ORLANDO, Fla. – July 10, 2018 – A RentCafe study that looked at average rents in many Fla. cities found that Hollywood (up 9.6 percent) and Orlando (up 8.4 percent) had the greatest year-to-year increases. Out of 19 Fla. cities included in the study, only Davie saw a year-to-year decrease (down 0.3 percent).

However, the study suggests that Davie’s average rents may be turning around. The month-to-month stat finds that they increased 0.3 percent in June. On the flipside, Coral Springs, which saw a 1.9 percent yearly increase in average rents, was the only Fla. city in the study to see rental prices decrease month-to-month in June (down 0.3 percent.)

The overall average rents for the study included studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, which did not necessarily move the same amount. In Hollywood, for example, a one-bedroom apartment rose an average 7.1 percent year-to-year, while the average two-bedroom rose 10.9 percent.

Nationally, rents in the 250 largest U.S. cities rose 2.9 percent and reached an all-time high of $1,405. In Florida, average rents ranged from $1,018 in Lakeland to a high of $1,861 in Fort Lauderdale.

For a complete list of the 19 cities – average city rental prices by number of bedrooms plus month-to-month and year-to-year changes – visit RentCafe’s website. To view cities within the state, select «Florida» in the chart at the bottom of the page.

© 2018 Florida Realtors®

Original — http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?p=2&id=368620

WASHINGTON (AP) – June 21, 2018 – Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, marking their third decline in the past four weeks after increasing last week.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was 4.57 percent, down from 4.62 percent last week. By contrast, the 30-year rate averaged 3.90 percent a year ago.

The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans eased to 4.04 percent from 4.07 percent last week.

Putting the recent decline in perspective, long-term loan rates have been running at their highest levels in seven years. The average 30-year mortgage rate reached a high this year of 4.66 percent on May 24; the 15-year rate hit 4.15 percent that day. The Federal Reserve last week raised its benchmark interest rate for the second time this year and signaled that it may step up its pace of rate increases.

Over the week, worries over potential fallout from the festering U.S.-China trade dispute roiled the stock market. As investors sought safety in bonds, their prices climbed and depressed their yields. Mortgage rates often take direction from long-term bond yields. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.93 percent Wednesday from 2.97 percent a week earlier. By Thursday morning, it had dipped to 2.90 percent.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week.

The average doesn’t include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. The average fee on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 0.5 point from 0.4 point last week.

The fee on 15-year mortgages was unchanged at 0.4 point.

The average rate for five-year adjustable-rate mortgages held steady at 3.83 percent. The fee remained at 0.3 point.

 Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NEW YORK – May 23, 2018 – When Kuangchi Chang and her husband, Robert Peterson, were planning a kitchen renovation in 2015, they drew on a lot of professional help.

And we’re not talking only about the contractors who transformed the den and sun porch of their 1970s Colonial into a sleek white-and-gray cucina. Chang, a confessed HGTV fanatic, watched countless episodes of rehab shows such as «Property Brothers,» «Love it Or List It» and «Flip or Flop» to get ideas. Read More

WASHINGTON – May 18, 2018 – A stronger economy, wage growth and an improving job market are expected to march home sales and prices higher in 2018, but low supply and weakening affordability will impact the rate of increases, according to speakers at a residential real estate forum during the 2018 Realtors^® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), presented his 2018 midyear forecast and says that, despite headwinds, a moderate and multiyear increase in home sales is likely ahead. After accelerating 3.8 percent in 2016, existing home sales rose only 1.1 percent to 5.5 million in 2017 and Yun forecasts that they’ll finish 2018 at a pace of around 5.6 million (up 1.8 percent). He projects 5.7 million sales for 2019.

«Overall fundamentals remain solid, driven by a growing economy and steady job creation, which will sustain home sales in 2018 slightly above last year’s pace,» says Yun. But «the worsening housing shortage means home prices are primed to rise further this year too, hindering affordability conditions for homebuyers in markets across the country.»

The widespread shortage of homes for sale is the major factor limiting sales from being higher. While home sales have risen modestly since the start of the year, Yun says without more supply to fully satisfy demand and alleviate the upward pressure on prices, contract activity is likely to remain flat and will more or less continue sideways through the end of the year.

Total housing inventory at the end of March was 1.67 million existing homes available for sale, which is 7.2 percent lower than a year ago (1.80 million). Inventory has trended down steadily for the past five years, says Yun, and the country is now experiencing the lowest inventory levels in a generation; unsold inventory is at a 3.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 3.8 months a year ago.

Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com, agreed there is an acute shortage of for-sale homes, especially of affordable inventory. According to realtor.com data, there are 250,000 fewer starter homes – those priced under $200,000 – now than there was two years ago, in May 2015. Millennials, boomers and investors may all be going after the same affordable inventory of homes, so competition is great, says Hale.

«There is reason for optimism ahead though. We’re starting to see new listings grow in recent months,» Hale says. «The inventory shortage isn’t over. It took us years to get into an inventory rut, so it’s going to take us years to get out of it, but we do see signs of a turnaround.»

Home price growth, up 48 percent from 2011 to 2017 and likely to rise an additional 4 percent in 2018, is far outpacing income growth, up only 15 percent during the same timeframe. Increased home prices on top of rising mortgage rates puts affordability at a six-year low, according to NAR’s Housing Affordability Index, and will likely continue to fall in coming months.

Yun predicts that mortgage rates will rise to 4.6 percent in 2018 and 5 percent in 2019.

«Challenging affordability conditions have prevented a meaningful rise in the homeownership rate after having fallen to a 50-year low a few years ago,» says Yun. «To increase homeownership, more home construction is needed, which could be boosted by delivering regulatory relief to community banks, removing the lumber tariff, re-examining stringent zoning laws and training more workers for the construction industry.»

Jessica Lautz, NAR’s director of demographics and behavioral insights, presented findings during the forum from her thesis from Nottingham Trent University: «Is the Dream Still Alive? Tracking Homeownership Amid Changing Economic and Demographic Conditions.» According to Lautz’s doctoral work, the affordability crisis has impacted some segments of homebuyers more than others, specifically African American and Hispanic/Latino buyers and those with student debt.

Lautz says student loan debt has risen dramatically and is a massive barrier to homeownership. It’s delaying home purchases among millennials who pay their debt by a median of seven years. Her research found that consumers with student loan debt who were successful in buying, purchased a home costing 17 percent less than those without any student debt.

«The homeownership rate amongst some ethnic groups hasn’t rebounded since the recession, and the ongoing affordability crisis has hampered potential buyers under 35, especially those with student debt, from accessing mortgage credit and making home purchases,» adds Lautz.

Yun says consumer optimism that «Now is a good time to buy a home» has fallen the past two years, according to data from NAR and other industry consumer sentiment surveys.

While the lack of supply and challenging affordability conditions is chipping away at homebuyer optimism, however, Hale says buyers aren’t giving up their dreams of purchasing a home. New survey data from realtor.com found three-fourths of recent shoppers started their home search in 2017 and are still in the market in 2018.

«Buyers know it’s tough; 35 percent of shoppers anticipate a lot of competition, but they remain optimistic, and more than 70 percent expect to close in 2018,» she says.

Yun says conditions would improve measurably if homebuilders increased their production of homes, especially in the affordable price ranges. He forecasts home starts to come in around 1.3 million in 2018 and reach 1.4 million in 2019 – but that is barely above year-ago levels and well below demand.

© 2018 Florida Realtors®

WEST PALM BEACH – May 18, 2018 – Following last year’s most destructive hurricane season on record, government officials and emergency responders are imploring Floridians to be prepared should the state experience another nightmarish season marked by prolonged power outages, fuel shortages and potentially deadly storm surge.

As the start of the six-month Atlantic hurricane season looms, state and federal officials encouraged residents to stock up on supplies to sustain them for several days without electricity, have evacuation plans in place if they live in a mandatory evacuation zone and ensure their homes are properly insured in the event of flooding or severe wind damage. Officials issued the stern warning at the 32nd annual Governor’s Hurricane Conference taking place in West Palm Beach this week – the country’s largest tropical cyclone gathering attended by officials from more than 30 states and 12 foreign countries.

«By having this conference and doing what you do, you have helped this state, in particular, respond in the right manner and get back to work quickly,» Gov. Rick Scott said to hundreds of emergency workers and government officials at the conference’s general session. «Irma was very scary and it could have been devastating, but everybody worked together.»

With the conference theme of «Readiness is Everyone’s Job» in mind, meteorologists and emergency workers encouraged local government officials and the media to emphasize the need to be prepared for another potentially calamitous season.

Weather experts from Colorado State University – regarded as the nation’s top hurricane forecasters – predict another active season with 14 named tropical storms, seven of them hurricanes. A tropical storm reaches hurricane status when wind speeds top 73 mph. Of the seven predicted hurricanes, three are expected to churn into major hurricanes – Category 3, 4 or 5 – with sustained wind speeds of 111 mph or greater. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will issue its forecast for the season on May 24.

The hurricane season officially starts June 1.

The 2017 hurricane season produced 17 named storms. Of those, 10 became hurricanes, including six major hurricanes and the first two major hurricanes to hit the continental U.S. in 12 years – Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which made its first landfall in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm before passing east of Sarasota and Bradenton on Sept. 11 as a Category 1 storm. The 2017 season was the seventh most active in history, causing more than $316 billion in damage.

National Hurricane Center meteorologists this season will continue to use storm surge watches and warnings, which were implemented for the first time last season, the center’s director Ken Graham said, adding that his team is working on creating a seven-day forecast as accurate as its current five-day forecast. Storm surge is the rapid rise of sea level as a result of atmospheric pressure changes and wind associated with a storm.

Graham credits the new watches and warnings with saving lives during the onslaught of major storms last season. There were no known fatalities from storm surge last season despite four hurricanes making landfall on U.S. shores, Graham said.

«Around 90 percent of fatalities from tropical systems is water,» Graham said. «We have to talk water.»

Storm surge, not wind, is often the greatest threat to life and property from a hurricane. At least 1,500 people died during Hurricane Katrina in 2005; many of those deaths occurred directly or indirectly as a result of storm surge, according to NOAA.

Residents who live in a hurricane surge zone should evacuate when a storm threatens, but others quick to hit the road should think twice, said Bill Johnson, director of Palm Beach County Emergency Management.

«People mistakenly focus on the wind,» Johnson said. «Over-evacuation creates a demand on every service that we have.»

Hurricane Irma sparked the largest mass evacuation in U.S. history. More than 7 million people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina were issued a mix of mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders as the Category 5 storm barreled toward Florida.

The evacuation inundated roads and hotels, used significant first responder resources and in some cases prevented fuel trucks from quickly reaching stations to restock the hot commodity.

In Lee County alone, nearly half of the county’s population of 701,000 evacuated. Fourteen shelters opened to accommodate 30,000 evacuees. Officials there were able to handle the large crowds, but are working on tweaking staffing levels at shelters ahead of the 2018 season, said Lee Mayfield, the county’s emergency management director.

«The biggest thing we’re going to continue working on … is right-sizing shelter staffing,» Mayfield said. «Making sure we have the right partnerships in place from the county government to our volunteer agencies (and) volunteers we sign up and train throughout the year, so making sure we have shelter staffing appropriate to the levels we saw during Irma.»

During Irma, Lee County made all shelters pet friendly. Sarasota County is following suit this year and will open all shelters simultaneously. Phased opening of shelters ahead of Irma created confusion, county officials said. Sarasota County sheltered approximately 20,000 area residents during Irma.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long is encouraging U.S. residents to properly insure their homes ahead of the 2018 season. Additionally, citizens should know skills such as CPR and how to operate a generator in the event emergency responders and federal aid are delayed, Long said.

«Insurance is the first line of defense, not FEMA,» said Long, who emphasized the importance of flood insurance.

Any house can flood, as evidenced by damage Hurricane Harvey inflicted on Houston, Long said. Roughly 80 percent of homeowners with damage from Harvey lacked flood insurance, Long said.

And governments should be prepared to feed and provide water to citizens for the first 48 to 72 hours following a natural disaster without relying on aid from FEMA, Long said.

Last year, FEMA was spread thin from responding to natural disasters. Roughly 46.9 million people were affected by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and wildfires in California, Long said. The agency last year nearly ran out of money responding to Harvey before Congress replenished its funds.

Copyrght © 2018 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla., Nicole Rodriguez. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – May 18, 2018 – In light of recent arrests in what the Broward County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office is calling a fraudulent real estate ring, I want to take this opportunity to provide you with tips on how to protect yourself. With this type of fraud, authorities say homes are illegally taken without owners’ consent.

The rise of technology has made it very easy to create fraudulent documents that can be easily recorded in public records, and these documents can make it appear that your property was sold or belongs to someone else. As with most dangers, awareness and diligence are the best ways to protect yourself. Read More