An Insider’s Guide to Living the Good Life in Naples

Home prices continue to fall in Naples.

The median price — the price at which half the homes sell for more and half for less – dropped 25 percent in November to $194,000, according to a monthly report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors. That was down from $325,000 a year ago.

The report is based on Realtor-assisted sales made through the SunshineMLS in Collier County, excluding Marco Island.

Total sales were up nearly 28 percent for the month. There were 293, compared to 229 a year ago.

Most of the activity continues to be in the under $300,000 market. In this category, there were 208 sales, up from 103 a year ago, and 340 pending sales, up from 114 last year.

Foreclosures and short sales _ sales made for less than the bank is owed to avoid foreclosure _ continue to drive many of the sales at the lower end.

“Prices are declining. But I see that decline slowing. Well-priced properties are going to sell based on today’s market,” said Tom Bringardner, president of Premier Properties of Southwest Florida Inc.

Through November there have been a total of 4,597 sales this year, up from 3,940 in the same months last year.

“People are not shying away from buying at all. They are just looking for the deals,” said Brett Brown, who officially becomes the new president for the Naples Area Board of Realtors Saturday night.

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At a recent luxury home marketing conference sponsored by the Institute For Luxury Home Marketing, a nationally recognized interior designer, Kay Green, identified some new and persistent trends in housing decor and design. These emerging trends exist across homes of all price ranges in the United States. Let’s take a look:

• Non-colors are hot. White on white. Cream on cream. White on cream. You get the idea. It’s almost a layering of the neutrals.
• Blacks, whites, creams and grays are everywhere.
• Splashes of colors. In the non-color look, it’s becoming popular to have an accent wall or accent piece that introduces the only splash of color in the room. The splash could be pillows, a piece of art of furniture
• Faux finishes are out.
• Kids study areas are in. Imagine a full wall mini-office or extended peninsula near the kitchen where the kids use their computers and do homework. This affords parental assistance with homework and supervision while they are using their computers. 
• Oversized multi-function laundry rooms. Needs to have plenty of elbow rooms so as to stage the kids before leaving the house. Also, they’re great for messy tasks like craft-making.
• Spa baths. Still in.
• Outdoor architecture. Elaborate, functional relaxation areas are hot. Outdoor kitchens. Pergolas. Outdoor fireplaces

A group of Florida realtors are set to attend overseas property trade show OPPLive in London next week to provide information to British investors looking to purchase property in the US state…

Vice President of the Florida Association of Realtors John Sebree explained that the move is being made to help promote the benefit of purchasing in the US housing market, which is currently struggling domestically and seeing most of its activity from domestic buyers.

He told the Palm Beach Post, “We want to make sure that the British property professionals know that Florida is still on sale and that these prices may never be better.”

Those considering buying property in the state may be interested to hear that an amendment to Florida’s constitution was recently passed after voters decided on the issue at the same time as casting their vote in the presidential elections.

The amendment grants tax breaks to those who make energy-efficiency and hurricane-proofing improvements to properties in the area.

Source: propertyshowrooms.com

Buying a South Florida home is in vogue again as prices continue to crater. So who’s snagging all these bargains?

First-time buyers are stepping forward, overjoyed at the idea of finally being able to afford places of their own. Retirees paying all cash also are getting into the game, yanking their money out of the volatile stock market and putting it back into real estate. Even investors are returning to the closing table. They’re not flipping properties for quick profits anymore. Instead, they plan to live in the homes or rent them out, at least until the market recovers.

A typical used home in Broward and Palm Beach counties now sells for less than $295,000, a price not seen here since spring 2004, according to the most recent data from the Florida Association of Realtors. Distressed properties fetch far less than that as desperate sellers and lenders slash prices to make quick sales.

Many existing condominium units, meanwhile, are going for under $140,000, nearly 40 percent less than two years ago. Age-restricted communities such as Kings Point and Century Village are seeing growing interest in one-bedroom condos selling for less than $50,000, real estate agents say.

Source: Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Paul Owers

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Sterling at six year low and is moving towards a 20 year low but there yet.
Dollar is still the favourite for defensive investors.

Sterling lost 11 cents in the first four days of the week, touching below $1.46 on Thursday. Consolidation over the weekend allowed it to open in London this morning at $1.47, close to its lowest level for six years.

It was another week of general investor nervousness for all the same old reasons. If the mood was not of unremitting gloom then the bright spots were very few and far between. Even Beijing’s announcement of a $580 billion stimulus package fell into the bad news box for many investors; China’s economy must be in a parlous situation to require such a boost. Following the IMF’s lead a couple of weeks ago the OECD added its weight to forecasts that developed economies will remain in recession until at least the middle of next year.

The weekend’s G20 meeting in Washington attracted more advance optimism among the tabloids than it did among investors. As Britain’s Observer newspaper put it afterwards, the meeting was “…never, in a single afternoon, going to solve a crisis that has been a generation in the making.” If anything, it made investors more nervous about the banking sector’s recovery prospects: The word “stimulate” cropped up three times while “regulation” appeared 11 times.

There was no let-up in the downward pressure on Sterling. Weak financial institutions, falling interest rates, an ailing real estate market and mounting job losses all fuelled the perception that in a world of economic dogs, Britain is the undisputed pack leader. Wednesday’s quarterly Inflation Report from the Bank of England gave every indication that falling inflation would mean yet more interest rate cuts by the MPC. It was another concrete lifebelt for the sinking Pound.

Source: MoneyCorp

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Even Dubai, the seemingly invincible ‘nothing can stop me now’ emirate is feeling the effects of the credit crunch, with property prices in some of Dubai’s most prestigious developments falling by as much as 50 per cent.

Prices in the Downtown Burj Dubai area have fallen by as much as half, according to Dubai based estate agents. Because prices in the area had previously risen so high and so fast, when the slowdown happened, it affected that area, one of the most exclusive in Dubai, far more than others.

Whilst prices in the area were around £652 per square foot, they are now sitting at around £482. Downtown Burj Dubai, a mixed use urban development that includes the recently opened Dubai Mall, has some of the most expensive properties in the Emirate. The Burj Dubai Tower, due for completion next year, will put the area further onto the map.

Source:TheMoveChannel

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Due to the global credit crunch a UK based developer has launched the biggest property competition of all time. In association with Great Ormond Street Hospital, MIA Developments Ltd is giving away a block of apartment in Central London valued at $14 million.
 
It’s got to be one of the most innovative fundraising ideas ever - a luxury apartment block worth $14 million is up for grabs in the UK’s biggest ever property competition…
 
Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity has teamed up with London property developers MIA Developments Ltd to launch WinALondonPad.com - the biggest free prize draw in the UK .
 
Tickets are priced at $120 and each entrant will also receive a 4GB MP4 player worth $150. Entrants have a one in 200,000 chance of winning - and never having to work again.
 
Limited to 200,000 tickets available at WinALondonPad.com, the winner will scoop an entire development consisting of eleven luxury serviced apartments worth in excess of $14 million.

Source: TheMoveChannel

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The biggest difference between this recession and the last is the importance of natural search rankings.  Agents that rank highly for phrases that have intent to purchase have a much better chance of survival than those that do not.   Here are some tips:
Unless you have an old, established site that already ranks well, don’t try and compete with portals on 2 word phrases like “<Location Name> Property”. You’ll lose.

Use your database to create lots of pages that are very specific.  For example we just created lots of pages like this for an IFA client selling developments in Cyprus.  When this goes live they will soon rank for lots of very specific terms like “2 bed townhouse in Peyia Cyprus”.  There won’t be many of these but on aggregate there will be enough relevant traffic to generate leads.

Go niche
The internet rewards niche players. If you can become an expert on a particular location and/or genre like investment property in Poland, you will generally get more links and be seen as more trustworthy than an agent selling in 10 countries. It must be balanced against the risks of over-specialisation but it’s worth remembering.

Source: globaledge.co.uk

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One bright spot in the housing market: inventory decreased nationally according to ZipRealty¹s third Quarter 2008 Housing Market Report. At the end of Q3 2008, in the 28 major metropolitan areas monitored by ZipRealty, the total number of single family homes, condominiums and townhouses for sale decreased 9.6 percent over the same time last year, and 4.4 percent over Q2. Salt Lake City and Seattle saw the largest year-over-year increases in housing inventory  (13.2 percent and 8.8 percent respectively) Orange County and Las Vegas saw the largest year-over-year decreases in inventory (28.9 percent and 23.7 percent respectively) Price reductions continued to increase, but at a slower pace than previous quarters; In the markets monitored by ZipRealty:
 The number of homes with at least one price reduction continued to rise in the third quarter, but the growth rate has flattened.
45.2 percent of homes on the market were price reductions, compared with 43.2 percent in the second quarter 2008 and 41.4 percent in the first quarter 2008.
Markets that had the highest percentage of price reductions included Tucson (49.1 percent), Orange County (49.0 percent) and Las Vegas, Boston and Orlando (48.9 percent).
Out of six markets reviewed (Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Seattle), several zip codes have homes selling on average for over list price.

For many, the US at this moment is ripe for ‘buy low, sell high,’ but buying low does not mean simply buying something ‘cheap’…

It also requires being selective about quality and location. Many developers of higher end properties have come up with ways of enticing investment in a changed yet ironically competitive investment landscape.

UK developer Anton Tardif is currently developing a luxury golf resort in the American tourist domestic hotspot Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

“I think we have to look at creative ways to keep investment alive and in a way that benefits everyone involved and giving investors some real opportunities,” he said.

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