Inside Tampa Bay Real Estate

There's been a lot of interesting news out the past two days so I'm combining them into one article.

2007 FLORIDA LEGISLATURE

One hand may not know what the other hand is doing: The Florida House wants to get rid of property taxes; at the same time, however, it has told local school boards to increase property taxes if they need more money to operate. Read complete story.

In Tallahassee yesterday, the Senate began their debate on property tax reform, focusing on a priority of commercial Realtors to change the tax basis of “highest and best use” to one that considers how a property is actually used. In the House, debate continued as Democrats offered their own reform plan.

Read the full story

SUBPRIME MORTGAGES

Subprime mortgage market troubles already make it more difficult for some homebuyers to secure a mortgage, but fear of a broad collapse has caused Congress to consider tougher standards for the industry.

This is the lastest update regarding the development status of Trump Tower Tampa which is timely due to today's St. Pete Times article.

Simdag now has a signed Letter of Intent with The Related Group of Florida, who will serve as a co-developer of the project. The Related Group has a long history of developing luxury high-rise buildings in South Florida, and are currently developing several Trump projects in the Miami area. PCL will remain as the General Contractor for the Trump Tower Tampa project.

With The Related Group involved with this project, they are confident that they will be able to negotiate significantly better construction costs and much more favorable lending terms. Related has already begun re-bidding subcontractor contracts, and those bids are all due this week. They will be reviewing all new subcontractor bids, and will be awarding contracts shortly. Once this process is complete, they will be able to go back to their lenders with a new construction cost figure to secure the required financing.

Simdag also states that soil and geotechnical studies are complete, and they now have the remedy for the soil abnormalities which have contributed to the construction delays. The additional costs for these remedies are not uncommon in large scale developments and are being factored into the new construction financing.

According to Simdag, the purchase price as stated in the original purchase contracts will not be affected.

According to Simdag the new completion date has been moved to late 2009 with construction scheduled to restart in june 2007.

How long will a home improvement actually remain an improvement? How long do new wood floors last? New stoves? A new countertop? NAHB conducted a study that tries to determine the lifespan of home components.

An alternative House Republican plan to swap property taxes for sales taxes began to gather steam Friday. The idea is to eliminate the portion of property tax bills that go to school districts and pay for education through a higher sales tax. To read the entire story click here.

The nation's unemployment rate dipped to 4.5% in February, as employers added 97,000 jobs to their payrolls, close to economists' forecast for a gain of approximately 100,000, the Labor Department reported March 9. Unemployment fell despite bad winter weather that forced construction companies to slash 62,000 jobs, the most since 1991.

The Labor Department also reported that the number of laid-off workers filing unemployment claims fell by 10,000 for the week ended March 2. The decline provided a break from a recent rise in layoffs stemming from a weakness in the housing and auto sectors.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said there was a "one-third probability" of recession in the United States this year, according to a March 6 interview with Bloomberg news service. His comments contrasted with those of current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said that the Federal Reserve continues to foresee "moderate growth going forward."

The nation's trade deficit narrowed slightly to $59.1 billion in January, down 3.8% from a December deficit of $61.5 billion. Exports of goods and services rose by 1.1% to an all-time high of $126.7 billion in January, reflecting gains in sales of airplanes, computers and farm products.

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to their lowest level since mid-December, as investors moved to the safety of bonds after last week's stock market turmoil. Typically, more money flowing into the bond market makes more money available for mortgage lending.

This week look for updates on producer prices on March 15 and consumer prices on March 16.

Welcome to my "Inside Tampa Bay Real Estate Blog". It sure is nice weather we are having down here. Have a look around if you are planning on moving to the Tampa Bay area. "The Tampa Bay area is such a great place to live and raise a family with it’s strong influence of Midwestern core valves and the understated charm of the south along with some of the most beautiful white sandy beaches in the world.” by Tom Burkett.