Darhlene Zeanwick

DNC My Cellie

Cell phone numbers went public on Friday, August 29th, which means that you can now enjoy the thrills of receiving telemarketing calls on your costly cellie minutes. All cell phone numbers, nationwide, were released to telemarketing companies on the 29th. To prevent those telemarketers, call the...

VA Ceiling Raised

According to the Florida Association of Realtors, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is raising ceilings on its no-downpayment home loans from the current $417,000 to as much as $729,000. The VA increases went into effect immediately under legislation enacted under the Housing and Economic...

Values on the Rise

Glimmers headlined in August that the housing crisis has finally hit the bottom and may be on the rebound. The decline in home prices is starting to ease and, in some cities, values are rising again. Existing home sales rose slightly and the glut of newly built homes fell to a five month low. Like...

Expert Helps Reporter

When Lakeland newspaper, The Reporter, needed a local expert to help them understand the extent of the housing crisis in Poinciana, they didn't have to google "Poinciana Home." They already knew they could turn to Poinciana's expert, Darhlene Zeanwick. Darhlene relayed statistics from the multiple...

Housing Recovery Near Start

As a Poinciana homeowner myself, I find too many responsible homeowners being affected by the housing crisis. It is so rare that I am able to provide good news to homeowners these days, that when I do, I must blog it. The good news is that the federal homeowners assistance program is kicking-in...

Insurance - The Bad & Good

There's good and bad news when it comes to damage caused by hurricanes and tropical storms. Damage caused by storms that never become hurricanes, like T.S.-Fay, are treated differently. For example, since Fay never became a hurricane, higher deductibles don't apply. Flood damage is also not covered...

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Carts on the Byway

While using a poorly worded and downright mean approach in their September issue of the Poinciana Pioneer, the Association of Poinciana Villages (APV) did provide some useful information about how to get rid of shopping carts littering the sidewalks and byways in Poinciana. To help reduce this...

Tell Crist How You Feel

The Florida Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with Gov. Charlie Crist's office, created eight online surveys to find out the opinions of Floridians' on issues impacting the state. One survey focuses on small businesses, and specifically wants to know what you, as a small business owner, think...

Confidence Rising

Even as Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin, each try to grab our attention for a brighter future, Florida's economists sound like they concur. According to University of Florida economists, happier days may be around the corner again. Consumer confidence among Floridians made huge gains in August,...

Bouncing into Recovery

A recent report by the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR) agrees, we may have finally landed at the bottom of our housing crisis. Actually, bouncing is a more accurate description. The market value for homes in Poinciana appears to be making some attempt to stabilize. Like skipping a stone in...

For all the news and information on Poinciana and real estate in the area, check out The Poinciana Crane. (tm)

A recent report by the Florida Association of Realtors^® concurs, we may have finally landed on the bottom. Actually, bouncing is a more accurate description.

The market value for homes in Poinciana appears to be making some attempt to stabilize. Like skipping a stone in one of Poinciana's many ponds, sales are bouncing between about 40 and 60 sales per month.

While some home values have declined, particularly in the Bellalago area, home sales have stayed steady in areas like Solivita and Crescent Lakes. Overall, property inventory has not increased much over the past year, staying below 1,200.

While sales have increased slightly, helping to keep home values from the downward spiral that the Poinciana area has been experiencing, the area's absorption rate has been declining from a summer-time high of about five percent. Absorption rate for Osceola County stood at 3.98%, which reflects a one percent decrease in sales since late July. A total of 314 homes have been sold in Poinciana so far in 2008.

Overall in Florida, FAR recently reported that sales for single-family existing home sales rose for the first time in more than two years. While only six more homes sold in July 2008 tha ... read more ...

Poinciana May Welcome Hatchineha Lakes

First Tuscany Preserve, now Hatchineha Lakes, developers of a proposed city-sized development are hatching a plan for a large upscale, retirement community on Lake Hatchineha. The developers, however, still have work to do to see their project for a 4,900-unit community they are calling Hatchineha Lakes. The plan is for a 5,134-acre ranch to be located on the southern-most side of Village 7, near Tuscany Preserve, with homes on one-acre lots with an expected population of ... read more ...

SPCA Seeking Pet Foster Homes

According to The Abuse of Animals and Domestic Violence, one in five women involved in domestic violence situations are afraid to leave their homes for fear that the abuser will harm the family pet. That's why the SPCA created its Safe Haven Home Program ... read more ...

Post-T.S. Fay Preparation

With so much rain from tropical storm Fay, you may still experience damage, such as from downed trees. Be prepared. There are two web sites ... read more ...

Tiled 3/2 Now Just $79,000

A mow and a contract is all this home needs to make it yours. In excellent condition, clean, and modernized home with high-gloss ceramic tile flooring throughout. This modernized, well-maintained, and landscaped home is set in the midst of many new ones in an area known as Poinciana's Village Two ... read more ...

Orlando, Florida | Poinciana's premier Realtor attended the first Green Conference in Central Florida held at the Orange County Convention Center. If you missed it you're not alone. Attendance was not the 50,000 that conference organizers had projected but it was well-attended.

Sponsored by the Global Green Alliance, the Expo was host to over 500 companies they consider a part of the "green supply chain." There were the much-expected burn-outs and flower-power vendors, such a Peace Frog; vegan and organic vendors galore; green builders; a few vendors some with questionable environmental impact, such as one called Sunshine Greens that seems to think it is "environmentally friendly" to replace thousands of acres of live lawns with their artificial turf; and a few others, like Bank of America and Washington Mutual tossed in, we think, to fill space ... unless they were there, possibly, to finance green projects?

In all , the greatest benefit of the conference to the Green Movement was its ability to reach the Alliance's goal of bringing together the Green supply chain. There were companies supplying space-age-looking water treatment systems, such as Great Southern of Longwood, attic-cooling and energy-saving systems, and truly innovative ideas, such as one Florida-based co...read more...