Suncoast Real Estate Blog

Recently, as President-elect of the Sarasota Association of Realtors,  I attended the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Leadership Summit in Chicago, IL. The Leadership Summit is designed to assist Presidents-elect and chief staff executives of state and local associations to formulate programs in order to build stronger communities and influence both our businesses and our industry.

Many issues and challenges were discussed during the two day conference including international real estate issues affecting the US market, housing market and mortgage challenges, sustainable living and state of the art technology for consumers.

Foreclosure response initiatives were discussed as to how foreclosures now not only affect individual consumers but also impact entire communities. Many state and local Realtor associations are partnering with local governments and other community groups to enhance counseling services for troubled borrowers and develop strategies to help communities deal with the effects of foreclosures. NAR is working for prompt and reasonable implementation of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. It reforms the FHA program, facilitates refinancing of problematic mortgages into fixed rate, FHA-insured mortgages and stabilizes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

NAR is helping shape the industry, both domestically and internationally, by leveraging NAR’s efforts along with those of allied groups, such as the International housing Coalition, the International Real Property Foundation and others. The goal is to minimize client, customer and agent/broker risk while building a global real estate community and strengthening the property market worldwide. NAR is helping expand and unite the global real estate market by supporting alliances that work toward the common industry good. NAR maintains 76 bilateral agreements with national and regional real estate associations in 57 countries, each with a code of ethics similar to NAR’s. Through the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations (ICREA), NAR is working to set and raise global real estate standards and provide opportunities for worldwide Realtor brand marketing and adoption of U.S. best business practices including MLS, broker cooperation and transnational referrals, and – most importantly to NAR members – exposure for U.S. listings.

Through Realtor.com with over 6 million visitors per month looking at more than 4 million listings, Realtor.com is the largest Web site for homes on the Internet. In July 2008, Realtor.com began making home searches even easier. An improved user-friendly search function means consumers can find new properties more easily and quickly. The site also has a new map feature which combines listing data with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth technology. Consumers can view more listing pictures, learn more about communities, and see home value comparisons.

The 2008 leadership summit was designed to help both new and veteran leaders launch a new era for private property ownership in America and to unite the 2009 leadership and guide them toward a successful future.

Cheers, Bill

Have you ever wondered where to find the world’s best quality of living? And what criteria would you use to choose a country? It is very difficult to attach a figure or a ranking to the experience of spending time in a place. However, International Living has been collecting data and crunching numbers for nearly 30 years, looking and ranking 192 countries. They took into account cost of living (15% of final ranking), culture and leisure (10%), economy (15%), environment (10%), freedom (10%), health (10%), infrastructure (10%), safety and risk (10%) and climate (10%).

So the country that won this year’s index was France, for the third year in a row with a final score of 85. According to IL’s 2008 Quality of Life Index, France is the best place in the world to live. Medical care, fast trains with Eurostar service across the Channel, museums, cafés, galleries, antique shops, restaurants, boutiques, jazz clubs, theaters, bakeries, parks and gardens along with three capital city airports providing easy and cheap air access to the rest of Europe made France their choice.

But very interestingly Switzerland was number 2, with a score of 84 followed closely by the United States at 83. Other countries in the top ten were Luxembourg, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the Netherlands. To see the complete scores for every country in every category, go to: www.qualityoflife2008.com

Backing up these findings, are the results recently released by the property portal www.RightmoveOverseas.co.uk revealing that in the first half of 2008, it recorded some 10,200,000 searches for overseas property from potential buyers in the UK – up 26% from 2007. Among the 10 most popular destinations on the portal, the largest increase in searches was seen in the USA, where inquiries were up 50 percent and averaged 190,000 per month. Spain and France accounted for one third of all searches. However, buyers who want to purchase abroad but are reliant on selling their UK property have to hold out, because they are not finding buyers as quickly as they might have done a year ago. Other buyers are waiting for the Pound to get back to 1.3 or 1.4 against the Euro before committing, but the exchange rate between the Pound and the US dollar remains a clear value at 1.94, which makes investments in the US extremely attractive.

Here is my weekly real estate value in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. A four unit, turn-key furnished apartment building on Bradenton Beach, just an easy short walk to beautiful beaches and sunsets of Anna Maria Island. A very good money maker and now attractively offered at only $599,000. See more information at www.SarasotaAndKeys.com/BayDrNorth.

Cheers,

Bill Geller

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) periodically surveys its members to get information that is not readily available from MLSs or other "hard" data sources. NAR just released a recent market assessment survey of data from over 2,000 Realtors and there are surprising findings that may contradict some of what we see from the media.

A most interesting finding came from a question posed in the survey asking “In thinking of your most recent potential buyer in 2008, did the client postpone their home buying decision?”

• 50 percent said no, and said the buyer bought in the end
• 23 percent said the potential buyer did not buy, preferring to wait for prices to fall further.
• 6 percent said the potential buyer did not buy because of mortgage difficulties
• 4 percent said the potential buyer could not locate the ‘perfect’ home
• 7 percent said the potential buyer needed to sell the current home
• 9 percent said the potential buyer changed their mind due to various personal reasons.

The striking finding is the second bullet point. There are many potential buyers (23 percent) who have the financial capacity and mortgage qualifications, yet are effusing to jump into the market because of further price decline fears. These hesitant buyers far outnumber the people who are unable to secure a mortgage.

The implication here is that once there are signs of market stabilization, we may see a rush of buyers returning to the market and the recovery could be robust rather than slow. I always like to look at the potential for increased sales and this indeed is encouraging. It also implies that the homebuyer tax-credit being discussed in Congress right now as part of the housing stimulus bill could make a big impact in drawing buyers to act.

Please check our new listings on the web site for some great values.

Cheers,

Bill Geller & Judy Schomaker

There is little doubt that current economic trends are pointing to a weaker U.S economy with gas prices now over 4 dollars a gallon, escalating energy costs and the adjusting real estate market nationally. Entire industries are reeling – airlines and automakers most prominent among them – and gas prices have emerged as an important issue in the presidential campaign. But there now opportunities in the Greater Sarasota area to re- think the future of how we live as we recover locally from the housing slump.

Despite more negative data about the housing market nationally, prospects for a recovery seem stronger in Southwest Florida. Sales in the Sarasota area climbed 24 percent in May continuing a trend for the past several months. This type of local trend was pointed out recently at the annual meeting of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) in Amsterdam, Holland. The association brought together 100 top executives from the US and Europe to discuss, among other topics, challenges of the US residential market. The consensus was that there is no single residential market, with every area having its own unique characteristics. “The housing market is a market of markets.” When we analyze real estate trends we need to pay close attention to our local market.

But as the real estate market improves locally, certain lifestyle and planning adjustments will have to be considered. One such adjustment will be improving public transportation in our area. In Sarasota the car is king, used almost exclusively for transportation, from commuting to the office to a trip to the grocery store for milk. Lifestyle habits will change as we continue to watch gas prices increase. Where we live in relation to everything that we do and everywhere we go will become increasingly more important.

For a taste of our necessary future, we can also take a look at the streets of Amsterdam Holland. Of course cars function there, minimally, but bikes account for 37 percent of transport and public transportation comes in second at 22 percent of trips, according to a recent Washington Post article. What I found interesting is that Amsterdam’s long range goals are quite similar to Sarasota’s. For decades it’s been to nurture the “compact city”, slowing a middle-class exodus and preserving the open landscape by dense development, recycling old industrial areas and intermingling uses. It’s genius, so rarely discussed in America, is smart land use and curbing the auto use that so easily overwhelms modern world cities. Amsterdam encouraged recent housing developers on its northern flank to finance a five mile stretch of new “tramline” to open ahead of the new housing so that residents wouldn’t become accustomed to car commuting.

We here in Sarasota should look at Amsterdam’s combination of bicycle lanes on most streets, effective combination of bus, rail and tram service as possible public transportation systems here. According to the Washington Post, a project was begun by resourceful young professionals in Amsterdam who are trying to adapt new GPS navigation systems to data feeds that give commuters transit options in real time – bus, tram and rail runs, routes and preferred connections by the minute, customized to the user’s location on mobile phone display.

We have a long way do go from our dependency on the automobile, but the time is right now to start looking at different opportunities before us as our housing needs will change.

By the way, if you haven’t looked at my home page in awhile, please do so, as I’ve added some useful links to Sarasota area information centers and will continue to add more, so let me know what information you would like to see on the site.

Cheers,

Bill Geller

Judy Schomaker

Last week, Judy Schomaker, president of Suncoast International Realty and I returned from attending the SIMA08 Madrid International Real Estate Exhibition in Madrid with much excitement and optimism from the experience for international real estate investment in our area.  SIMA Madrid is the largest real estate exhibition in the world with over 800 exhibitors of which over 200 are international exhibitors, 160,000+ visitors covering 6 pavilions represented by over 60 countries.  The exhibition is comprised of an international tourism real estate fair pavilion; an international pavilion for worldwide investment markets; promotion, management and planning of cities pavilion and technology design and equipment for sustainable construction pavilion.

The international worldwide investment pavilion is not only made up of elaborate exhibitions but an International Business Center (IBC) is provided as a compliment of the international program for the exchange of information and business opportunity between professional visitors at SIMA.  The IBC meeting space is designed to enable the exhibitors and accredited real estate professionals in attendance to make contact with one another, business to business encounters and presentations focusing on the exchange of international business opportunities.  It was within the IBC area that the Sarasota Association of Realtors was provided presentation booth space for the entire event.  This enabled us to not only showcase the wonderful lifestyle of Sarasota but to present very desirable investment opportunities available to the international investor.  Among the countries that we received encouraging interest from were investors from Spain, Germany, Finland, Chile, France, Brazil and Eastern Europe to name just a few. 

In addition to the IBC, SIMA also provided a rather intense International Professional Program (IPP) in an adjacent convention center where, each day, various countries, including USA presented current real estate market conditions in their countries.  Of particular mention was the program entitled "Trends in the Global 2nd Homes Market" with presentations by John Tuccillo, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) along with presentations from Latin America and demand for second homes in European capitals.  Judy Schomaker, NAR's President's Liaison to Spain also was the chairperson for a day long program entitled "America From North To South" enabling officials from Canada to Chile to present and discuss real estate conditions in their countries.

There were many other opportunities at the exhibition to promote Sarasota including several social networking events throughout the week and evening events, and the Sarasota/Manatee area was very well represented. It was a very worthwhile experience.

Cheers,

Bill Geller, Broker Associate

Every day newspapers and television headline the problems in the real estate without carefully analyzing the overall bigger picture of how the real estate market is really performing.  According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), over the past 5 years the average homeowner has seen an increase of 50 percent  in value.  In Florida, statewide median home price has shown an increase of 52.5 percent for November 2002 to November 2007, according to the Florida Association of Realtors (FAR).  NAR projects that home prices will rise about 2 percent next year, and in coming years, average price appreciation should return to historical averages of around 6 percent.  That coupled with the fact that interest rates remain on par with the 1960's, and according the the Department of Labor, unemployment rate remains at 4%. 

Some other encouraging facts from Enterprise Florida reminds us that Florida has one of the nations strongest tourism industries, is 4th in the nation's high tech jobs, is the 3rd largest exporter of high-tech goods and services and is ranked as one of the best states in the nation to be an entrepreneur.  Yes, we do have challenges in the real estate market, but there are clear signs for optimism in the future.

International buyers can really benefit from the weaker US dollar, now approaching 1.60, multiplying their purchase power substantially.  International buyers also appreciate the relatively low costs of Florida property compared with similar homes in their home countries.  According to the 2007 NAR "Profile of International Home Buying Activity Study", Florida accounted for 26 percent of all international purchases.  Their is an enormous opportunity to showcase Sarasota's lifestyle and real estate possibilities here and is the main reason why we at Suncoast International Realty are participating the SIMA 08 Madrid Real Estate Exhibition, April 8th to the 12th in Madrid, Spain.  At the Sarasota Florida Booth we will be marketing our clients' properties as well as showcasing the unique lifestyle of Sarasota, which makes it a world destination and perfect place for a second home.  With 160,000 visitors expected in 100,000 square meters of exhibition area, 800 exhibitors from well over 28 countries and over 25,000 real estate professionals looking for potential investments, SIMA is the bridge between Europe, America, Asia, The Middle East as well as Latin America.  We look forward to using this creative marketing event to introduce and promote Sarasota properties to this vast audience.

Cheers & Sunny Days,

Bill Geller & Judy Schomaker

Just like real estate buyers here, international buyers turned away from Florida's housing market as the downturn took hold.  But now, with record dollar lows against the euro and pound sterling, low prices and large inventories, international buyers see an inviting opportunity.  In spite of Florida's challenges with property tax inequities, escalating insurance premiums and the tightening mortgage market, international buyers see an opportunity.  According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Florida, by far, leads the U.S. market, accounting for an estimated 26 percent of all foreign purchases for the year end period that ended in April 2007.  International, a long mainstay of Florida's real estate ownership, will play a major role in our market's future.  The euro is at an all time high against the dollar, now at 1.5369 and pound sterling at 2.0166, Europeans realize it might be the time to buy.  They are playing the currency and also playing the discount on prices.  Some are looking for a vacation home while others see an investment opportunity.  Most seem prepared to buy and hold, because this is long term, not a flip situation in the market.

How to take advantage of this opportunity is a major goal of our's at Suncoast International Realty.  A major international real estate event takes place in Madrid, Spain from April 8th to 12th and we will be participating in it for the sixth year.  SIMA 08 International Real Estate Exhibition is the largest second home expo in the world with 160,000 visitors, 21,000 real estate professionals from more than 50 countries and 800 exhibitors attending in 2007.  "SIMA's professional program has always included an important international component.  This is what makes the exposition, in addition to being a great business source and exhibition for the end-consumer, to globally position itself as a center with great expertise on international real estate tendencies," said Santiago Herreros de Tejada, International Expansion Director for Planner Reed, the hosting exhibition company.  The international program will analyze investment and business opportunities for mature markets in countries such as the U.S., U.K, Portugal, Canada and Belgium.  Different experts from each country will bring their vision and introduce opportunities in their countries.  Highlighting the US market will be the former chief economist for NAR, John Tuccillo, will present the Current Advantages For Investments In The USA strongly emphasizing why the US is a strong real estate market. 

The Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR) also holds a prestigious position as NAR's Ambassador Association to Spain, along with Suncoast International Realty's president, Judy Schomaker, holding the position as NAR's president liaison to Spain, and my position as 2009 president of SAR will all serve to help showcase Sarasota as a premier world class destination.  At the exhibition both Judy and I will be participating in many of the seminars, programs and activities along with Judy being a featured speaker and moderator for the "America from North to South" program.  It will be an intense several days but will provide us with many networking and presentation opportunities.  We believe that our involvement will be very beneficial to Sarasota along with our clients' interests.

Cheers and Sunny Days,

Bill Geller & Judy Schomaker