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Tag: home sales

Save our homes

Written by Louise Bolger on . Posted in Business, Castles in the Sand.

This column should be titled “Save our Taxes,” since that’s what we’re really talking about. However, saving on property taxes is part of the Save Our Homes benefits and portability transfers are another piece of this law.

In January of 2008, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that allows homeowners the ability to move an existing homestead exemption to a new homestead. If you are moving, you may be able to transfer or “port” all or part of your homestead assessment difference.

To transfer the Save Our Homes Benefit, you must establish a homestead exemption for the new home within three years of Jan. 1 of the year you abandoned or sold the old homestead. You must file the Transfer of Homestead Assessment Difference Form with the homestead exemption application. The amount of your portability will be reflected on your Notice of Proposed Property Taxes that is mailed in mid-August. If you do not qualify for portability, you will be notified by certified mail no later than July 1.

A portability exemption can be used each time you move and establish a new homestead, and it can be applied for if your new homestead is a higher value than your old homestead or if the just value of your new homestead property is less than the just value of your old homestead. The law was enacted in order to free up homeowners to move on from their homestead properties with low taxes and still protect to some degree the amount of taxes they pay.

The calculation is not straightforward and there are caps to consider. If you don’t yet have a property ready to purchase or have already purchased, you will not know for sure what the benefit will be right away. On the Manatee County Property Appraiser website under Exemptions/Portability, you will find a calculator and more information about this benefit. I found it was a challenge to calculate without knowing the exact purchase price and assessed value of the new property; nevertheless, it will give you an idea of the process.

Based on February sales statistics for Manatee County reported by the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, we are at a balanced market or getting very close to one:

Single-family homes closed 8.7% more properties from last February. The median sale price was $499,990, up 2%, and the average sale price was $722,563, up 13%. Median time to sale was 102 days compared to 88 days last year and there were 53.5% more new listings leaving us with a 4.2 month supply of properties.

Condos closed 0.5% more properties from last February. The median sale price was $349,493, down 5.5%, and the average sale price was $385,521, down 11.5%. Median time to sale was 93 days compared to 67 days last year and there were 28.1% more new listings, leaving us with a 6.2 month supply of available properties. Six months of availability has traditionally been considered a normal market.

Now that the market is adjusting to the benefit of buyers and sellers, utilizing the option of tax portability becomes even more valuable. Save our taxes will also save our homes ultimately, so enjoy another tax benefit Florida offers. You do need to wade through the paperwork, but it’s worth it.

Castles in the Sand

Sense of urgency, you think?

Written by Louise Bolger on . Posted in Business, Castles in the Sand.

One of the biggest understatements I’ve heard recently is that buyers are starting to feel a sense of urgency. If they’re just starting to feel a sense of urgency, where have they been for the last year? The urgency isn’t going to get any better.

With the recent rapid rise in interest rates, economists are forecasting a frenzied first half of the buying year and a somewhat calmer second half. I’m not sure that’s going to make buyers feel any better. U.S. home sales surged to a 15-year high in 2021 and with the leftover, pent-up desire for homes, 2022 could just be a redo of the previous year.

Although it’s true rates are going up, they are still very low compared to other times in history, as I pointed out last week. Some buyers will feel it, but many will just absorb the extra monthly carrying costs as part of the new reality.

In our neck of the woods, the 2021 Sarasota and Manatee housing market was a record-breaking year of sales. The Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee reported that December ended “in line with the upward trend that has been visible throughout the last quarter: higher prices, lower inventory and fewer sales than the same month in the previous year.” Most months during the year ended with increased median sales prices, including December, which broke the previous record set in November.

Although prices in the last month of 2021 broke previous records, the combined closed sales of all property types in both counties decreased by 14.3%. For single-family homes in Sarasota County, sales were down 19.4% and in Manatee County down by 8.1%. Condo sales were also down by 17.3% in Sarasota and down by 9.5% in Manatee.

In both counties, 100% of homes sold at or above the original list price. They also sold fast, with the median time from listing date to contract date reported at seven days for single-family homes and condos combined for the two counties. Also, comparing 2020 to 2021, the total number of closed sales increased by 14.9% for the combined counties.

Finally, cash sales were the way to go in 2021 for both counties, accounting for 57.3% of all single-family sales for the year. For all condo sales in the two counties, 40.2% were closed with cash.

Since the Sarasota/Manatee housing region is frequently looked at as one entity, it’s important to report what is going on in Sarasota, since it does influence Manatee, as well.

It’s undeniable that Sarasota and Manatee counties are two of the areas at the top of the real estate heap in Florida. All of the state is doing well, and the Tampa Bay region, as previously reported, is slated to be number one in the country in 2022, according to Zillow.

Unfortunately, buyers are still in the untenable position of having to make quick decisions about one of the biggest investments and purchases in their lives. And sellers are hesitant to sell because they fear having trouble finding a new home because of short supply and higher interest rates associated with a new mortgage.

Call it a sense of urgency or just call it what it really is – a new normal, at least for this year. But then we’ve had a lot of new normal recently, haven’t we?