New Port Richey, Florida Real Estate Blog: December 2009

Nora Hernandez-Huapilla - - Dead because she wanted to get to school

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Such a tragedy no parent should have to endure.  Nora was on her way to her regular bus-stop.  

So she was 17 years old, and she should have known better, and been more careful, than to cross against the green.  But what ever happened to cherishing & protecting our most valuable, our future, the children?  I got picked up for High School by a bus on a four lane road while in High School.  I walked up my street, with my neighbor to the intersection with a main town road.  But the bus stopped on my side of the road, on the way back instead of when they first came by, and I did not have to cross any lanes, unlike Nora Hernandez-Huapilla.

Nora Hernandez-Huapilla is dead, in part, because according to a previous complaint, the Bus driver was not waiting for students approaching the bus-stop when the bus was there.  Nora was excited to deliver the Christmas Cards she had written to her friends.  Unfortunately between her, and her bus stop, was a 6 lane road.

 

So what did the Pinellas School District Superintendent Julie Janssen have to say about it????

"You know those are decisions that parents make when they choose to allow their children to go to a school that's not their zoned school. The information was given at the beginning that we would provide arterial transportation, and it was a requirement for the parents to get the children to those stops. And it's a choice that a family makes to have a child stay at a school that's different than the assigned school."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/family-of-girl-killed-while-trying-to-get-to-the-bus-stop-had-complained/1059903

I am sorry, but where I grew up, you do not die because you wanted to go to a better school.

A child should not die because she was worried about missing a bus.

A child should not die because a 6 lane highway is between her and her education/friends.

And lastly, A child's safety should be the Most Important Issue.  Only a safe child can attend school to learn and grow.  This was a failure on many levels.  And unfortunately all one can hope for is that everybody learns from the situation and changes are made so that this never happens again.

Now before you make a remark about how Nora Hernandez-Huapilla was 17, let me tell you about where I went to college.  ERAU is in Daytona Beach, and I was surprised that in one of my Engineering courses they gave a project to every class to estimate the costs/benefits of building a pedestrian bridge across Clyde Morris Blvd to a satellite campus.  It too was a 6 lane road, but the administration saw the danger.  It took a few years, but eventually a Pedestrian overpass was built.  So I ask you, if a pedestrian overpass is needed for College level students, why would we require our High School Students to cross a 6 lane road, imperiling their life.  

I have no idea how one is to deal with this as a parent. I can not even begin to think how dark this holiday season, and future ones, will be due to this When I was a courier in NYC I found it unbelievable that in the worst parts of the city patrol cars followed children home from all schools north south east and west. I could not believe that children needed police escorts to get to and from school. Now all I can think is where was the support protecting our most valuable investment???

Google Wave is Like Sex 

So I got my invite by being in the right place at the right time.  On twitter, late night, for the East Coast anyways, and on comes @Brokers4Charity  If you are not following them yet, I highly recommend you do.  I would have said that sans Wave Invite, as I had to of already been following them to see the offer on Twitter.

Now I have sat through the 80 minute presentation of the roll-out to developers.  In it I discovered many useful ideas and possibilities going forward for real estate.  I also viewed numerous videos at @ChrissVoss 's ChrisVossShow.com

Now what did I learn about in all these video's on the Google Wave?  

Google Wave is like SEX,  it is so much better with a partner.

 

To that end Alan Langstone has set up an AR Wave and

invited everyone with an account to join in and share and learn as is The Way in the Rain

Beacon Woods, Bayonet Point, Florida Distressed Real Estate Market Report November 2009

As you can see in the chart below, Beacon Woods subdivisions are currently sitting on ~18 months of inventory at a casual glance.   The large amount of contracts speaks to the number of distressed properties.  Until now Beacon Woods has been doing rather well, but it also may be a seasonal/holiday adjustment to be considered in the declines of sales, and increase in inventory, above the County range

 

The graph below shows a much better break down of the Beacon Woods market, unlike others.  ~1/5th of Active properties are distressed, whereas the number of distressed properties under contract is equal to the number of normal properties under contract.  Yet the number of distressed properties SOLD was 1/3rd of the Sold market.  However based just on the raw numbers there is 21 months of normal inventory compared to 10 months of distressed single family homes inventory.

Homes sold in Beacon Woods at the prices of

  $52,000

  $50,000

  $89,900 (pool home)

$119,500 (pool home)

$100,000 (pool home)

$175,000 (pool home)

Homes sold for between $29.36/SqFt - 69.44/SqFt

Sold Homes spent between 7 - 59 Days on the market with an average of 24 DOM and a median of 19 DOM

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Hudson, Florida Single Family Residence Market Update

Well comparing this chart to last months we are seeing declines in all categories, with the exception of Houses under Contract.  Active Listings are down ~1%, and Sold Listings took a hit of ~37% compared to last month.  However, the number of properties under contract have increased month over month by ~7%.  While it is a good thing in this market for the number of Active Listings to decline, it was a marginal decline.  The increase in Listings under contract is probably due to the long time that Distressed properties take to close.  We will look deeper into that in the 2nd chart.  What is very disappointing though is the steep decline in Sold listings. Hopefully this is more of a seasonal/holiday affect.  However as noted in an earlier blog, the County did not see a drop in sales like this.

Unfortunately this chart says there is ~14 months inventory for sale presently.  This should change after the holidays are over, as we have been seeing declines in inventory levels for quite a few months

 

 

Hudson Florida is following the trends county wide.  While most properties offered for sale are not in distress, alot of people are trying to take advantage of low prices on distressed properties as shown by the reversal from Actives to Under Contract.  But as the chart also shows, many more non-distressed properties close, while distressed properties linger in the Under Contract and few are closing each month, compared to how many are under contract.  This 2nd chart is concerning as well in that it shows the market has ~15 months inventory of Normal Single Family Residences, but only 10 months inventory of distressed property.  The latter number tho is not accurate due to how long distressed properties take to close.

 

Prices for Hudson that Sold in November are:

Total price range of            $16,500 - $229,000

15 houses sold for          < $100,000

16 homes sold for between $101,000 - $200,000

4 houses sold for            > $200,000

The range for Sold Price Per Square Foot is $22 - $138/SqFt; avg DOM is $71 & median DOM is $69

The Avg Sold Price to List Price ratio is 94%.  The High was 113% and the low was 66% with a median at 95%

 

Leisure Beach, Hudson, Florida November Distressed Home Market Report

Poor Leisure Beach.  NO SALES AGAIN.  Bright spot is that there are ~300 homes in the Leisure Beach Subdivision so there is a low percentage of homes on the market.  But worse than that is of the last market report there were 2 homes under contract, whereas now there is only one under contract yet nothing has sold, and 2 homes are no longer active.  So it appears a total of 3 homes have been taken off the market.  Could be that presently Banks make more money on Foreclosures than on Short Sales, but hopefully that is going to change soon

 

 

What can I say, Waterfront Gulf Access properties are a tough sell these days in Hudson, Florida.  About 1/3 of the homes for sale are Distressed properties.  The only property under contract is distressed, and nothing sold in November.  Now the Actives are down from last month, the properties under contract are down from last month as well, and finally the No Solds is the same as last month.  

 

Of the homes for sale the Prices break down like this

Total Price Range                     $130,000 - $379,000

9 homes are listed for under                     $200,000

7 homes are listed for between $201,000 - $300,000

1 home is listed for                                  $379,000

1 home under contract is listed for             $130,000

all 6 distressed homes are listed for        < $200,000

 

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West Pasco County, Florida Single Family Distressed Market Update

Well one good thing is that inventory levels continue to drop in West Pasco.  We are down to just over 9.2 months of inventory on the market.  That being said, the number of homes in each category has dropped compared to last month.  So there is less Inventory on the market, but there are less homes under contract and less homes selling in November 2009

 

In the graph below you will see the breakdown of the above chart into normal listings and Single Family Residences that are in some form of Distress.  Being in distress means: Pre-foreclosure, Short Sale, Bank owned, or in foreclosure.  What jumps out at me immediately was how most properties offered for sale in West Pasco are not under distress.  But that reverses for what is going under contract.  However, you will than see the reason so many people do not want to get involved in Distressed properties.  They can take a long time to close, or fail to close all together.  

There are more than twice as many normal Active listings as there are Distressed active lsitings.

But there are almost twice as many distressed listings under contract than normal listings under contract.

However the number of normal listings that actually sell are over twice as many as distressed sales

 

Also, using the breakdown above, there is only about 9 months inventory of non-distressed properties

Where as there are 10 months inventory of Distressed properties, but I think that this number may be misleading due to how long it takes a distressed property to get to closing

 

Long story short, there are some signs of improvement and there most definitely are some opportunities out there.  But it most certainly is not all rosy yet.  

Year over Year there seems to be some stability in the prices, but December and January are usually slow, closings-wise.  Most people buy before the Holidays, or after.  Which translates into closing before Thanksgiving, or waiting until the New Year to find a home and go under contract, however they probably will not close until February at the earliest.

Prices for West Pasco ranged from: $16,500 - $525,000

142 homes sold for                                        < $100,000

93 homes sold for between            $100,001 - $200,000

31 homes sold for between             $200,001 - $300,000

3 homes sold in the low                                    $300,000's

1 home sold for                                              > $500,001

 

The Average DOM in West Pasco is 89 days, the low is 0 DOM and the high was 1,087 DOM.  Median was 29 DOM

The average Sold Price to List Price ratio was 95%.  the High was 157% & the low was 50%.  Median was 97%

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How much does it cost to save a Childs life

Obviously it all depends on where said child is born.  But for a HUGE portion of the Worlds Children it only takes $0.50 every year to save a childs life  That is all it takes to treat a child for what is called the 'Neglected Tropical Diseases.'  

The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases is an advocacy initiative dedicated to raising the awareness, political will, and funding necessary to control and eliminate the most common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)--a group of disabling, disfiguring, and deadly diseases affecting more than 1.4 billion people worldwide living on less than $1.25 a day.  

For next to nothing, you can save a childs life.  For the price of a Starbucks coffee you can save many lives.  Only 'downside' is that each treatment only lasts for that year.  But for that little money every year, you could save a persons life, for that year.  Isn't a childs life worth that much.  And growing up healthy means their brain grows better so the cycle can be broken

I fully admit there are a ton of available charities to give to, but of them all, there are quite a few that you can count on giving 100% to the cause, and that will have lifelong affect as a result.

Make a difference and become active in your community.  God Bless

Are you into Giving To Charities???

As some of you, who regularly read my blog may know, I am a fan of @Alyssa_Milano but not so much for her acting, which I enjoy, but for her philanthropy.  In that spirit for her 37th birthday on 12/19/09 she asked of her fans/followers to support My Charity: Water in lieu of the usual flood of Birthday presents.  

My Charity: Water focus' on the 1,000,000,000+ who do not have access to clean water and how that affects their development, particularly brain development, resulting in the cycle of poverty.  To date they have raised $800,000+ helping 40,000+ people with 160 water projects.  

You can learn a tremendous amount about the organization by reading this  

Anyways, @Alyssa_Milano asked her fans/followers to support her cause with a goal of $25,000.  As usual, she underestimated her fan base, and instead of it taking a few weeks, her fans reached her goal in only 4 days.  If you go to her donation page you will see that the overwhelming majority of donations were under $100, alot were only $37 in honor of her 37th birthday.  As I am not here to BS you, I must acknowledge that there were pledges of $3700, but the number of contributions that was in the 4 digits or more clubs was only 4

Simple point is, only 4 of all the donations were in excess of $999.

Most were significantly less, as you will see many were for $37 in honor of her 37th birthday.    We are talking about ONLY $20 per recipient to create a permanent source of CLEAN WATER for the community.  This is a gift that not only lasts a lifetime but it is a generational gift  that keeps on giving.

@Alyssa_Milano is not asking this to be your sole charitable contribution, but it is easy for you to not only make a nominal contribution, but as you explore the site you will see how easy it is to set up a personal site to raise awareness and funding for a quality organization that uses 100% of donations for the cause.

 

UPDATE: She reached her goal of $50,000 already, and has since raised it to $75,000....for now

http://mycharitywater.org/Alyssa_B_Day

Hudson Florida Growth

 

Over the years we certainly have had a lot of rumors about future development in Pasco County Florida.  From a Nascar track, to a Busch Gardens, ad nauseum

And this could be only the latest Busy Betty chatter at the water cooler, yet it is more plausible, while being more unbelievable, due to its specifics.   What in the heck am I going on about?  The 'former Publix shopping plaza' on US-19 @ SR-52.

I, like many wondered what would happen to the strip mall when its Anchor relocated.  Especially since Stevens Furniture already moved directly across the street.  According to my source (gossiper who has 'connections in the county) his business is moving next month too.  RadioShack has not renewed its lease (allegedly), and TJ Maxx has announced it is relocating as well (allegedly).  That leaves just a couple of stragglers, which have zero chance of supporting the costs of the strip mall.  However (allegedly) this is all according to plans of the Strip Malls owner.

Allegedly The owner already has a buyer, who has a buyer, but only if the strip mall is empty.  What in the world would a developer want with an empty Strip Mall?  Allegedly, the land it sits on.  More importantly, the land behind it, that goes all the way to the Gulf.  See where this is going?

Once again, ALLEGEDLY the developer has approval with the county and state to level the mall, and not only build High rise Condos (no surprise in Florida) but to also dredge deep water canals & a much needed marina.  While that sounds like a fantastic idea, it is also the plans Achilles Heel.  I see nothing but an uphill battle (near vertical) with the ENVIRONMENTALISTS.  Afterall we are talking about creating canals/marina.  Not developing a naturally occurring area.  While Condos in Florida go without saying, dredging and developing coastline just does not sound feasible in my humble opinion.  Time will tell, beginning with the strip mall in the coming New Year

the strip mall i am talking about is on the Northwest (upperleft) corner of the intersection of US-19 @ SR-52.

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