As we all know Real Estate prices are very attractive and Mortgage Interest Rates are at historically low rates.

The Real Estate Site Trulia published an interesting article about what is a better financial move… Should we Rent? Should we Buy? As per the study that included many several cities in USA including Miami; in Miami, Fl the Price vs Rent Ratio is 8.

“Price-to-Rent Ratio of 1-15: It is much less expensive to own than to rent a home in this city”

www.trulia.com

WESTON HILLS COUNTRY CLUB

SAVANNA

THE RIDGES

ISLES AT WESTON

THE MEADOWS

THE FALLS

THE LAKES

THE ISLANDS

EMERALD ESTATES

EMERALD ISLES

SAN REMO

SAN SEBASTIAN

HAMPTON ISLES

NEW RIVER ESTATES

BONAVENTURE

In March 2010 there were 63 Closings of Single Family Homes in Weston, Fl. Of those, 32% were “distress sales” (Short Sales and Foreclosures) which is consistent with the trend of the last few months. Fortunately most of our sales are regular sales and based on Month of Inventory Based on Closed Sales we are slightly in a sellers market with several offers competing for the best values. Buyers are being attracted mostly to properties that need little or none work and preferably with upgrades of which they will pay a fraction of the cost.

Detailed View of All Single Family Homes Sold in Weston on March 2010 (Data Obtained through MLS as of 4/7/2010)

Weston Hills Country Club

The Ridges

Savanna

Isles at Weston

The Landings

The Meadows

The Springs

The Islands

The Lakes

Country Isles

Bonaventure

Coral Harbour

Tequesta

The Falls

Emerald Courts

San Remo

Thinking of selling your home? Now might be a good time to put it on the market when the inventory of great properties for sale is low. For a FREE market analysis of your property contact me.

To stay updated with what’s going on in Weston and receive my blog posts directly to your inbox subscribe here.

As I was reading this article in the South Florida Business Journal Biz I started to play with numbers assuming two What if? scenarios… The article is based on a report prepared by IHS Global Insight and PNC Financial services Group released in March 2010 up to the 4th Quarter of 2009. The study comprises 330 Metro areas including Miami and Fort Lauderdale Metro Areas.
In the Summary they conclude:

• “Two years of relentless house price depreciation finally ended in the Summer of 2009. (…)”
• “We ended 2009 with no extremely overvalued metros, (…)”
• “For the Country as a whole, the housing market is now slightly undervalued. (…)”

Miami Metro Area:
2005 Q4       Price: $ 281,300  Overvaluation 49.4
2009 Q4       Price; $ 180,500  Overvaluation -15.6 (undervalued)
Fort Lauderdale Metro Area:
2005 Q4       Price: $ 259,400 Overvaluation 41.9
2009 Q4       Price; $ 146.600  Overvaluation -24.0 (undervalued)

Average Sold Price* for Miami and Fort Lauderdale Metro Areas: What if?

Based on average sold price I made calculations assuming the potential price increase that could have occurred if the real estate market had performed as expected (approx. 5% annual increases) or assuming properties would increase in price based on the average Inflation rate of the last 10 years (approx. 2.57%). If we take into consideration the projection based on a 5% annual increase in both Metro Areas the actual median price is below the projected price. If we compare it with a projected 2.57% annual increase in Dade the values are very close and in Broward the actual Average sold Price is significantly below the projection.

If we compare the data provided by the IHS Report and the data obtained from the MLS (trendgraphix), we can conclude that even though at some point prices in Dade were more overvalued than in Broward today we may say that Broward’s properties could be a better deal!

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Thinking of selling your home? Now might be a good time to put it on the market when the inventory of great properties for sale is low. For a FREE market analysis of your property call me at (954) 588-7260 or contact me.

In an effort to help distressed homeowners the Treasury Department released in November Guidelines to reduce the number of Foreclosures and ease the Short Sale Process. The program should be in effect on April 5th, 2010. Short Sales have been streamlined by Banks as time goes by it’s still a lengthy and painful process. In average a successful Short Sale Transaction had 2 or 3 Buyers during the process. The first one either tired or waiting or not interested in the price the Bank countered at opened the door for second or third Buyers.

Bank of America, is particularly known for its lengthy Short Sale Time line specially with Countrywide Loans. The process will be streamlined through the use of an interactive website easing communication and document uploading. Their goal is to offer pre-approved short sale solicitations and provide approvals within 2 weeks from the time an offer is submitted.

If you are a Bank of America borrower and you are considering a short sale, contact Bank of America Short Sale Team at 1-866-880-1232.

Wells Fargo created Field Short Sale Teams to provide local assistance to homeowners and their Real Estate Agents. Each case is reviewed by a Short Sale Specialist on site. Their goal is to obtain approvals within 7-10 Days and close in 37 days (from start to finish). For a limited time they are offering seller’s incentives to help with moving costs (your local short sale field rep will confirm availability).

If you need a market evaluation of your home to determine if you are facing a Short Sale scenario, please call me at (954) 588-7260 or e-mail me garcia.i@ewm.com

Make sure you list your property with a Real Estate Agent that will treat the Sale of your home with the same care and diligence as a non-distressed sale.

For additional information please contact Marisa Pia Capua of EWM Title at 305.960.3067.

Signs of a scam

To help protect yourself from scammers lookout for these six things .

1. Generic introductions such as “Dear Customer,” which indicate that the sender does not know you and should not be trusted.
2. Alarming or urgent statements that require you to respond immediately.
3. Requests for personal or financial information, such as user names or passwords, credit card or bank account numbers, social security numbers, date of birth, or other information that can be used to steal your identity.
4. Misspellings and grammatical errors, including Web addresses. The Web address might look very similar to the address of a legitimate business, with a minor change. For example, instead of www.microsoft.com, the scammer might use www.micrsoft.com. For more information, see Typos can cost you.
5. The text of the link in the e-mail message is different from the Web address that you are directed to when you click the link. You can determine the actual Web address for a link by hovering over the link without clicking it. The Web address appears in a text box above the link.
6. The “From” line in the original e-mail message to you shows a different Web address than the one that appears when you try to reply to the message.

What should you do if you notice suspicious activity?

If you think an e-mail message might be fraudulent, Microsfoft recommends taking the following precautions.

• Delete the message. Do not respond or click links in it.
• Report any suspicious activity. (See below for contact information.)
• If you believe that someone is using your Windows Live account, you can reset your password. Go to http://login.live.com and click Forgot your password?
• Fraudulent e-mail messages sometimes contain unwanted or malicious software (also known as malware). If you think you might have malware on your computer, go to safety.live.com and scan your computer to check for and remove unwanted software.

For more helpful tips from Microsoft or to report suspicious activity click here.

As of February 01, 2020 there are 318 Active Single Family Homes Listed in Weston,Fl

On the month of January, 2010 there were 32 Closed Sales
The proportion of Short Sales and regular sales have not changed much in the last few months.

For a detailed view of the Single Family Homes that closed in Weston on January 2010 click here.

If you want to compare with November and December activity you can read the related articles:
December 2009 Market Update
November 2009 Market Update

*Some Closed Sales may not be recorded yet in the MLS as of 2/1/2010

Thinking of selling your home? Now might be a good time to put it on the market when the inventory of great properties for sale is low. For a FREE market analysis of your property contact us.

The increase in closed sales can be found all around the West Broward. Interestingly Weston’s increase has not been as abrupt as in other areas. It may be caused by any or the combination of several reasons:

1. Weston’s sales and prices didn’t decrease as dramatically as other areas.

2. The fact that even though Weston was affected by the Real Estate crisis, the number of  foreclosed properties available for sale has been very low. In average we didn’t have more than 9 or 10 Foreclosed Single Family Homes available in the market.

3. The availability of properties in the lowest prices ranges. Weston didn’t have as many Single Family Homes under $200,000.00 or $ 300,000.00, as the other areas.

Thinking of selling your home? Now might be a good time to put it on the market when the inventory of great properties for sale is low. For a FREE market analysis of your property contact me.
To stay updated with what’s going on in Weston and receive my blog posts directly to your inbox subscribe here.