New Home Sales Rise YAY!

New home sales rose by 4.8% in September. That's a great positive sign that we could be seeing the beginning of the end of the real estate downturn that's been happening over the past 2 years.

FL House Passes Propert Tax Reform Package

The Florida House passes a tax reform package that will now go to the Senate for approval. Here is a complete article: http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n1-102307.cfm

Florida Property Insurance

Well, we're almost through the 2007 Hurricane season. If we get through this one without any major incidents - we should continue to see more loosening of the belt in the insurance industry. Companies will not have such an excuse to have such high rates!

FHA being Sued by Ameridream and Nehemiah

Ameridream and Nehemiah are non-profit real estate companies that help facilitate the 3% downpayment required by FHA borrowers as a gift coming from the seller. FHA Rules require the 3% down payment to come from the Borrower and one of the allowed sources of that down payment is through a gift. Ameridream and Nehemiah would "gift" the money to the buyer after the seller "donates" the same amount of money to the non-profit org. I was pretty surprised when I first heard about this practice and that FHA allowed it. I guess FHA finally got wise and said that it wasn't allowed anymore. That must have made Ameridream and Nehemiah pretty upset because now they are suing FHA.