Lawsuit filed against growth management bill
Lawsuit filed against growth management bill
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Associations lose some power over lawns
A new law allows homeowners to ignore some community’s covenants and deed restrictions if they create a Florida-friendly yard.
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Affordable housing developers sue state
Affordable housing developers sue state
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Builders offer delayed payments, low rates, layoff insurance
MIAMI – Feb. 10, 2009 – Some of the biggest home builders in the country are offering perks that go beyond upgrades, vacations and paid closing costs. These incentives could further burden their cash flow, but they are pulling out all the stops to close sales at a time when competition with discounted foreclosures is fierce and many consumers have lost their jobs.
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New standards needed for elderly, disabled to remain in homes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – July 1, 2008 – “Build it and they will stay” would be wise policy with today’s growing number of elderly and disabled people who want to remain in their own homes, a new University of Florida study finds.
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UF offers nation’s first master’s degree in environmental and land use law
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – June 13, 2008 – The world currently faces shortages of water, increasing developmental pressures and the threat of climate change.
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SMART GROWTH
NAR awarded the Hernando County Association of Realtors $1,642 to produce a series of workshops on affordable housing and smart growth – the only Florida state association to receive funds from the national association’s Smart Growth Action Grants program. A total of $48,262 was awarded to 13 local and state Realtor associations.
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ST. JOE GOES GREENE
Peter Rummell, the 11-year head of the St. Joe Co. who transformed vast areas of the Florida Panhandle from forest to subdivision, announced his retirement as CEO from the company. St. Joe, the state’s largest private owner of land, will now be headed by Britton Greene, current president and COO. According to Rummell, his departure has nothing to do with the slowdown in home sales that created, as he says, the worst residential real estate market that he’s seen in 37 years.
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Hometown Democracy fails to make it onto November ballot
TALLAHASEE, Fla. – Feb. 4, 2008 – The proposed Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment did not get enough voter signatures by its Friday deadline to make it onto the November 2008 ballot. But supporters say it will be back in 2010 and, given the number of signatures still needed, they’re probably right.
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HOMEBUILDERS CUT OPTIONS
Homebuilders are slashing the number of options they offer, seeking standardization and simplification to save millions of dollars and survive the housing slump. “If you don’t like cookie-cutter housing, you’re not going to like the next several years,” says Eric Landry, a Morningstar analyst.
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No Deal For Briny Breezes
The sale of Briny Breezes, a Florida trailer park, would have made each resident a millionaire. But the deal is dead. It’s one of the last South Florida sites with land on the Intracoastal and Atlantic Ocean, giving a developer the freedom to build a multiuse complex. The deal was not without controversy.
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Small is beautiful, homebuilders say
LOS ANGELES – July 9, 2007 – Builders are learning that smaller, affordable homes have big selling power in the sluggish housing market.
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HUD calls on cities to ease restrictions on workforce housing
According to HUD, unnecessary regulations are pricing housing out of the reach of millions of working families. HUD called on local governments to cut excessive regulations that drive up housing costs, and 11 communities in Florida so far have agreed to reexamine their regulations.
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Who needs the city? Not the booming ‘burbs
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – June 6, 2007 – The traditional urban model of the central city serving as an economic and cultural center hub for the suburbs is fast disappearing in many areas of the country.
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Don’t fence me out
NEW YORK – May 29, 2007 – The loss of open space is prompting many Americans to decry gated residential communities, many of which block access to hiking trails and other areas once at the disposal of the public.
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Can Florida save itself from sprawl?
ORLANDO, Fla. – May 25, 2007 – If Florida continues to grow at its current rate, by mid-century, a third of the land will be covered in roads, homes, and businesses. And the population will double to about 36 million, fueling sprawl across most of the peninsula, according to a study commissioned by the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at the University of Central Florida.
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Development, measured by the foot?
NEW YORK – May 23, 2007 – New Urbanists maintain that homeowners are more likely to abandon their cars if neighborhood blocks are shorter than 600 feet. However, a new study by the RAND Corp. that looks at the Congress for New Urbanism’s New Urbanism Smart Scorecard and the 1995 National Personal Transportation Survey reveals that other design elements are more likely to encourage pedestrianism.
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For boomers, the house of the future
NEW YORK – March 13, 2007 – By the end of the decade, 33 percent of Americans will be in the 50-and-up age segment; but a growing number of baby boomers already are considering accessibility when purchasing a new home.
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Going green
Venture capitalists are putting more of their money into green construction materials, pushing the industry forward fast.
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UF Study: Historic preservation enhances Floridians’ quality of life
Historic preservation is a good thing, proponents say, because it enhances Floridians’ “quality of life.” But “quality of life” -- a subjective measurement of happiness -- may soon have a dollar value attached to it, thanks to a UF model that attempts to quantify the monetary value of historic preservation projects.
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NAR Building in the Spotlight
NAR Building in the Spotlight
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Infrastructure funding crisis affects housing
Reduced federal funding has left states and cities scrambling for ways to fund infrastructure improvements -- from deteriorating bridges and highways to the growing demand for mass transit -- necessary to handle population growth.
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Preservationists cheer as teardowns decline
As real estate cooled this year, teardowns dropped by at least 20 percent nationally, roughly corresponding to the drop in housing starts, according to NAHB.
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Study pinpoints best U.S. markets to invest
The top U.S. markets for real estate investment prospects next year are global gateway metros such as New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, according to the latest outlook for real estate investment and development trends released by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the Urban Land Institute.
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Study identifies areas of fastest growth, aging
The most significant factors that will affect housing during the coming years will be whether aging baby boomers decide to grow old where they are and where young immigrants decide to settle, according to a new study released by the MBA.
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HUD: $45.5M to give at-risk young people careers building affordable housing
HUD is offering $45.5M in grants to help thousands of "at-risk" young people establish careers in the construction trades by learning to build affordable housing.
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Issues watch: Impact fees
Commissioners in Manatee County have voted to increase impact fees, despite critics’ concerns about the effect the added costs could have on affordable housing and local businesses.
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Retirement living: Forget golf courses, beaches & mountains
Retirees still want to settle in warm areas with plenty of leisure activities, but a sense of community and close proximity to grandchildren increasingly are becoming top priorities.
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Gov. Bush awards defense infrastructure grants
Gov. Jeb Bush announced defense grant awards totaling more than $4.2 million to 13 projects throughout the state to improve defense infrastructure. The Florida Defense Infrastructure Grant Program
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U.S. population growth drives sprawl
As the U.S. population tops 300 million, the country is losing 6,000 acres of open space to development a day, nearly four acres a minute.
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Incredible shrinking lots
The detached, single-family home with a big yard is disappearing -- and where it still exists, few buyers can afford it.
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Exurbs more diverse
“The ‘exurbs’ do not abound nor fit a single, neat stereotype, according to "Finding Exurbia: American’s Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe," a recent study published by The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
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Camp condos popular second homes
With land values rising, an increasing number of resort owners are converting their resorts into for-sale RV parks and cooperatives. Properties with park model-style RVs are growing in popularity among those who would like a second home but can’t afford to pay $300,000 for one.
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Great places to invest in real estate
The magazine Business 2.0 has published its list of thetop 10 places to invest in real estate in the next 12 months. It includes Panama City, Vero Beach, and Lakeland
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TICs: Buying a small part of something big
Tenant-in-common (TIC) programs provide a way to keep money invested in real estate without the stresses of being a landlord.
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Everyone must live somewhere
Yesterday, the U.S. population hit 300 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- and all those people must live somewhere. But wait; there's more: The Census Bureau expects a surge in the country's population to 400 million during the next 35 years, with immigrants accounting for most of those newcomers.
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Del Webb changed our definition of retirement
By year's end, Del Webb will be selling homes in 20 states -- including chilly locations like Michigan, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
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How housing cooldown affects small firms
The housing cooldown will slow the launch rate of new businesses, which often are financed with home equity loans ¬– which are likely to become more difficult to obtain if equity levels drop.
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HUD fiscal year 2007
HUD has published its Early Registration Notice for applicants to apply for funding under HUD's competitive grant programs. Applications are available at Grants.gov
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It's hip to be modular
There were 44,000 modular homes erected last year, up 26 percent from 1995, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
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Multifamily homes re-emerge as investment
In the past several years, more and more developers and landlords have turned many multifamily properties into for-sale condominiums to take advantage of a hot homebuying market
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Pending home sales level
Home sales, PHSI, are expected to hold fairly steady in the months ahead, according to the latest reading on pending home sales published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). |
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