New Port Richey, Florida Real Estate Blog

West Pasco County, Florida Luxury Homes for Sale - Dec 2010

As of this time, 6pm on 12/17/2010 these are top 50 Luxury Homes currently available in West Pasco County Florida.  Prices range from just over $500,000 all the way up to almost $4,000,000.

Most of these homes have gulf access, with many of them having a Gulf-front location.  Not so interested in the wind and flood insurance these properties tend to come with?  This list of Luxury homes for Sale in West Pasco County, FL has more options.  

There are homes in Airport Communities as well as Plantation homes on large logs.    Even if you are not presently in the market, I am pretty sure you enjoy viewing these 50 impressive homes, I know I did.

Below, I find it best if you click on FULLSCREEN in the header of the embed and scroll with the arrows at the bottom.  Than exit Fullscreen at same place you clicked to go fullscreen

WPLux H4S

Specials on New Construction in Pasco County

Well Pasco County took a huge hit in the Real Estate downturn, especially all the new subdivisions that were just getting started as the market tanked.  Eventually most closed there model homes and laid off or relocated their sales staff.   However more and more builders are coming back, and the deals are UNBELIEVABLE.

Right now you can buy:

a new construction 2 Bedroom 2 and 1/2 bath town home for as low $80,000

thats right new construction for under $100,000.  Way under.

Thats right New Construction for under $100/square foot.

I currently know of 7 townhomes under $100,000

New Construction Houses start at $129,000 as far as I can find in the latest promotions.

Still think the prices are beyond your budget?  Remember that Brand new construction homes have the latest codes built in, the highest required hurricane protection.  This results in lower insurance, a recurring monthly cost, a discount that may actually shock you.  Your electric bill will in all likelihood be significantly less than an existing home available for re-sale.   You really need to either do your homework or work with a REALTOR® who will explain all your options and costs.

Another key thing to remember is that while Home Builders are eager to get buyers into their newly constructed homes, the salespeople work FOR THE BUILDER.  A REALTOR® can work for you, and the Builder pays the commission.  Buyers rarely pay the commission, and I have yet to charge a buyer a commission check.

It is a great time to be a buyer in Pasco County.  Call me for more information on the great deals available today.

Home Buyer Series: How to take the headaches out of buying a Home by a Hudson Florida Realtor::: Part II

Now in Part I of this series we focused on where to start the home-buying process.  And in it we focused on getting a pre-approval for your mortgage so as not to waste your time looking at Real Estate that is above your budget limit.

Now once buyers get to this point, they think it is time to go shopping, and so do a lot of Realtors.  I operate a bit differently, hopefully most of you do to.  After getting a maximum value they are able to spend, I like to spend time with the buyer to determine their wants and needs.   It is at this time I recommend that they do not max out the budget.

Once we know a few details it is easier to determine a few other costs associated with the Purchase of a new Home

Around here taxes are a millage amount which is based on $1000 price points, but for simplicities sake it is typically 1.4 - 2.5% of your purchase price in Taxes.  Knowing where your client will likely buy, will narrow down the spread even more.  

Home Buyer Series: How to take the headaches out of buying a Home by a Hudson Florida Realtor::: Part I

Alright people.  You do not want to waste your time, and I doubt you want to waste your Realtors times either.  So how do you start the Home buying process.   When a lot of people think of buying a home they do 1 of 2 things.  The latest trend is to go online and start looking around at what is out there.  The other, tried and true method, is to contact a Realtor.  

Both of these are a mistake, unless you are calling your Trusted Realtor to get a referral to a Mortgage Broker/Banker.  That is right folks, if you want to avoid a headache in the home buying process begins with a mortgage specialist.  Why you may ask?  Because they first thing that needs to be done is to have ones credit report pulled.  You can certainly do this for free at home through sites like Free Credit Report.com According to a CBS Report 4 out of 5 reports have mistakes. So than what.

Your mortgage expert is not only going to help you understand your entire credit report, but they will also be able to guide you on how to fix any problems or mistakes eliminating headaches from the Home Buying process.   On top of that, a quality mortgage professional will also help you raise your credit rating with simple fixes most people are unaware of, resulting in a lower interest rate when you finally do buy

Now this could take months to accomplish, which is why the home buying process, is...well it is a process that really should be entered into with the assistance of professionals.

So now that you have corrected any errors and dealt with any issues that may have negatively affected your credit rating, you are ready to get your MORTGAGE PRE-APPROVAL or PRE QUALIFICATION.  This is basically your mortgage person telling you, under the current financial situation you are in, how much money you are eligible to borrow.  Now I, and the mortgage people I work with, recommend you do not max out your budget.

Just because you are eligible for $500,000, that does not mean you have to spend it.  You should give your budget a cushion for unforeseen circumstances

This is also a good time to go over the difference between APR and interest rate.  Basically, very basically, the APR is the interest rate plus any and all fees/charges/costs associated with the mortgage, annualized and broken down into monthly payments so you can compare various mortgages that may have differing fee structures,  to determine which one is best for you.  Zillow seems to have a good explanation to get you started 

But that is a very remedial definition and you, your mortgage specialist, and even your Realtor should go over this in more detail with actual examples

14.4 Acres MOL of prime Hudson Real Estate 

For full details please see http://12709Wynn.LoveTheGulf.com

Oppurtunities abound on this 14.4 acre (mol) estate.  This propety boasts one of Pasco counties highest elevations.  It boasts a new commercial grade well, and massive oaks throughout the property & a fireplace.  The large 4 bedroom home overlooks a pond .  It property is located on a private road.  The current owners operate this as a naturist park (nudist colony).  All this country living yet you are still just minutes from McDonalds, The Mall, Hudson Beach & the hospital.  All the privacey while still having all the conveniences of modern living

For full details please see http://12709Wynn.LoveTheGulf.com

 A Hudson Florida Realtors take on Florida Homebuyer Opportunity program

In an effort to jumpstart the lagging home sales in Florida, as well as to reduce inventory, The Florida Legislature has passed a bill that sets aside some $30 million to provide bridge loans to home buyers to be used at closing, in liew of the Federal governments Tax Credit, so the funds are readily available for down payment and closing costs.   There have been issues raised as a result of this.  One of the major hurdles was getting the IRS to allow the State to be assigned the Tax Credit, so instead of collecting it from the buyer they aided, the State of Florida would just collect it directly from the IRS.

This program, obviously follows the same guidelines as the Federal First time home Buyers program.   You must qualify:

• you, or your spouse,have not bought a house in the past 3 years, regardless of how whether your significant other is on the current contract to purcahse
• under $75k/year adjusted gross income ( $150k if filed jointly)
• for use on SFR, condo's and Townhomes
• and it is also important  to remember that the federal tax credit is actually 10% of the purchase price, with a limit of $8,000.  In a lot of areas in the country, it is a given that you can not buy a house for under $80,000, which is the lowest purchase price with the maximium tax credit.  But here in Florida and other hard hit states
• And lastly, the last day you can use this is Nov 30, 2009.  Come December the Federal program ends, and therefor so does the State program
• you can get the full details of that in my previous blog below, or here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1161789/i-am-sorry-but-you-do-not-qualify-for-the-1st-time-homebuyer-credit-by-a-realtor-in-hudson-florida

While this sounds great it is estimated that this will only help less than 4000 First time Home Buyers, or the entire state of Florida.  Which is not bad if you are one of the, but  now is not the Time to procrastinate.  Funds availability can be checked, and more detailed information can be found at State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) will administer the program, under the overall direction of the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.  Additional info can be found at https://www.floridarealtors.org/AboutFar/homebuyercenter/upload/Homebuyeropportunity.pdf

And remember to always use a Professsional Realtor when you decide to enter into a Real Estate Transaction 

Currently in Hudson teh worst property there is to sell is a Condo, I am afraid to say

While there are only 83 Condo's currently for sale, there are 0 under contract, and only 2 sold in May, down from 5 in April.  That means there is almost 3 1/2 years  inventory on the market 8-(

Now in a close second place would be the Mobile Home market in Hudson.  While there are only 66 mobile homes for sale currently, in May only 3 sold, down from 5 in April.   And there are only 5 units under contract presently.  That equates to 22 Months, almost 2 years, inventory on the market.

Now the Silver Lining on our dark cloud down here, If I can call it that, is the Single Family Residences.  While there are actually 533 units offered for sale, there are actually 112 under contract.  But the 'under contract' number is not exactly a good representation because 1/2 of those contracts could easily explode and fall apart before closing.  And while 38 made it to closing in May that is down from 45 sold in April.  That is a 15% decline month over month.  And it also means that there is only 14 months inventory on the market.   this is below average for the West Pasco area. 

What is going to get the market going?  Well surely the low interest mortgage rates are appealing, but they have been for some time.  The $8,000 first time home buyer assistance tax credit is another enticement, but in these hard economic times alot of people are still having trouble coming up with down payments/closing costs/ repair money for new home.  NAR just released that the average home buyer spends almost $5000 renovating/repairing their recently purchased home.

Now here in Florida, after a lot of pressure from the Florida Association of Realtors, our state government has authorized a bridge loan program, which enables first time home buyers to use the $8,000 'tax credit' as part of their down payment.  And while this may help the market in the near term, I have to wonder, is this not doing exactly what got us into such a dire situation?  If people need help getting enough money together to purchase a home, than are they not actually the same people who bought homes they could not afford, some with prime mortgages, and some with sub-prime, only to default later.   I hope we do not have a repeat, after all, we aer supposed to learn from our mistakes.  If one is to be successful in life, in any profession, than one has to not only be concerned with the near term, but also the Long Term, and to me it seems we are 'fixing our current problem' with the exact same practices that got us into this problem.  Helping people to buy house, whom without the governments help, they would not be able to afford it.

Lastly I will add just a note about an important piece that I rarely see in the discussions/news stories about the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit.   It is $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price of the house which ever is less.  So if you are buying a bargain at only $50,000, your tax credit will only be for $5,000