Almost 20% of Florida houses are vacant!
Where have all the people gone? A recent US Census Bureau report says that a whopping 18% of houses in Florida are sitting vacant. That’s 1.6 MILLION houses!
A new twist to buying foreclosures
I have been buying foreclosures for many years. One of the first houses I ever bought, I spent 3 day in with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, cleaning out the… Read more »
Some good economic news for Bay County
The News Herald had a couple of encouraging articles this past week. One was about our county population (link)…it posted a small increase for the most recent reporting period (July… Read more »
Tough Love for Distressed Borrowers
The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article on March 4, 2011, arguing that banks should quit trying to work out distressed loans and just go ahead and foreclose. The… Read more »
February 2011 Market Update
February brought us a little relief from the dismal numbers of January. We had 105 sales of single family homes, with a median sold price of $158,000 and a median “dollar per… Read more »
Bay County Unemployment makes it hard to sell houses!
The News Herald reports that 2010 unemployment in our fair county set a 10 year high. You can read the full article here. I have said it before, and I… Read more »
Is your house a good investment?
On February 24, Fox News ran an interesting story on homes as investments, specifically people viewing their primary residences as investments. You can see the video here: Nest Eggs Shrink… Read more »
Foreclosure rates are down, but it’s not a good thing…
Foreclosure rates are down, not only in Bay County, but across the country. Good news, right? Well, not really. Even though the pace of foreclosure filings is down, mortgage delinquencies are still… Read more »
January 2011 Market Update
What December giveth, January taketh away. As I last reported, December 2010 was a surprisingly strong sales month, but January 2011 was dismal. The Bay County Association of Realtors reported… Read more »
Bay County Unemployment Update
Some bad news, and some good news! First, the bad: The News Herald reported Sunday that local unemployment was outpacing job growth in the county. While we are seeing a net gain… Read more »