Baseball

Speaking of walking...walked from downtown to McKechnie Field to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Baltimore Orioles in Spring Training (Grapefruit League) last night.  First, the walk was refreshing, second, the weather was beautiful and, third, even though the Pirates lost, there was a great fireworks display after the game.

March is our biggest month for tourists in this area, for the weather, but also for the baseball fans!  The Pirates have returned to Bradenton for over 40 years now.  And, Sarasota is the new winter home of the Orioles. Avid fans follow their teams and enjoy foot long hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn and singing "Take me out to the Ball Game" an extra month of the year down here.  McKechnie Field now has lights and is available for rent for events too...imagine a wedding at home plate...happened here last year!

And, of course, the icing on the cake for the locals is that these teams bring in revenue for their counties and the teams are active contributors to local events and needs.

Walkable Communities

This morning I attended a very interesting presentation by Dan Burden, the guru of walking/biking communities.  Sarasota and Bradenton have a wealth of water ways and water fronts and water activities.  The livability of our communities depends on the future success of our civic leaders further developing these fine cities into walkable/bikable communities.  Sarasota, St. Armand's and Bradenton Beach have led the way with their wonderful walkability and Bradenton is working hard to develop it's riverfront and downtown.  There are lots of wonderful ideas, including public art and social gathering areas and volunteerism that need the support of the community.

Mr Burden has a wonderful web site http://www.walklive.org/ that I recommend.  This concept embraces many walks of life...public health, social services, transportation, commercial and residential real estate, merchants, store owners and governmental workers...all working in concert to encourage developing our downtowns as destinations and not as cities to  drive through. 

Free! Free! Free!

One thing that continues to amaze me around the Sarasota/Bradenton area is how many things are free.  There are plenty of concerts, plays, movies and other entertainment that cost money too.  But, you can go to free events with good music, free outdoor movies in the park, free art shows, art walks and free car shows on a regular schedule here!  Not to mention the free boat launches, the free beaches, the free parking at the beach, even free parking on the street in downtown Bradenton!  And, of course, how can anyone match the beauty of the free sunsets at Anna Maria Island.  Taking pictures of the beautiful birds, foliage and beaches is one of my favorite "free" things to do!

"Season"

Wow, the social calendar is in full swing around here! And the real estate market is coming back to life! Snowbirds are moving in and the hunt for real estate is beginning in earnest now for those who have been "hovering" for the past few years. The buyers are competing with investors for properties under 100K and cash is still king. Lots of interesting things are happening here so I will start blogging on a regular basis now.

One topic I am particularly interested in is the new building for the Manatee Players! With the downturn of the economy they have struggled to keep their donations coming in and the current season is still being held in the old building. Good things are starting to happen for them too and they are now beginning to finish up the exterior of the building. If you get a chance to drive by the new location be sure to check out their progress!

Catching Up on Real Estate News

It has been a slippery slope in the real estate industry since I last posted a blog! I couldn't figure out how to post my last one and so I dropped the idea, but now I'm back!! For 3 years now we have been in a declining real estate market. At first, hardly anyone realized it was any more than a pullback from the outrageous pricing in the previous two years, '04 and '05. Then, prediction after prediction came out by all sorts of organizations and economists stating we would recover by a certain date. Of course, in retrospect, none of that happened. Florida revamped it's portability of homestead exemptions, the government tried to shore up our increasingly devalued dollar and everyone in real estate related fields put on their game face and looked for signs of recovery. The car industry was faltering, employment was steadily increasing, particularly in related fields and people started missing payments on their mortgage. Little did we realize a year ago just how bad the defaults would become.

Some of those are valid and many are not. Often I show short sales and the owners are sitting there with two cars, wide screen tv's, gorgeous furnishings etc. More of us could afford these extras if we didn't have to pay a mortgage!! Then to add insult to injury, the same folks who aren't making their payments are destroying the home when they finally do leave. To the point where some banks actually offer to pay (to the same people who aren't paying them) an amount of cash for them to leave without damaging the property.

Please let me express my sincerest sympathy for the folks who lost their jobs, had medical problems or other major catastrophies in their lives and unwittingly fell on hard times. I, as well as most Realtors, have a special caring about our buyers and wish them a wonderful life in their new home. Likewise, it's shocking to see so many abuses of the lending institutions. Much finger pointing is going on but this is a shared responsibility by everyone involved. Aggressive lending, crooked appraisers, falsified applications, dummy leases...I've heard it all. This swirl of short sales and foreclosures has severely impacted the average buyer and seller. It has damaged many neighborhoods and neighbors and we will likely feel the impact of this for years to come.

Important Growth

Even though the real estate industry has been sluggish there are so many projects being reviewed and in various stages of planning that it's easy to forget the fear of overbuilding. Some are major neighborhoods being erased and rebuilt. Others are groupings of residential and commercial together. And some are commercial endeavors, several small and one very big one. Even Nordstrom's is considering a move here. If there's a nugget of truth in "build it and they will come" this area is heading for a population explosion. So many indicators of a vibrant growing area - the economic scene, low unemployment, new companies, expansion in the pharmaceutical sectors, public and private organizations working together to co-ordinate growth, better public transportation, emphasis on schools - all combine to make this a great place to live and play. If you want all the stats check with the Chamber of Commerce. I'm sure you will be impressed.

Real Estate in Bradenton Florida

Save Our Homes -The 3 percent tax cap was designed in 1992 to assist older people to be able to afford to keep their homes in the later years of their lives instead of being forced out of their homes by high taxes. The cap is only for primary residences. It's a complicated situation now because many homeowners would like to move but feel trapped to stay where they are in order to keep that tax benefit. For example a home at the beach for 120k in 1992 may be worth over 1 million dollars today. Now, Ken Wilkinson, the original designer of the law, is looking to create a portability to this benefit so owners may take the percentage of savings that they have in their existing property to their next home anywhere in the state of Florida. This would carry a $400,000 cap between the assessed and market values of a home which would diminish some of the savings in the beach example. If you back this portability then look for the website (coming soon) for "Save Our Homes Portability Inc" to sign a petition. The flip side of this is that Florida real estate owners who do not live in their property end up carrying a higher portion of the taxes since they don't get this benefit and pay the full freight each year. So, second home owners and investors carry a larger tax load.