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Louise Bolger

Louise Bolger

August 17, 2017
Louise Bolger is The Sun’s Real Estate columnist.
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July 11, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Homeowners consider renting in tight market

The majority of people in my generation and even those decades younger couldn’t wait to stop paying rent. It was drummed into our brains by our parents and grandparents that paying rent was a waste o…
July 4, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Mortgage interest rates rising again

Here’s a little perspective on the continuing increase of the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. Several months ago, I did an analysis of the average fixed-rate mortgage rates starting in 1971 recorded on…
June 28, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Homebuyers getting hit every day

Buying a home was once a happy time for families. Homes were plentiful to choose from, and imagining your grandmother’s credenza in the dining room and the Christmas tree in the living room f…
June 21, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Condo living getting more complicated

Florida is the mecca for condo living. East coast, west coast, the Panhandle, Orlando – no matter where you go in Florida, it’s likely you will trip over a condominium complex. However, the carefree…
June 13, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Money flowing into Florida

I recently read an interesting historical novel about the wealthy landowners in the South in the years just before the Civil War. These privileged folks moved their entire households, including their…
June 6, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Tallahassee finally at work

Just when you think it’s hopeless, there is a sliver of hope. The special session of the Florida Legislature is finally getting some changes on the books related to condominium recertification and ho…
May 30, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Can’t be, not again – it’s hurricane season

As we get older, the years tick by more quickly – or so it seems – and here we are again looking down the barrel of the 2022 North Atlantic hurricane season cannon. As usual, Colorado State Universi…
May 23, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Insurance and affordability

It’s the week to report the April sales statistics for Manatee County; it’s also the week where the Florida Legislature may be going into a special session to address the out-of-control property insu…
May 16, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Are you noticing the mortgage interest rates?

My April 20 column was titled “The end of an era,” the era being one of ultra-low mortgage interest rates. In that column I reported that the current average mortgage interest rate was 4.72%, a rate…
May 8, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Condo takeovers

Condo termination. Those are fighting words to condo owners who are living in prime waterfront locations in Florida. However, it’s going on right now in Southeast Florida, all because of the collapse…
April 30, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Is it worth the walk?

Many years ago, my husband and I were in Athens, Greece, and on our way down from touring the sights at the top of Acropolis Hill, someone stopped us and asked, “Was it worth the walk?” After my init…
April 24, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Does anyone know what’s going on?

I recently spent a weekend with some good friends, all of whom were either involved in real estate sales or still are. Naturally, there was a lot of conversation about soaring home values both here i…
April 18, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

The end of an era

It’s so sad when eras end. We had the end of the hard-wired phone and even though you can still have one, no one will admit it. We had the end of the standard-shift car. The end of the manual typewri…
April 10, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Addictive real estate

Of all the things we can become addicted to in our difficult world, real estate is probably one of the safer vices. Or is it? Wanting to see how other people live has been around forever. Certainl…
April 3, 2022
By Louise Bolger
Castles in the Sand

Florida insurance reform – not

At the end of March, the Florida Legislature ended its session with an April Fools’ to every homeowner in the state. The legislators could not come to an agreement on passing insurance reform in t…