Over half of Fla.’s June sales were all-cash

ORLANDO, Fla. – Sept. 10, 2014 – Over half of Florida's June property sales (50.9 percent) were all-cash transactions, according to CoreLogic, an Irvine, California-based financial data company. Second-place Alabama had 48 percent all-cash sales.

In a comparison of large U.S. cities, Cape Coral-Fort Myers led the nation in all-cash sales at 61.2 percent, and four other Sunshine State cities followed it: West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach (60.6 percent), North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton (59.8 percent), Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall (58.7 percent) and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach (58.5 percent).

Other states rounding out the top spots for all cash sales are New York (44.6 percent), Kentucky (40.1 percent) and Nevada (40 percent).

Nationally, however, all-cash sales made up 33 percent of all transactions – the lowest percentage since September 2008, according to CoreLogic. The share of all-cash sales has fallen year-to-year since January 2013.

Before the housing meltdown, cash sales historically made up about 25 percent of all transactions. They reached their peak (46.2 percent) in January 2011.

The Washington, D.C. area had the lowest cash sales nationally at 15.6 percent.

© 2014 Florida Realtors®

Tubs passé as more owners opt for walk-in showers

PHILADELPHIA – Sept. 8, 2014 – More metropolitan bathrooms are being built or renovated without a tub. A survey this year of 7,645 homeowners by Houzz Inc. found that four out of 10 respondents opted to forgo bathtubs during renovations – even in the master suite.

The design trend is driven by older homeowners with mobility concerns and younger people who simply prefer showers to baths.

"We're seeing much more demand for walk-in showers," says Nick Meli Jr., owner of a contracting firm in Center City. Millennials "don't take baths; they want to shower, get in and get out. Soaking in a tub? No way, their homes are a place to sleep and then leave for work. Older people don't want tubs because they're 20 inches from the floor; they can't step over them."

While real estate insiders say removing tubs used to be taboo – especially in homes with only one bathroom – they agree this design choice no longer necessarily lowers property value.

Source: Philly.com (08/24/14) Arvedlund, Erin

25% of international investors buy a home in Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. – Sept. 8, 2014 – U.S. real estate appeals to foreign buyers, and a large number of them settled on property in Florida – about 25 percent of all international U.S. home purchases to foreign buyers, according to the 2014 report "Profile of International Home Buyers in Florida."

In the 12 months that ended in June 2014, the dollar value of purchases in Florida hit $7.97 billion – a 24 percent increase over the amount spent ($6.43 billion) the year before. About one in 10 property purchases (10 percent) in the state (26,500) involved a foreign buyer, an increase from 9 percent the year before.

Two major trends drove the increase in foreign buyers: A continuing recovery of the world's economy and the affordability of U.S. properties.

U.S. and Florida residential prices remain affordable to most international homebuyers, and they buy property that, overall, costs more than the mean price paid by domestic buyers. In Florida, 76 percent of all Realtors cited less expensive property as a top reason for purchase.

Countries

Canadian buyers accounted for the largest share of international clients (32 percent), followed by:

• Western Europe: 24 percent; primarily from the United Kingdom, France and Germany

• Latin America/Caribbean: 23 percent: primarily from Brazil and Venezuela

• Asia: 10 percent; primarily from China

Florida destinations

Sales to non-resident international clients as percent of international sales:

• Orlando-Kissimmee: 11 percent

• Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater: 11 percent

• Miami-Miami Beach: 10 percent

• Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice: 8 percent

• Fort Lauderdale: 8 percent

Other key findings:

• 52 percent of Florida Realtors reported international clients (national average: 28 percent)

• 19 percent of Florida Realtors with international clients reported 6 or more clients (national average: 12 percent)

• 20 percent with international clients said they accounted for 26 percent or more of their transactions (national average: 15 percent)

• 29 percent reported that their percentage of international clients increased in the last five years (national average: 20 percent)

Market success

Realtors dealing with international clients say the key to success is understanding the culture, concerns and language of potential foreign clients; reaching out through personal contacts and online tools; and assisting potential foreign buyers through the regulatory and financial process, especially for agents on the buy-side of the transaction.

According to the survey, Realtors also said that relaxing current visa restrictions on a length of stay would attract additional international clients.

© 2014 Florida Realtors®

Baller! Heat’s Mario Chalmers Offers Sweet Miami Condo for $4M

Opulent. Lavish. Extravagant.

These are just a few of the words that come to mind on looking at the condo—the 5,500-square-foot condo—that two-time NBA champion Mario Chalmers has listed for sale in Miami.

That’s 5,500 square feet … in a condo. Our brains hurt just thinking about that.

(Per the fine folks at the Los Angeles Times, the asking price is $4 million.)

This is the world of celebrity real estate, and thus, a world of material excess.

The property, which the Miami Heat point guard purchased for $2.4 million from rap superstar Drake back in 2012, has five bedrooms and five full bathrooms—did we mention that this is a condo?—and sits perched high above Biscayne Bay and the emerald-green Atlantic Ocean in the celebrity playground of Miami.

In short, it is swank.

You couldn’t swing a carp around in this place without smacking into one of the best views of the ocean you’ve ever seen.

Floor-to-ceiling glass around the perimeter of the baller’s home seem to go on endlessly (seriously … the ceilings in here are so high that the photographer couldn’t get the entire view in the pictures).

There’s a chef-quality kitchen with all the requisite high-end cooking paraphernalia, a full-service wet bar, a den, a game room with billiards table, two laundry rooms (do celebrities create more dirty laundry than the rest of us?), four parking spaces (natch), and terraces that provide views of the water positively to die for.

Mario Chalmers, who’s played with the Heat for his entire six-year career, averaged 9.8 points and 4.9 assists per game in 73 contests during the 2013-14 NBA season as his team lost in the NBA Finals. For a mere supporting cast member of a star-studded team, Chalmers has done just fine for himself, if this condo is any indication.

We still are not sure if you have to be a sports star or an über rapper to live in this joint—listing agent Tomi Rose of Opulence International Realty can tell you for sure—but we do know that it’ll take a lot of Benjamin’s to make it yours.

All-Star Living: Magglio Ordóñez Offering Fort Lauderdale Palace for $4.4M

At this very moment, every member of the team here is trying to figure out how to channel the talent necessary to be an All-Star baseball player.

The reason?

All-Star baseball players get to live in places like this.

This is the Fort Lauderdale home of six-time MLB All-Star Magglio Ordóñez. It’s got six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and weighs in at just over 8,000 square feet. All of this is situated in Nurmi Isles and comes equipped with 120 feet of water frontage—complete with its own dock—on the canal.

We want one.

When you look at gajillion dollar homes day in and day out, it’s easy to get a little jaded about it. It’s easy to say, “Yeah, that’s okay … I guess.” But with this? Jaws are dropping to the floor left and right. That’s really saying something.

Listed by Giselle Bonetti of Coldwell Banker Previews International, this place is loaded: there are all KINDS of goodies in here.

There’s a summer kitchen (of course) and a glittering pool with spa that overlooks—naturally—the canal and all its Floridian glory. As we mentioned, there’s a big ol’ dock that can accommodate an 80-foot yacht.

(EIGHTY feet. You know, if you have one of those hanging around without a place to berth it.)

The indoor kitchen is loaded with gorgeous travertine tile, delicious custom cabinetry, every high-end appliance you could shake a stick at, and the coolest wrought-iron pot rack we’ve ever seen.

And now we’re feeling a lot like Veruca Salt over here, because we keep saying, “We want it!”

Oh, and check out the staircase. Seriously, look at this thing. The wrought iron scrollwork on it and the banisters above are gorgeous—delicately intricate, gorgeous.

(We already said that, we know.)

Have you ever seen anything like that? We’re salivating over here.

We could go on and on about this place—there’s stained glass everywhere, a ridiculous granite-topped bar, a spa, his-and-hers master bathrooms, a sumptuously paneled office, and an elevator, for Pete’s sake.

But we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, and they have a lot to say, we think.

“We truly enjoyed building this home from the ground up,” said Dagley Ordóñez, Magglio’s wife. “The large, spacious room and the fine details of the home are what standout like the hand-carved wooden railings and moldings, custom build outs and wall finishes. We loved being near the water and having our own small piece of the ‘Venice of the America’.”

Magglio Ordóñez played 15 years in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. He won the Silver Slugger Award three times and was the American League batting champion in 2007 with the Tigers, hitting .363 for Detroit. Overall, Magglio finished his career with a .309 batting average.

So if you’re ready for your bit of Italy on the Floridian seacoast—and you have the scratch from your own All-Star career—get to the plate on this one fast: swankier digs, we think, will be very hard to find.

Why the upswing in number of single buyers?

CHICAGO – Sept. 2, 2014 – Seventy-five percent of single homeowners ages 25 to 50 who recently bought property say that homeownership is important to them, according to a Century 21 survey. Single homebuyers made nearly one-third of all real estate purchases in 2013, according to data from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

These are the top three reasons: They viewed homeownership as an investment in their financial future; they were tired of paying rent; and they thought it was the right time to purchase a home.

"This survey shows that homeownership is a major life decision for singles, and that it is just as important a part of the American Dream for them as it is for married couples," says Rick Davidson, president and chief executive officer of Century 21 Real Estate LLC.

Buying roadblocks

Nearly two-thirds of single homebuyers surveyed said it wasn't easy to achieve homeownership because the process intimidated them, and they had to make several sacrifices in order to buy a home.

The most intimidating parts of the homebuying process included making an offer and negotiating a price (38 percent); obtaining a mortgage (36 percent); moving (31 percent); closing (30 percent); and searching for and locating a home (25 percent).

Singles also say they had to make several lifestyle sacrifices: 60 percent had to dine out less to purchase a home, and half said they had to cut back on entertainment. Fifty-one percent say they had to spend less on vacations.

Home preferences

What were their most important considerations in buying a home? Single homeowners rated space and square footage (59 percent); the yard (57 percent); and proximity to work or school (47 percent) as the most important criteria in their house hunt, according to the Century 21 survey.

Good cell service and proximity to public transportation also tended to be more important to single homeowners 25 to 35 years old than those 36 to 50 years old.

The younger set was also more likely to say they searched for real estate on their mobile devices.

Report: It’s cheaper to live in Florida than Northeast

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Sept. 2, 2014 – Contrary to some consumer perceptions, it's cheaper to live in Florida than most of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states, according to a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

A study by the Tax Foundation showed that $100 in Florida buys $101.21 worth of goods, based on the national average. In the Northeast, only Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Maine stretched their dollars further.

$100 in New York only buys $86.66 worth of goods, according to the report. The D.C. area is the nation's most expensive, with $100 only getting $84.60.

The figure is a statewide average. However, as the Clearwater Gazette reported, prices spike near cities, and Florida is no exception – but prices in and around Tampa are still cheaper than New York City and Boston.

The Tax Foundation's figures are based on housing costs, state income taxes and average price of goods in the area.

Florida is far from the biggest value. That honor goes to Mississippi, where $100 can get you almost $116 worth of stuff.