By Jim Saunders A special session of the Florida Legislature meets next week, and lawmakers issued a formal proclamation saying they will consider hot-button insurance issues. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – With Florida’s property-insurance system in turmoil, state lawmakers could be poised to take major steps to try to stabilize the market during a special legislative session next week. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, released a formal session proclamation Tuesday that indicated lawmakers will consider a series of hot-button insurance issues. According to information from Florida Realtors’ Public Policy office, those goals include: Reducing the
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By Kerry Smith The single-family boom in hot markets’ exurbs is waning as the pandemic fades, though there’s also an industry-wide slowdown, according to NAHB’s quarterly analysis. WASHINGTON – The big jump in single-family home building activity in exurbs and outer suburbs sparked by the pandemic shutdowns has shown a marked decline over the past 12 months, according to the latest findings from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) for the third quarter of 2022. “The single-family construction slowdown is not just limited to regions of the country that experienced the fastest production growth
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By Richard Grant Few Miami residents buy inland to avoid coastal climate change risks. The reason for gentrification is the same: A chance to maximize profit on RE investments. MIAMI – Miami’s Little Haiti has been an immigrant community for decades. Its streets are lined with small homes and colorful shops that cater to the neighborhood, a predominantly Afro-Caribbean population with a median household income well below Miami’s. But Little Haiti’s character may be changing. A $1 billion real estate development called the Magic City Innovation District is planned in the neighborhood, with luxury high-rise apartments, high-end shops and glass
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Buyer demand has dropped due to rising rates, and seller supply slowed too, creating an uneasy balance. But if buyers drop or sellers expand more, it will impact prices. NEW YORK – The U.S. housing market is in an uneasy state of equilibrium. Demand has plummeted as mortgage rates hit a two-decade high, but prices haven’t declined much in part because supply remains correspondingly low. If borrowing costs don’t start to normalize by early next year though, the scales may finally tip. The start of the year, of course, is when homeowners and real estate agents start to bring new
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By Gina Rautenberg NAR: Agents can’t misrepresent a property, but they can enhance photos to improve them. However, the dividing line between those two things is murky. ORLANDO, Fla. – You can’t misrepresent a property, but there are ethical ways to use images generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to improve your clients’ experiences and better serve their needs. Artificial intelligence now makes it possible for you to send a listing photo, along with commands for whatever image enhancements you want, to an algorithm – and receive the enhanced photo in seconds. This new frontier for real estate technology may open
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Study: RE investors lean toward less-expensive, single-family homes, and that’s having an outsized impact on Black communities, turning residents into renters. NEW YORK – Florida homeowner Shaniqua Rose is used to fielding offers to sell her home in the historically Black community of Parramore in Orlando. “I actually got text messages three times in the last month, from the same phone number, asking to purchase my home,” says Rose, who grew up in the area and returned to purchase her own home in 2018. As a homeowner, Rose is in the minority among her neighbors. “Only 10% are owners,” she says.
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By Kerry Smith Loans for single units range from $472,030, the floor, to $1,089,300, the ceiling. For four units, it’s $907,000 to over $2M – and in some non-Fla. areas, over $3M. WASHINGTON – The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced new loan limits for calendar year 2023 for its Single Family Title II forward and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) insurance programs. For most of the country, loan limits will increase next year due to house price appreciation during the first half of 2022, which is factored into calculations FHA uses to determine the limits each year. The yearly increase calculations for FHA loans
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By Kerry Smith The U.S. has 49.5M rental units, and 46% are in buildings with four units or less. Of those, mom-and-pop investors own 70% – 1 out of 3 units nationwide. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Out of the 49.5 million rental housing units in the U.S., nearly 46% are located in properties with one-to-four units, according to the latest Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS) released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau. Of those small rental properties, individual investors own 70% (15.9 million). And of those, more than one-third (8.1 million) have
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By Kerry Smith One agent’s take: “Some sellers are having a hard time grasping that we’re not in a housing-market frenzy anymore … that they missed the boat on getting a high price.” SEATTLE – One out of every 50 housings listed for sales – a record 2% – were delisted each week on average during the 12 weeks ending Nov. 20 compared with 1.6% one year earlier, according to a report from Redfin. The share dropped to 1.9% for the 12 weeks ending Nov. 27, which includes the Thanksgiving holiday. Sellers pull their listing for a variety of reasons, but
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By Deanne M. Rymarowicz It’s not illegal to have a marketing service agreement (MSA), but the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) rules do tie your hands a bit. Here’s what you need to know for a successful MSA that doesn’t break the law. WASHINGTON – Marketing service agreements (MSAs) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) had an uneasy relationship before March 2021. In that month, however, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) offered some clarity. Real estate agents and broker still had to make sure their MSA adhered to RESPA, but some of the gray areas became
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