County to help local builders by waving impact fees

Impact fees, highly opposed by the building community when set in place in 2005 in Bay County, were all but eliminated this week. The fees that are associated with fire protection, parks and the library needs were cut in half and the transportation impact fees were dropped all together for the next 18 months. Not all commissioners agreed, but developers were happy.

On the Burnie Thompson show on Talk Radio 101 yesterday morning, this issue was discussed with Daryl Day of Dayco Construction and a couple of callers that disagreed with the impact fee reduction. More after the break.

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National Homes Sales Up

As reported by the National Association of Realtors, national existing home sales were up in February 2.9% to a pace of 5.03 million units, up from 4.89 million in January. This is still 23.8% below February 2007, but Lawrence Yun said “the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing.”

The national median home price is down from last year ($213,500) to $195,900, mostly the result of the slowdown in sales being greater in higher-cost areas.

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2007 Panama City Beach Condo Market (cont.)

In an effort to answer some questions about the analysis he provided on the condo market in Panama City Beach, Sam Portmans from CondoSaleTrends.com offered the following:

In order to have an intelligent discussion about market value, market trends, and the data used to evaluate the market, we have to agree on the definition of market value.

There are two relevant types of value, Current Market Value and Speculative Value. Current market value is what lenders and the banking system have agreed to use. When the definition of current market value is boiled down to its essence, it is the highest price that will attract a buyer over a defined marketing period. Implicit in this definition, is that there is always a buyer at market value. Say you have given yourself six months to sell your unit. After six months it has not sold and your Realtor tells you that there are just no buyers out there. What he is really telling you is that there are no buyers out there willing to purchase at above the current market value. If your unit has not sold in six months, it is priced too high to sell. There are always buyers at market value. Buyers don’t care what you paid or what you think your unit is worth. Buyers pay market value 99 percent of the time.

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Coastal 3000 – The Beach, the projected new brand for our area

Yesterday morning I went to a chamber event with Andy Phillips, the Vice Chair of Coastal 3000, presenting what is to be the Brand for our area – The Beach. The idea is for business and community leaders to team up and create a brand for our area to boost national awareness of our pristine beaches.

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Charles Faircloth Estate Auction a Success

Well, success is a relative term. I think they sold everything, but are they going to be able to pay off his debts with what they made? I doubt it. Up for auction was around 150 total properties that ranged from off-the-beach townhomes to multi-acre beach-front tracts. Auctioneers John Roebuck and Chris Camp blew through the properties in right around 3 hours.

Click the “more” link for a list of some of the big properties sold and a sampling of some of the small ones.

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Charles Faircloth Estate to be sold in Auction Friday 3/14/2008

image sourced from roebuckauctions.com

On Friday, the estate of the late Charles Faircloth will be sold at auction at the Bay Point Marriott in Panama City Beach. Roebuck Auctions is holding the auction of more than 150 properties including anything from an 8+ acre beach-front tract to single family homes and one-off condos in occupied buildings/resorts.

It is estimated that the value of his estate is around $250 million.

Click the “more” link for info on the big tracts, details of when the auction is and who to contact if interested.

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Jobs slashed, will the Fed cut rates again?

As if January wasn’t bad enough with 22,000 job cuts, the February report showed job cuts of 63,000 marking two months in a row in declines. Most of the big cuts came from construction , manufacturing, retailing , financial services and a variety of professional and business services.

With a total of $160 billion short-term loans provided to banks since December, the Federal Reserve announced that it will increase the amount of loans it will make this month to $100 billion.

In response, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that he is prepared to lower interest rates at their next meeting to help continue to give the economy a boost. Some economists are estimating a .75% cut.

Click the “more” link for the entire article.

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2007 Panama City Beach Condo Market

Sam Portmans from CondoSaleTrends.com regularly releases reports on the condo market and updates on what the buying, selling, pricing trends are.

I hadn’t seen one in a while, but he just sent me his annual report of 2007. I must warn you, it seems sort of doomy-gloomy, but the report is based on sales facts, not opinions. A friend of mine always says, “We are where we are”, and that couldn’t be more true in this case. It is no secret the real estate market is hurting right now. All of us in the real estate business are dreaming of days where we aren’t living paycheck to paycheck.

These are the facts, click the “more” link for the entire report.

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The Fed reports that more needs to be done about foreclosures

With foreclosures on the rise and market instability increasing, The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke urged lenders Tuesday to help distressed owners by lowering mortgage amounts. He warned that foreclosures and late house payments are likely to rise a while longer, even with the efforts of industry and the government to curb a recession. Many lenders have increased their loss-mitigation options and grown more willing to work with owners in threat of default.

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Shores of Panama files for Bankruptcy

In an effort to continue operations after over 100 purchasers initiated the process to get out of their contracts, the Shores of Panama has filed for protection under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

The Shores of Panama consists of 709 condos in a 22 story building on Front Beach Road. When they were marketing and selling this project, huge emphasis was placed on the expansive resort-style amenity area. Situated right across from Laketown Wharf, the Shores of Panama is a beach-front U-shaped building.

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