About Palmetto Bay's Palmetto Bay

Fall in Palmetto Bay

Fall has arrived in Palmetto Bay, Florida. I know this sounds ridiculous to anyone living above Jacksonville, Florida, but here in South Florida, the humidity has fallen below 50% and it feels downright cool here.

There is dew on the grass in the morning, and it is cooler sipping coffee on my patio than in my now stuffy feeling kitchen.

My husband and I finished preparing our organic vegetable garden beds this weekend, and so I really know that winter is on the way. For those of you from up North, we garden in the WINTER! Yes, while you are freezing and your gardens are frozen or under snow, our season is going into high gear, and our Farmer's Markets open, our fresh local produce starts to grow and all us Miamians, remember why we moved here. For the weather!

As you can see by the photos, we have raised bed gardens. Our natural soil is very rocky so we get the most out of gardening in Palmetto Bay by using raised beds. This year I started gardening the "Square Foot Garden"method, designed by Mel Bartholomew.

You lay out your garden in squares instead of the typical rows. You divide it up into smaller 1 square foot grids and plant a different vegetable, herb or flower in each square foot. You will plant either 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants per square foot. It should finish looking kind of like a patchwork quilt! When you finish harvesting one square foot, you just add compost and plant a new plant, giving you sometimes up to 3 harvests per square foot.

It's so simple I don't know why anyone would plant a garden any other way. Eventually, the garden will grow in and I'll continue to bring you photos of it.

Status of the Short Sale Activity in Miami, Florida

THE STATUS OF THE SHORT SALE ACTIVITY IN MIAMI FLORIDA IS ONE THAT KEEPS heating up just like our lovely summer weather. From what I am seeing and hearing out here in the trenches the number of short sales coming into the market for sale are slowing down somewhat. The activity and number of short sales are being replaced by normal "organic" sales but a lot of those properties will eventually end up becoming short sales as well.

I took a sampling in one of our choice neighborhoods called Palmetto Bay and found the following. Out of 56 properties for sale in the price range of $300,000 to $500,000 only 15 were short sales and 2 were foreclosures. So this snapshot tells us that at least in the Palmetto Bay area the market appears to be getting less top heavy with the short sales.

Below is a sample of a short sale now in the market and waiting for a patient family to fall in love with it and wait for how long ? This one is competitively priced at $449,000 and the market time for a property at this price range is at around 60-180 days.

So far the feedback that I am getting from several of the title companies that are doing a lot of short sales is that the banks and short sale asset managers are taking less time to process the files and less time to do the whole deal, in some cases averaging about 3 months to a closing.

As far as I can see the market preassures are still very much alive here for a continuing stream of short sales in the Miami area for a while due to the high number of sales that took place during the 2002-2006 real estate boom cycle.

The things that may help some folks out like the new programs the government is implementing like the HAMP and HAFA programs. As far as I am concerned I will continue to hone my skills and become a better short sale specialist and hopefully continue making lots of lemonade out of these lemons !!!

Recently FANIE MAE came up with a web site to hopefully help the public out there know more of what they can or cannot do. The web site is very user friendly and can be found at www.knowyouroptions.com.

One concern some people have before they decide to do a short sale is determining if they are actually "under water" with their property. If you need to find out the value of your real estate in the Miami Florida area I recommend you try my "market snapshot" feature on my web site and find out first what your home is worth.

If for whatever reason you are still thinking about your options and needing some expert assistance with the status of the short sale activity in the Miami Florida area by all means contact me direclly on my cell at 305-815-8532 or visit my web site at www.miamichoiceproperties.com.

Organic Garden in Palmetto Bay, Florida

Last night I watched the movie, Food, Inc. It was a disturbing movie to watch but extremely enlightening, important and necessary. Think about it... How much do we know about the food we buy at our local supermarket (if it's not a Whole Foods) and that we feed to our families everyday? Read further below for a synopsis of the movie.

I have been thinking about what we eat for quite awhile now. I try to buy local foods, shop at farmer's market and buy foods in season. I only shop at Whole Foods, which has a committment to provide healthy, organic (not all the food is organic) and sustainable food to its customers.

I live in Palmetto Bay, Florida where the lots are pretty average at 15,000 square feet. This year I planted an organic vegetable garden. At this moment, we are harvesting fresh arugula. In the next month or so, it will be providing my family with fresh tomatoes, swiss chard, brocolli, cauliflower, beets, kale, onions, peppers, lettuce, more arugula, eggplant and lots of different herbs. It's extemely relaxing to tend to it, which is good for my health.

"In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli-the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. "

Lynn Cromer & Robin Parker are real estate sales and marketing professionals for Coldwell Banker in beautiful Pinecrest, Florida. For more information on Pinecrest, Florida or the communities of Coral Gables, Palmetto Bay and Coconut Grove, Lynn can be reached at 305-962-4068, Robin at 305-546-0447, by email at info@WeSellMiami.com or online at www.WeSellMiami.com.