the airport."

That doesn't hurt.

Adams said Tavistock Managing Director Rasesh Thakkar, Lewis' right-hand man in Orlando, had been scheduled to speak at the association meeting but was asked at the last minute by University of Central Florida President John Hitt to accompany him to the state capital to meet with lawmakers about UCF projects at Lake Nona. Courtesy Orlando Sentinel 10/1/07.

New Development by Mercedes Homes

In the Orlando area, Shingle Creek is known as the small, southerly stream where hotelier Harris Rosen recently opened his lavish Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. Elsewhere in Florida, Shingle Creek is recognized as part of the northernmost headwaters for rainwater flowing south from Orange and Osceola counties to the Everglades.

Now Central Florida-based Mercedes Homes has started work on a 104-home subdivision near the slow-moving creek. Shingle Creek Reserve at The Oaks is located off John Young Parkway and Pleasant Hill Road in Kissimmee.

This morning, Cristina Quintana, the recently appointed president of the Brevard County-based builder's Orlando division, said that a Jacqueline Bay model home has been built and is now open for public inspection.

She said two more models will be opened by mid-October.Homes in the development will range from 1,978 square feet to 4,295 square feet, and will be priced from the $290,000s, which is well below the region's average sale price for production-built subdivisions last year, according to industry surveys. Merecedes Home is the nations 28th largest builder. Courtesy of Orlando Sentinel 9/20/07.

Brokerage Firm Auction off $100 million in Real Estate

Orlando-based brokerage IDX Realty will auction off an estimated $100 million in property early next month in one of the largest local auctions of its kind in the slumping real estate sales market.

This auction, scheduled for Oct. 6, will be conducted both in person at an Orlando hotel as well as online for potential buyers who cannot attend in person or perhaps prefer the newer technique involving a few clicks of a computer keyboard.

IDX broker Christopher Sampson said he has lined up sellers from Florida and four other states who want to unload their properties fast in a mega-sized, one-day sale.

The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Double Tree Suites Hotel in Orlando, and online at the same time at idxpa.com.

Sampson said there have been lots of real estate auctions in the past and more announced every day because of the anemic sales environment, "but very few, if any, to this degree and magnitude involving so many properties at one time." The properties for sale run from vacant land and commercial buildings to multimillion-dollar estate homes.

The more than 60 properties in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey are being sold by investors, builders with too much inventory, lenders with foreclosed property, Realtors and regular homeowners who need to liquidate assets.

The IDX web site lists many of the properties so buyers can perform their due diligence analysis in advance. Most properties have a video, virtual tour or a slide show, as well as satellite map imaging to show the home's exact location. All listed properties have been appraised and the various home and termite inspections have been completed.

All registered bidders will be eligible to bid during the auction. Typical auction purchase contracts limit the contingencies a seller allows a buyer, although many sellers are providing incentives such as paying closing costs. Buyers are required to pay a deposit of 10 percent of the final sale price at the end of the auction, with closings generally set 30 to 45 days after the auction. Courtesy of Orlando Sentinel 9/20/07.

Subrime Lenders Yank Popular Loan

Lenders have abruptly stopped offering the most popular type of subprime mortgage. Credit-challenged borrowers suddenly have fewer options.

"Many borrowers are not going to be able to refinance," says Deborah Goldstein, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending. The consumer watchdog group has criticized loose standards for subprime mortgages, which are home loans for people with problem credit -- generally, with credit scores below 620.

Over the past few years, the most common type of subprime loan has been an adjustable-rate mortgage known as the 2/28 ARM. Since mid-July, five of the six biggest subprime mortgage lenders stopped offering 2/28 ARMs. Suddenly, there's a shortage of the type of mortgage preferred by about 60 percent of subprime borrowers.

For more details and information on refinancing options for subprime loans, click http://www.bankrate.com/baw/news/mortgages/subprime_20070726_a1.asp

Builders Offering New Incentives to Buy

One of the holdups for many new-home sales these days is that the buyers may be stuck trying to sell their current homes. Now one major local builder is trying to get around that with a "no-payment-for-six-months plan."Mercedes Homes, through its mortgage subsidiary MHi Mortgage, will pay a home buyer's new mortgage for as long as six months while the buyer completes the sale of an existing property. The program differs from more limited ones in that Mercedes Homes, based in Melbourne, will pay all four parts: principal, interest, taxes and insurance.Loan amounts can range as high as $417,000, and for owner-occupied deals as much as 95 percent financing is available, along with other seller incentives, according to Sue Stewart, president of MHi Mortgage.Buyers must have a minimum credit score of 660 to be eligible. Courtesy of Orlando Sentinel.