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Castles in the Sand

Business, Castles in the Sand, Real estate | Development

Castles in the Sand: Sunny-side Up

Jan 5, 2026 – Louise Bolger
November 18, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Everything old is new again

How much faith do you have in the Federal Reserve continuing to cut rates? It’s not often we believe what our government tells us, but this time, there is a fair amount of faith among borrowers. In t…
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November 11, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Can you put yourself on the market?

If you lived in a waterfront condo and a developer offered you fair market value for your unit – and everyone else in the building – what would you do? There are condo owners who are being faced wit…
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November 4, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Let there be light

It doesn’t seem possible that we were blessed with a mild hurricane season and a drop in interest rates practically within the same month. But so far, home sales and a quiet hurricane season are both…
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November 2, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Are you planning on outliving your mortgage?

In the olden days right after World War II when houses were coming out of the ground like spring flowers, homebuyers were typically in their 20s and fully intended to pay off their mortgages. Now, ho…
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October 27, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Cool market, maybe?

All national and local publications and real estate websites cover the real estate market. And as I’ve said many times, all real estate is local, so a small town on Big Sur in California will be wild…
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October 21, 2025
By Louise Bolger

For sale: Haunted house

Every year I try and write a light column at the end of October about disclosure of what I’ll call “stigma­tized properties.” Last year, I skipped this topic for about three weeks since most of us we…
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October 14, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Mortgage rates: How did we get here?

On Sept. 17, when the Feds lowered the benchmark rate, I thought, about time. Although the ¼ point reduction wasn’t enough to bring buyers out of the closet, it was the Feds’ promise of two more rate…
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October 6, 2025
By Louise Bolger

What are capital gains?

I’m always surprised when I talk to people who have owned a home for maybe decades but have no clue what their tax responsibility will be if they sell that property. No one wants to think about givin…
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September 16, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Signs of a real estate turnaround

Did you hear it? Did you hear buyers and sellers, and, of course, real estate professionals slightly exhal­ing the breath they have been holding for over a year now? There are definite signs that…
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September 1, 2025
By Louise Bolger

Are we stuck in place?

I wrote a column that came out on Aug. 20 talking about moving trends around the country focusing on Florida and Manatee County. This week I’m going to talk about how mobility around the country is s…
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Upcoming Events

April 9, 2025
11:45 am

The Off-Stage Ladies of the Island Players, April luncheon meeting