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Foreclosure filings across Broward and Palm Beach counties are down in July by more than 50 percent compared with a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based listing firm. Nationally, foreclosure activity hit a 44-month low. It’d be great if all this were a sign of an improving economy, but it’s not. “This string of decreases was initially triggered by the robo-signing controversy back in October 2010, which forced lenders to substantially slow the pace of foreclosing, but the downward trend in foreclosure activity has now taken on […]

One of the most common pitfalls that LGBT buyers and home sellers make is that they don’t spend enough time and energy choosing their gay Realtor. But choosing a gay-friendly or LGBT real estate agent can make all the difference in the world. An expert gay Realtor can save you time, money, and headaches – while making the home buying or selling process smoother, easier, and more rewarding. Here are three tips for hiring a great gay or LGBT friendly real estate agent: Find Out their Specialty  There are many […]

Here’s great news that hopefully sticks: Foreclosure filings in Mecklenburg County for July fell — make that plummeted — to just half the number filed in July 2010, according to Thursday’s report from research firm RealtyTrac Total filings for Mecklenburg for July: 702. In July 2010: 1,441. That’s a 51% decline. July’s numbers are also down 29% from June 2011, when 992 filings were recorded. The figures compiled by RealtyTrac include default notices, lis pendens, foreclosure actions and auctions, and lender repossessions. The number of homes seized by financial institutions […]

Foreclosure rates continue to decrease dramatically year-over-year in the Memphis area and across the nation, but the slowdown necessarily doesn’t portend positive news, according to RealtyTrac Inc. RealtyTrac Inc. Latest from The Business Journals Home foreclosures up 10 percent in Austin areaRealtyTrac: Foreclosures fall to 44-month low; California still one of top statesWashington state’s foreclosure rate falls Follow this company ’s latest monthly data. RealtyTrac reported there were 547 foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — in July in the greater Memphis market, down 61 percent […]

As the housing bust moves through a sixth year, you find something to celebrate wherever you can. Home values in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties rose 1.1 percent in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, according to data released Tuesday by Zillow.com. It was the first quarterly increase for the three-county region since June 2006. “That’s good news,” said Svenja Gudell, senior economist for Zillow, a Seattle-based real estate website. “We’re seeing the first signs of stabilization in that market.” Now, for the disclaimer: Zillow doesn’t expect […]

Grammy Award-winning singer Sheryl Crowrecently bought a $5.2 million, 50-acre estate in the Forest Hills area of Nashville. The purchase of the property off of Hillsboro Pike and an adjacent tract of land was recorded under the Joel William Vuylsteke Trust, according to Davidson County property records. Bill Vuylsteke is Crow’s financial manager. Multiple real estate sources confirmed Crow as the buyer. The seller was Jefferson and Lori Orr. Crow’s 154-acre farm 40 minutes south of Nashville in College Grove is listed for $4.5 million, 40 percent less than last year’s asking […]

One Southern California community wants to make sure you don’t “lose that loving feeling” for a Tom Cruise blockbuster movie that put it on the map 25 years ago. That’s because the “Top Gun House,” a historic Oceanside, CA bungalow used as the home of fictional character “Charlie” (Kelly McGillis) and key rendezvous point with movie love interest “Maverick” (Cruise) will be saved and restored in a $209 million project approved by the Oceanside City Council. Top Gun was the top-grossing movie of 1986 and while much of the action […]

Combination of crushed prices, lots of vacancies and down economy have these cities reeling For three years, the real estate market has been going in one direction — primarily down. Some areas, however, have begun to recover. Recent S&P/Case-Shiller data show that among the top 20 housing markets in the U.S., 18 had very modest improvements in sales prices during May. Others, like Washington and Boston, have began to at least stabilize from a year ago. Few markets, however, can match Washington and Boston. Robert Shiller has been stating that home […]

Buying Investment Property – What is a “Good” deal? Let’s look at a tried and true way to measure rental property investment returns and what we as buyers should be looking for in our purchases. Total investment returns in real estate are really comprised of two pieces: operating positive cash flows and long-term appreciation. In today’s world, even though it probably will come, we cannot count upon and should not consider long term appreciation. That leaves positive operating cash flows as our primary source of investment return. Let’s call this: “earning money […]

Finding the bright spots In July, TheSlate.com outlined their top 10 cities that were “unaffected” by the down economy, naming Elko, NV in the tenth spot followed by Pittsburgh, Boston, Albany, Dallas, Boulder, Madison, Augusta, Washington D.C., with the number one spot given to Austin. We added housing data to the top 10 list to see if we could agree with the list and found that most of the housing data was favorable and the list wasn’t far out of line. This week, CNBC released their “10 cities virtually untouched […]