Tim and Susan Fennell

We just returned from a NEFAR meeting in which the VP of Public Policy for FAR (Florida Association of Realtors) announced that the premature announcement of last week is going to be a DONE DEAL within a few days.

"The technical details are still being finalized and will soon be published in a mortgagee letter and posted on our Web site," Lemar Wooley, a HUD spokesperson, told Realtor® Magazine Wednesday afternoon.

He told us that the White House got cold feet and started to backtrack but after regrouping they are going to go forward with the proposal to allow bridge loans against the stimulus check to be used for downpayment assist for first time buyers.

Agree with the program or not, if you qualify you might as well take advantage of it now. Couple it with the low interest rates and low home prices and you have great reasons to buy a home NOW!

Edit: Just found this supporting article - http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n6-052209.cfm

If you are a REALTOR® reading this Blog Title, a dozen thoughts probably just ran through your mind - and I dare say they were all pretty darned positive thoughts at that!

If you are a home owner who is currently trying to sell your house, I'm guessing that your heart is beating a little faster with anticipation as well.

But how about those of you who are considering buying a home right now but haven't made the move just yet? Perhaps you've been looking at houses with an agent for the past 3, 4, 6... 12 months but haven't pulled the trigger yet. (If you've been looking for a long time you've probably gone through 2 or 3 or maybe more agents but that's a subject for another blog).

In Jacksonville, Florida it is not at all uncommon for homebuyers to look at many different houses over many months without making a decision on which one to buy. The reasons (excuses) vary but most start with the two words, WHAT IF...

• WHAT IF a house comes on the market tomorrow that I like better?
• WHAT IF they drop the price on this one next week?
• WHAT IF interest rates go down?
• WHAT IF the market continues to decline?
• WHAT IF the government decides to give me even more money than they're already offering?
• WHAT IF pigs fly, hell freezes over and politicians quit liing?

Given recent history, these are all pretty much valid questions and worthy of consideration. (Well, all of them except the last one. Pigs might fly, hell might freeze over but the politicians thing? Not a chance!)

WHAT IF questions come out of that part of us that loves to gamble but hates to lose!

For the past couple of years, the 'gamble' has worked well for the buyer who didn't need to buy or have a strong desire to buy. In most cases, in Jacksonville, the buyer ended up saving a little more money by waiting... not a lot of money unless he has been waiting out the entire market decline but a little if he gambled for a few weeks or months. Of course, what he lost in terms of personal comfort, satisfaction, time and just moving on with life isn't often factored into the 'gamble' - he saved a little money and that's all that mattered to him at the time. Fair enough.

Herein lies the rub... that GAMBLE may very well be about to turn against the buyer.

EDIT: Don't wait too long... look at what is already happening in Phoenix and they were hit a lot harder than Jacksonville.

Remember the question in the Topic Line, "What would 12,000 new jobs mean to you as a buyer?" The answer is that those jobs raise the stakes on your GAMBLE. Those jobs raise the stakes A LOT!

You see, eventually the real estate market is going to turn around. That's simply a fact borne out by history. There will be - OR THERE IS - a bottom to the market and prices AND interest rates will begin to go up again. The question - OR GAMBLE - is "when". When will that happen?

Nobody knows for certain but there are signs that the turn around is near (or has happened already). The market will begin to shift when the SUPPLY vs DEMAND ratio shifts. When there is more demand for DESIRED real estate than there is supply of it the prices will begin to climb.

Well, for Jacksonville, Florida homebuyers that day is much closer than you might think. Those 12,000 NEW JOBS are coming and with those jobs comes MORE BUYERS and LESS INVENTORY of desirable real estate.

During the second half of 2008 we had some MAJOR announcements that many people (homebuyers) missed: Mitsui, Hanjin, Duetsche Bank and Alenia all said that they are going to create more than 12,000 new jobs in Jacksonville over the coming months, while investing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity.

Those jobs will mean more buyers; those dollars will mean fewer desirable homes on the market; and it all adds up to a GAMBLE that favors SELLERS over BUYERS.

Any buyers who have been waiting on the fence, wondering when to make a move the signs are all around us... now is the time to act. You won't wake up one morning and hear a news report saying that you have 3 months or one month or even one week to make up your mind.

Nope... by the time it hits the news, the shift will have already taken place.

Stop gambling... The time to buy is now.

Just Say NO to Boring Virtual Tours

We believe that CREATIVE MARKETING is a must in today's real estate market. Are you tired of the old 360 degree tours and slide show tours? So are we! That's why we are incorporating exciting images, fun music and emotive appeals in our Virtual Tour presentations. Sellers deserve better and buyers demand it... We aim to deliver!

We also upload our Virtual Tour presentations to YouTube where they get additional exposure. This is just one of the many unique marketing tools we put to work for our sellers in order to get maximum exposure in this tight Greater Jacksonville, Florida market.

www.BestHomesInJacksonville.com

We knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time. Banks have been holding back on foreclosing on dilinquent borrowers for several months but have now decided to open the floodgates and dump a boatload onto the market. The following is from the Florida Times Union dated 4/16/09:

Foreclosure-related notices went to 2,721 homes in metropolitan Jacksonville in March, a 29 percent increase from 2,107 in February and the highest mark recorded for the metropolitan area in at least five years, according to data released Thursday...

...Overall, foreclosures "came back with a vengeance" in March and are likely to keep rising, said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's senior vice president for marketing, the Associated Press reported.

So, is there anything good in this or is it all just bad and ugly? Certainly, at first glance it seems awful (and for those who are losing their homes, it is) but there really is a glimmer of hope in this... a silver lining, if you will. Not for the immediate future, perhaps, but this had to happen. And it will get worse before it gets better.

But things will get better!

As we all know, the housing market expanded way too fast and way, way too much. Anything that goes up that far and fast simply must come down. The pendulum swung forth and now it is swinging back. It will take time to settle back to a moderate swing.

Looking at it from a strictly unemotional standpoint we knew that these foreclosures were coming and that they would flood the market. We also know that this inventory (that has been sitting in a figurative warehouse for months) must be consumed before prices can begin to climb again.

So, what's the good news?

1) What an incredible opportunity to buy the home you've wanted but couldn't afford! Prices and interest rates have never been lower AND there are literally thousands of great homes on the market that the banks must unload.

2) The sooner all of this existing inventory is consumed, the sooner the market will begin to appreciate once again. And when the market turns, if all goes well, we should see a steady rate of appreciation that can be sustained for many years to come (at least until this generation passes or forgets about the past 3 years).

If you are a buyer, it's a no-brainer - call us and let us help you find the perfect home.

If you are a seller, it's a tougher decision to make. Give us a call and we'll help you analyze your personal situation and point out all the pros and cons of selling at this time. If you need to sell or have personal reasons for wanting to sell, there are very good reasons to move forward in spite of the market.

We promise not to pressure you, however, because we know that for some this is simply NOT the right time to sell. We're happy to give you our unbiased opinion and sound financial reasons to back up those opinions. The choice, of course, is yours and yours alone. We are simply here to help!

Tim and Susan Fennell
Realty World Executive Group, Inc.
904/

In our continued effort to provide the highest quality, most up-to-date real estate information to people interested in the Jacksonville, Florida market, we have partnered with Realty Times. In addition to the many great newsfeeds they provide, we will be adding local information, market reports and more.

We hope that you benefit from these reports and that you will share the newsfeeds with friends and family as well.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have. We are delighted to help!