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Mostly sunny outlook for Florida real estate

Mostly sunny outlook for Florida real estate

Like Florida, the state’s real estate market and economy remain sunny with perhaps a few clouds on the horizon. “We’re certainly in a rising tide,” said Dean Saunders, president of Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Real Estate, told about 200 participants Friday at the annual Lay of the Land real estate conference at the Omni Orlando Resort at Championsgate. “Maybe it’s not rising as fast as it once was, but it’s still a good clip.” [Source: Lakeland Ledger]

Why listing a home in the first week of April may up your price

Anyone who lists a home for sale within the next week is no April fool. Data from the National Realtors Association’s Realtor.com claims sellers get the highest price — and close in the least number of days — when their listings went live in the first week of April. [Source: The Real Deal]

Commercial real estate investor finds niche in Southwest Florida retail centers

Don't tell Lita Sciturro-Smith retail real estate is dying. The investor, whose family has been in commercial real estate since the 1970s, has been patiently, and prudently, buying a series of income-producing retail-focused properties in the Sarasota-Manatee-Charlotte region for close to a decade. Her attitude toward the bogeyman of brick-and-mortar — e-commerce — is to build up a portfolio of tenants in service industries, including restaurants, gyms, hair salons and nail salons. [Source: Business Observer]

‘Underwater’ homeowners group promotes climate change action

The “Underwater Homeowners Association” sounds like a sad joke about the future of real estate in flood-prone Miami. It’s actually an earnest, block-by-block effort to turn neighbors into climate-change advocates. Starting in his affluent suburb of Pinecrest, artist Xavier Cortada hopes his concept will spread, helping people nationwide understand that melting polar ice is no abstract threat. [Source: AP]

Orlando home prices soaring in unexpected neighborhoods: Pine Hills, Orlo Vista, Parramore

Home values are soaring in traditionally low-income neighborhoods such as Pine Hills, Parramore and Richmond Heights. The ZIP codes where those neighborhoods are located have led the region in home price appreciation for the past five years, according to sales numbers from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. [Source: ]

STAT OF THE WEEK
$1.345 million
By most accounts, Tampa Bay's foreclosure ended in 2015. Yet reminders of those crisis years between 2009 and 2015 can be found in listings for "bank-owned'' houses. Nearly 300 are currently for sale in the four-county bay area, most for under $300,000. The notable exception: a waterfront house in St. Petersburg priced at $1.345 million [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

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