Everyone Loves Trible!

Just broke out a new slogan today. I've been using "True Professional" which really is the best way to describe my real estate career but it falls short of a great slogan and doesn't help anyone remember ME. And it is all about me!

So, introducing my new slogan: "Everyone Loves Trible!" It's not completely true, tons of people don't like me. I'm often too honest, too straight forward and some people just don't like that. But my wife is a Trible and there's a bunch of people that love her too!

I'll blog about it a bit more later. But for now, tell your friends, "Everyone Loves Trible!"

Real Estate and Bad News

"When are we going to catch a break?" Actually, it's more like, "when will the news people pick on someone else?" So there is that whole BP oil rig disaster leaking millions of barrels a day. It's been over a month and there is no sign of it coming towards the Florida Keys but that hasn't stopped the news people from reporting "tar balls" and "sludge sightings" on the front page of the papers and the news tickers, etc. We've been inundated with education on how the loop current will doom us all by transporting the oil through the Keys, into Miami and up the eastern seaboard. Ironically, not on the front page, there are just as credible scientists who insists the oil will never actually make it's way this far south. Why are the news people so dang negative?

It'd be a real horrible thing IF oil reached our beaches and mangroves but why are we panicking so much, so early? I'm of the mindset to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. Seems like everyone else would just like to freak out.

June 1st starts the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane season and NOAA has forecasted a slightly above average probability of hurricane encounters. On average there are 11 named storms, this year they think there might be 12. What's troubling though, is the news anchors interpolation of this forecast compared to the 2005 hurricane predictions. In 2005 there was more than double the number of named storms than they had predicted so CNN will tell you that we should expect twice as many named storms THIS year than has been predicted.

If this isn't all just the worst, wait - there's more! All of the "experts" are coming out of the wood work to commentate on the idea of the what-if scenario of a hurricane - oil spill super blow out. Obviously all of the experts disagree with each other on what might happen but the only thing we know for sure is that we don't know. That and now everyone is afraid of moving here!!! Thanks national news media...

The truth is, if it wasn't a great time to buy before it sure is now! Sellers are lowering their prices, buyers (the competition) are getting cold feet and the deals are out there. We have a natural lull in the real estate market this time of year in the Keys so while most people down here are fearing fear itself, there are a few highly intelligent buyers grabbin' up some great deals. I know, I represent them!

Things are good and business is great!

BP gives Florida $25 million for beach ads

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – May 18, 2010 – British Petroleum (BP) agreed Monday to give Florida $25 million to pay for an advertising campaign promising that the state's beaches remain open and fishing is going strong as the company struggles to staunch a massive oil spill off Louisiana's Gulf Coast.

The cash is on top of $25 million the company pledged earlier to offset the state's costs for preparing coastal regions for a possible landfall of the oil. The spill continues to grow roughly 350 miles from the St. Petersburg shoreline.

The announcement came following a meeting at the Florida Capitol between BP chief executive officer Tony Hayward and Gov. Charlie Crist. Hayward also said $15 million each in tourism grants will be distributed to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

"The big focus now is on how do we get the people of the Gulf Coast back to normal operations, the normal way of life," said Hayward, who admitted to a British newspaper last week that he assumes his $6 million-a-year job is on the line over the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster.

Hayward echoed Crist in suggesting a theme for the state's post-spill marketing campaign: "Florida is open for business. The beaches are open and clean. The fish are biting, and everything is normal down here," said Hayward.

Last week, Crist said the company should pay the state almost $25 million for a marketing campaign and another $10 million grant to help Gulf Coast counties respond to the sharp drop in hotel bookings and visitors since the April 20 rig accident. Last week, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association President Carol Dover said summer bookings along the Panhandle coast had dropped from their usual 90 percent occupancy levels into the teens, despite industry efforts to calm fears by waiving deposit deadlines and making cancellations easier if oil actually came ashore.

Dover said that with tourists staying away, "businesses have truly hit the 911 button."

The grants BP announced Monday come on top of the roughly $525 million – about $17.5 million a day – the company has spent trying to cap the broken well and cleanup efforts along four states' coastlines. During the first quarter of the year, London-based BP's profits averaged $93 million a day, according to media reports.

Hayward, however, was buoyed by signs Monday that the company had begun to contain the leak, which has been pumping more than 200,000 gallons of oil daily into the Gulf. BP said it is drawing about one-quarter of the escaping oil into a tanker ship, using a mile-long tube as a funnel. It also is preparing to attempt to "kill" the blown-out well in coming days, using mud and debris as a cork.

"We have achieved some considerable success," Hayward said. "We are very confident we have contained the spill in the vicinity of the leak … I do feel that we have, for the first time, turned the corner in this challenge."

Researchers, however, remain concerned that the oil congealing in the Gulf could reach a major ocean current that carries it through the Florida Keys and along the East Coast.

Kathy Torian, a Visit Florida spokeswoman, said the state had already planned a $2.5 million advertising buy to promote the state's Gulf beaches chiefly to a "drive-time" market stretching through much of the Southeast. But she said the additional BP cash will allow the state to expand the campaign into major national metropolitan markets, with online, newspaper and television advertising in the U.S. and international markets, primarily Great Britain and Germany.

Source: News Service of Florida, John Kennedy

Florida’s existing home, condo sales up in 1Q 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. – May 11, 2010 — Sales of existing single-family homes in Florida rose 24 percent in first quarter 2010 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest housing statistics from Florida Realtors®. A total of 38,846 existing homes sold statewide in 1Q 2010; during the same period the year before, a total of 31,410 existing homes sold. It marks the seventh consecutive quarter that Florida has seen higher existing year-to-year home sales, according to the state association.

Statewide sales of existing condominiums in the first quarter rose 67 percent compared to the same time the previous year. This marks the sixth consecutive quarter for increased statewide sales in both the existing home and condo markets compared to year-ago levels.

"The first quarter data release from the Florida Realtors paints a picture of a housing market continuing down the long road to recovery," said Dr. Sean Snaith, director for the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness. "Transactions in the single family market have extended quarterly year-over-year gains for nearly two years, and condo sales have also risen sharply. Median prices in most areas of the state continue to fall; however, the rate at which they are falling has diminished significantly and this is indicative of a bottom approaching.

"How long prices stay at the bottom and when price appreciation will reappear will depend in a large part on the improving fundamentals in the economy and credit markets."

The University of Florida's Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies' latest quarterly survey of real estate trends also notes positive signs of recovery in the state's real estate industry. The survey polls market research economists, industry executives, real estate scholars and other experts.

"Results indicate that the real estate market in Florida has hit bottom and is in the process of stabilizing across most property types," said Timothy Becker, the center's director. Private capital – both foreign and domestic – continues to enter the state in search of quality investment deals, he added.

Seventeen of Florida's metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) reported increased sales of existing homes in 1Q 2010 compared to the same three-month-period a year earlier, while all of the MSAs showed gains in condo sales.

The statewide existing-home median sales price was $133,800 in 1Q 2010; a year earlier, it was $140,900 for a decrease of 5 percent. According to industry analysts with the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less.

Inthe year-to-year quarterly comparison for condo sales, 16,897 units sold statewide for the quarter compared to 10,131 in 1Q 2009 for a 67 percent increase. The statewide existing-condo median sales price was $95,800 for the three-month period; in 1Q 2009, it was $110,000 for a decrease of 13 percent.

Low mortgage rates remain another favorable influence on the housing sector. According to Freddie Mac, the national commitment rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5 percent in 1Q 2010; one year earlier, it averaged 5.06 percent.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®