The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 12 No. 35 - June 13, 2012

REAL ESTATE

Real estate’s mixed messages

 

My brain is on fire and yours should be too. With all the mixed messages we’ve been getting about the health of the country’s housing market, it’s enough to melt what’s left of your brain cells.

If you follow the real estate statistics and the analysts who interpret the statistics, it’s hard to find any consistency. For example during the month of May, I found five different reports in a variety of publications related to the housing market, all with a slightly different take.

One headline said “Housing ends slide but faces a long bottom.” This piece stated that after almost six years of falling home prices, the market appears to be near the bottom. It continues that being at the bottom is certainly not the same as a real recovery, rather just a prolonged bottom. Sounds not too bad until the end where they take away the glimmer of hope you allowed yourself to have and say there is still plenty that can go wrong, so don’t get too excited.

The next one totally disagreed with the long bottom theory. Based on the April numbers, new home sales, which account for 10 percent of housing inventory, rose 3.3 percent from March to April and were up 9.9 percent from a year ago. In addition, previously owned homes have also shown gains rising 3.4 percent in April from the previous month. In addition, the median price for new homes was up 5 percent from a year ago, no percentage in this piece about resale prices, which we have to assume were down. Starting to see the problem?

Moving on, I loved the headline “Stunned home buyers find the bidding wars are back.” The only problem with this is that bidding wars in today’s market are significantly different than bidding wars during the go go real estate years. Today’s bidding wars are the result of tighter inventory in certain select markets, probably because sellers have chosen to keep their properties off the market hoping the trend reverses before they must sell. The bottom line is even lucky homeowners who have more than one buyer making offers on their home will still be looking at selling for prices far lower than a few years ago.

Next we have “Housing market crawls back.” This left me with the image of a bunch of houses with little legs on their knees climbing uphill. Apparently the image they wanted to convey was that housing prices, although they fell in March, didn’t fall as much as in earlier months. I think the term for that is spin. If nothing else, it’s certainly a measure of how bad the housing slump has been that a flat index is seen as good news.

Finally in mid-May, the Wall Street Journal ran a special section on personal finance. The real estate question asked was “Is now the time to buy your first house?” and I sincerely hope that anyone who is actually thinking of buying their first home will not read this. The very qualified economists who shared their opinions in this section were exactly opposite in their advice.

The “Yes: It’s a rare opportunity,” expert said this could be the best time in a generation to be a first time home buyer. He supported his theory pointing to rock bottom mortgage rates and housing prices.

The“ No: The fall isn’t over” guy said if you buy now you have to be willing to lose 20 percent of the market value in the next several years or more. His view is that shadow inventory in the form of future foreclosures and sellers who have thus far been holding back is a bad indicator. Once these properties come on the market, values will not have a chance of recovering.

Real Estate Transactions
Real Estate Transfers from May 1 through 31
Sponsored by Alan Galletto Island Real Estate

Sold Date | List Price | Sold Price | Address | Provision | Property Style

Anna Maria

05/01/2012 469,000 435,000 830 N. Shore Drive 1467 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/07/2012 599,000 550,000 521 Loquat Drive 3246 75x102 3 Br/3.5 Ba SFR
05/09/2012 597,500 550,000 405 Pine Ave. 1930 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/09/2012 479,000 435,000 614 Rose St. 1552 50x100 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/11/2012 499,900 450,000 314 Spring Ave. 1620 52x145 4 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/15/2012 593,900 495,000 428 Pine Ave. 1258 52x110nyte 2 Br/1.5 Ba SFR
05/17/2012 549,000 500,000 408 Poinsettia Road 2288 67x103 4 Br/3 Ba SFR
05/18/2012 449,000 437,500 522 South Drive 1111 60x110 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/21/2012 599,000 585,000 111 Peppertree Lane 1680 83x106 3 Br/1.5 Ba SFR
05/25/2012 575,000 542,500 113 Peppertree Lane 1998 50x106 3 Br/2.5 Ba SFR
05/31/2012 394,000 327,500 607 N. Bay Blvd. 1188 50x100 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/04/2012 649,000 625,000 2 Park Bte III Ave. 06x95 Vac.
05/11/2012 369,000 335,000 115 N. Bay Blvd. 5 6x110 Vac.

Bradenton Beach

05/04/2012 495,000 440,000 1007 Gulf Drive N. # 103 1836 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/18/2012 119,000 105,000 2315 Avenue C # 3 488 1 Br/1 Ba Condo
05/18/2012 239,000 229,000 1801 Gulf Drive N. # 285 1080 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/18/2012 94,900 84,000 117 7th St. N. # 27 594 1 Br/1 Ba Condo
05/24/2012 244,500 230,000 1801 Gulf Drive N. # 235 1080 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/25/2012 264,900 250,000 1801 Gulf Drive N. # 287 1080 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/02/2012 349,000 332,000 104 2nd St. N. 1248 2 Br/1 Ba SFR
05/14/2012 249,000 225,000 2601 Gulf Drive N. # 102 1000 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/30/2012 375,000 330,000 1461 Gulf Drive N. # 12 1524 3 Br/2.5 Ba TH
05/25/2012 244,780 272,000 502 Gulf Drive N.# 104 735 1 Br/1 Ba Inc., Short Sale

Cortez

05/21/2012 419,900 380,000 3850 Mariners Walk, #713 1762 2 Br/1 Ba Condo
05/31/2012 99,000 83,000 10004 Cortez Road # 214 754 2 Br/1 Ba Condo
05/24/2012 849,000 775,000 12413 Baypointe Terrace 3198 3 Br/2.5 Ba SFR

Holmes Beach

05/24/2012 369,000 349,000 6925 Holmes Blvd. 960 45x88 2 Br/2 Ba 1/2 Dup.
05/29/2012 300,000 280,000 203 70th St. # A 1008 45x102 2 Br/1 Ba 1/2 Dup, Short Sale
05/02/2012 239,000 260,000 3801 E. Bay Drive 110 2316 4 Br/3 Ba Condo, Short Sale
05/03/2012 229,000 200,000 4001 Gulf Drive # 105 1106 2 Br/2.5 Ba Condo
05/09/2012 349,900 325,000 6500 Flotilla Drive # 185 1185 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/11/2012 219,000 195,000 727 Manatee Ave. # 24 1179 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/15/2012 645,000 620,000 5808 Gulf Drive N. # 209 1048 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/16/2012 429,000 411,000 3806 6th Ave. # 3806 1725 3 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/23/2012 650,000 607,000 5300 Gulf Drive # 205 1516 3 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/25/2012 189,900 183,000 4307 Gulf Drive # 103 1027 2 Br/2 Ba Condo
05/31/2012 299,000 273,000 3803 E. Bay Drive # 7 2350 4 Br/3 Ba Condo
05/01/2012 759,900 705,000 515 56th St. 1643 108x129 3 Br/2.5 Ba SFR
05/07/2012 489,900 480,000 507 72nd St. 1732 93x125 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/08/2012 565,000 540,000 524 69th St. 1803 80x113 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/11/2012 1,149,000 1,149,000 505 68th St. 3600 90x101 4 Br/4.5 Ba SFR
05/11/2012 349,000 348,500 2715 Gulf Drive 1280 50x100 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/15/2012 449,000 425,000 510 Key Royale Drive 1441 96x101 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/18/2012 435,000 402,000 306 67th St. 1134 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/18/2012 549,000 520,000 215 81st St. 2020 2 Br/2.5 Ba SFR
05/21/2012 899,000 831,000 217 64th St. 2600 50x117 5 Br/3.5 Ba SFR
05/21/2012 449,000 405,000 303 62nd St. # A 1200 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/24/2012 435,000 410,000 302 67th St. 1716 100x100 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/25/2012 539,000 534,000 7906 Marina Drive 1884 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/25/2012 439,000 405,000 301 72nd St. 1800 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/30/2012 749,000 740,000 8325 Marina Drive 1848 85x102 3 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/30/2012 334,900 315,000 604 Ambassador Lane 1256 85x102 2 Br/2 Ba SFR
05/31/2012 549,000 549,000 206 56th St. # A 2456 4 Br/3.5 Ba TH, Short Sale
05/10/2012 3,250,000 3,250,000 103 77th St. # A 13280 Irregular 4 Br/4 Ba Inc.
05/25/2012 219,900 199,000 3010 Gulf Drive 1760 50x105 3 Br/1 Ba Inc.
05/01/2012 759,900 705,000 515 56th St. 1592 127x131x7x117 3 Br/2 Ba Vac.

Source: Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office


AMISUN ~ The Island's Award-Winning Newspaper