Tampa area new home starts hit the pits

Builders are in a world of hurt, illustrated by the 56.6 percent decline in new single-family home starts recorded in the third quarter of this year.

The firm Metrostudy recorded 1,732 starts from July 1 to Sept. 30 this year compared to 3,993 starts the same time last year. Closings were down 35.8 percent the same period, from 4,287 to 2,754.

The report, released Wednesday, contained what could be a kernel of good news: At the current rate of sales, new home inventory could reach a rough balance between supply and demand in about a year.

On the other hand, inventory of vacant lots stood at 30,703, enough at current sales to last 3 1/2 years.

"The long term cure is likely a price shift to get back in touch with buyers and their income levels," study director Tony Polito said.

The top selling neighborhood in the region remained Pasco County's Meadow Pointe, at 256 homes, followed by Panther Trace, South Fork, Bay Park, FishHawk Ranch and Kingsway in Hillsborough County.   

Tampa suffers worst home price drop of 20 cities

This might sound like old news, but we showed the biggest year-to-year home price drop in August, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

The Case-Shiller index measures the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area against 19 other metros. Here's the list:

Tampa, down 10.1%
Detroit, down 9.3%
San Diego, down 8.3%
Phoenix, down 8%
Miami, down 7.8%
Las Vegas, down 7.6%
Washington, D.C., down 7.2%
Los Angeles, down 5.7%
San Francisco, down 4.2%
Cleveland, down 4.1%
Minneapolis, down 4%
New York, down 3.8%
Boston, down 3.6%
Chicago, down 1.3%
Denver, down 0.4%
Dallas, up 0.5%
Atlanta, up 0.8%
Portland, Ore., up 2.8%
Charlotte, up 5.6%
Seattle, up 5.7%

For all the alarmism contained in the percentage drop, the index actually shows our home prices returning to those in August 2005. That's not exactly a disaster, considering the run-up in prices several years before that. Nevertheless, most experts believe prices need to fall further if we want to whittle down the oversupply of homes on the market.

You gluttons for punishment can download cs_index.xls showing historical home price index in the various metro areas.

Economist: Florida economy good beyond housing industry

Check out this interview with Wachovia bank economist Mark Vitner to get his views on where housing fits in to the overall Florida economy. The good news is growth remains solid outside of residential construction. The bad news is...well you know that already.

South Florida no longer Shangri-la for Trump

Donald Trump is retreating from two South Florida condo projects. Does it mean anything for the the New York real estate developer's Tampa ambitions?

Florida tax relief pretty paltry for housing boom buyers

Have your read the news about the latest property tax cut plan? If you bought a home at inflated prices during the housing boom of 2002-2006 - and that includes hundreds of thousands of Floridians - the savings are pitiful.

The state plans to double the homestead exemption by another $25,000, but by excluding school taxes, the taxable value of your house would go down only about $15,000.

In Pasco County, where I live, that would knock about $200 off a tax bill. It would mean slightly more savings in higher taxed counties and cities in Pinellas and Hillsborough. For all those people paying more than $5,000 in taxes each year, $200 is laughable.

Here's a word to the wise: After the recent property depreciation, you'd probably have better luck challenging your local property appraiser's assessment of your home.

My appraiser has my house valued $20,000 higher than my model is selling for down the street. Knocking that $20,000 off would put more money in my pocket, certainly more money than the crumbs from Tallahassee.

The Legislature is also pushing portability of the Save Our Homes tax cap. But it's not retroactive to home purchases further back than 2007. Again, the droves of people who bought during the boom don't get a share of those goodies.

In any case, it's in our hands. To make the tax plan a reality, we'd have to vote for the change on Jan. 29.

New hope for Trump Tower Tampa project?

The latest chapter on the saga of Trump Tower Tampa, the skyscraper that aims to be the area's tallest and most luxurious.

Quick profit turns to quick demise for Clearwater Cay Club investors

See if this story sounds family: Developers lasso dozens of resort condominium investors with promises of easy terms and sure-fire profits. Developer fails to follow through when the market turns sour. Investors stand to lose millions.

To see how the scenario played out at Clearwater Cay Club, a 350-unit complex on Tampa Bay, check out this federal lawsuit filed by 23 disgruntled buyers Download cay_club.pdf. Give it a moment to download as it's quite long.

The suit offers enlightenment about how some businessmen played the game during the housing boom. In a nutshell, developers promised a grand resort modeled on Las Vegas' Venetian hotel. Gondolas and canals were even part of the game plan at some point.

For all the millions they poured into the property, investors claim the amenities never materialized and now Cay Club is a "virtual ghost town" where condos sell for half of what they paid for them.

They want their money back and any damages a judge deems worthy.

Florida housing numbers mirror Tampa-St. Pete's

It looks like we're about average in Florida when it comes to single family home sales the past year, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

Florida's average home sales decline was 38 percent in September 2007 compared with the same month of 2006. Median home prices fell 9 percent over the same period. The Tampa Bay area's numbers were 40 percent down in sales and 10 percent down in price.

The Realtor association numbers were a hair different than Tampa area numbers reported two weeks ago. That's because the state association adds Hernando County to the mix of Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

If you're after more details, take a look at two charts, one showing single-family homes Download September_2007_home_chart.pdf and the other condos Download September_2007_condo_chart.pdf .

Note that Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Ocala turned in extra lousy numbers. Even Orlando was hit harder than Tampa.

National homes sales weakest in year, but still only half as bad as Tampa's

Two weeks ago we reported about September's poor home sales in the Tampa Bay area. Sales were off 39 percent year to year. Today we get a glimpse at the national and Florida numbers.

Here's an early glimpse at existing home sales across the nation. As you'll see, things are pretty bad everywhere as banks tighten up credit. Though national sales are down 19 percent year to year, it's only half as bad as our 39 percent decline.

Check in later for the Florida numbers.

Tampa Bay area builder freezing construction

Levitt & Sons, a home builder with a strong presence in Hernando County, among other places, is shutting down construction on its Florida subdivisions. Levitt's best know for its Levittown subdivisions outside of New York City.

It's one of a number of builders that seem to be hurting worse than the industry as a whole. Another is Beazer Homes, which has sold hundreds of houses and town homes in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Atlanta-based Beazer is heavily indebted and trying to restructure repayments to hold off bankruptcy.

Here's a story with more details  about Levitt. 

Title insurance companies accused of running "racket"

First Realtors took it on the chin when the U.S. Department of Justice accused them of pushing overly high commissions on consumers.

Now it's the turn of title insurance companies. Here's a critical article from Forbes that's still making the rounds after being published months ago.

Here's a juicy part concerning First American, the country's biggest title insurance company:

First American has doubled its prices in a decade, to an average charge of $1,472 per home for a title search and insurance. Meanwhile, thanks to computerized record-keeping, the cost of searching for a home's ownership records online has fallen to as low as $25. Technology also has helped make mistakes rarer; now only $74 of each policy goes to pay claims--that is, make home buyers with defective deeds whole. That leaves a $1,373 spread for overhead and for profit.

Fancy this: racetracks that keep 93% of your money and return only 5% in winning tickets. They wouldn't last long, not unless they could somehow rig the rules to both forbid price competition and make the purchase of race bets mandatory. That's more or less what the title insurance industry has done to American homeowners.

When I bought a new home last year I certainly felt overcharged by paying more than $1,000 on title insurance. My home site had been a citrus grove for decades - not much chance a tangerine was going to stake a claim to my property.

What do you think?

More Tampa-St. Petersburg apartments sit vacant, but rents still rise

The average apartment rent in the Tampa Bay area has increased 2 perent to $868, even as vacancies have grown 2.9 percent.

That places us in the middle of the pack among Florida metro areas. Miami has the highest rents. Naples has the worst vacancies.

Here's a pretty thorough report from the firm RealFacts, which keeps track of more than 200 apartment buildings locally: Download RENTS.pdf.

One explanation for growing apartment occupancy is the glut of houses to rent. Most are properties investor/speculators bought but couldn't flip before the housing slump took hold.

New home construction lowest in years: Good news or bad?

Housing starts were down again in September.  The biggest drop off appears to be in "multi-family" housing: town homes, condos and the like. Here's Forbes' take on the news.

As I've said before on this blog, this could be good news in disguise.

Flooding the market with more new homes people don't need will just prolong the pain of the housing slump. We need new homes in a growth area like Florida, just not so many.

Government to Realtors: You charge too much for commissions

At the risk of piling on a real estate industry already taking its licks, here's the latest from the U.S. Department of Justice in its campaign against real estate commissions it deems anti-competitive.

The feds have set up a Web site for consumers to track real estate law in their respective states. The gist of the government's argument is consumers were ill served paying about $93-billion in brokerage commissions in 2006.

The average commission this year stands between 5 percent and 5.5 percent, the government says. In real money, a typical commission this year was $11,203, up about 23 percent since 1998.

Let the DOJ speak for itself: “The actual median commission paid by consumers rose sharply along with the run-up in home prices. Unless broker costs were also rising sharply during this period of time, competition among brokers should have held commissions in check even as home prices were rising.”

DOJ filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors in late 2005. The case is still inching its way through the courts.

For what it's worth, when I sold my house north of Tampa this year I volunteered to pay 6.5 percent, the extra 0.5 percent thrown in to entice the buyer's agent.

The tactic worked. I was one of the only sellers in my neighborhood offering so much and got more traffic as a result. I paid $1,000 more at closing but it was worth it for the quick sale.

 

Turnaround several price cuts away, Wachovia says

Wachovia is offering some tough words for tough times: The first step to healing the Florida housing market is for owners to drop home prices. In its October 2007 "Housing Chartbook," Wachovia's economic forecasting team blamed speculators for blowing prices out of the water from 2004-06. "What needs to happen now is for prices of new and existing homes to adjust back to levels where families earning the median household income can once again afford to buy a wide assortment of homes, particularly in Florida, Nevada and California," the forecast said.

The average annual wage in the Tampa Bay area is about $41,000. For a home to be affordable, its price shouldn’t exceed about three times a buyer’s income. But many sellers have stubbornly clung to what in many cases are intolerably high asking prices.

That's one reason why 41,000 homes clutter the listings. Some people are eager for gains, but many simply can't afford to lower prices further. Maybe they took out 100-percent financing or borrowed against the value of their houses.

Housing prices rising in some unexpected locales.

Sometimes it's good to escape from reality. Here's a story about U.S. metro areas where housing prices are heading up.

One of the blessed metro areas, Binghamton, NY, is incongruously in the heart of the rust belt. Here's a bit of insider knowledge about that place: Defense contractors there have been on a hiring spree for high-tech workers. One plant is helping build the U.S. presidential helicopter.

Conclusion: To give housing a boost, there's no substitute for a strong vibrant economy stocked with well paid workers.

And now for something completely different: a positive outlook

Who says we're not balanced here? Here's a more positive assessment from the National Association of Realtors. I think NAR underestimates Florida's misery, but its scope is the national housing market taken together:

Conditions in the mortgage market are improving for consumers, which should help to release some pent-up demand in early 2008, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors®.

Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, notes that widening credit availability will help turn around home sales.  “Conforming loans are abundantly available at historically favorable mortgage rates.  Pricing has steadily improved on jumbo mortgages since the August credit crunch, and FHA loans are replacing subprime mortgages,” he said.

Yun said it’s important to place the current housing market in perspective, and that 2007 will be the fifth highest year on record for existing-home sales.  “Although sales are off from an unsustainable peak in 2005, there is a historically high level of home sales taking place this year – a lot of people are, in fact, buying homes,” he said.  “One out of 16 American households is buying a home this year.  The speculative excesses have been removed from the market and home sales are returning to fundamentally healthy levels, while prices remain near record highs, reflecting favorable mortgage rates and positive job gains.”

He emphasized all real estate is local with naturally large variations within a given area.  “Markets like Austin, Salt Lake City and Raleigh have been outperforming recently and will continue to do well next year,” Yun said.  “Other areas like Denver and Wichita will likely move up in the price growth rankings due to very positive local economic developments.”

Existing-home sales are expected to total 5.78 million in 2007 and then rise to 6.12 million next year, in contrast with 6.48 million in 2006.  New-home sales are forecast at 804,000 this year and 752,000 in 2008, down from 1.05 million in 2006; a recovery for new homes will be delayed until next spring.

“A cutback in housing construction is a positive sign for the market because it will help lower inventory and firm up home prices,” Yun said.  Housing starts, including multifamily units, are likely to total 1.37 million in 2007 and 1.24 million next year, down from 1.80 million in 2006.

California economists forecast longer housing slump

Here's a snippet from a recent edition of the Orange County Register in Southern California. I know, I know. This is happening 3,000 miles away. But we've got a lot in common as Sun Belt success stories with severe housing hangovers:

The U.S. housing market will continue to be in the doldrums for at least 30 to 36 months more, two top national housing economists told a closing session of the California Realtor Expo today. And the slump won’t hit bottom for at least six to 12 months, one said.

“Realtors like good news. … For the short run, I don’t have a lot,” said Richard Green, Oliver T. Carr Jr. Chair of Real Estate & Finance at George Washington University. “Just try to hang on for three years.”

Added Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist: “We’ve got a good six to 12 months before we hit that trough in the housing market stats.”

Their comments came during a session called, “What’s next for California’s Housing Market.”

Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., was slightly more optimistic. He foresees the recovery starting in early 2009, or just 14 or 15 months from now. But O.C.’s housing market, Kyser said, will be one of the state’s weak spots because of the lost jobs in the subprime mortgage industry and due to less new home construction.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed that nothing comes out of left field,” Kyser said.

The news follows Wednesday’s forecast by CAR Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young predicting that home sales next year will fall to their lowest level in 23 years and that house prices will drop 4 percent.

Consumer advocates oppose home owners insurance savings. Huh?

Sometimes you come across a story that boggles the mind.

Case in point was this morning's article in the St. Petersburg Times about the Florida Consumer Action Network objecting to people saving million of dollars collectively on their homeowners insurance premiums.

Yes, objecting. Here's a link.

The "progressive" consumers group based in Tampa condemns a law that allows Pasco and Hernando County residents to waive sinkhole coverage for their homes. In a satirical video, the Consumer Network claims homeowners will save only "$200" -- a poor deal when you consider homes could be swallowed by a gaping hole in the earth.

For the uninformed, sinkhole claims multiplied dozens of times over by 2005 when lawyers and homeowners learned Citizens, the state insurer of last resort, was none-too-picky about rejecting claims. The potential for fraud rose just as exponentially. Pasco's just one county out of 67 in the state, but it accounted for at least two-thirds of all sinkhole claims paid by Citizens. Draw your own conclusions.

Why are these self-professed consumer advocates fighting the law? After all, waiving sinkhole coverage is optional. I can still choose such coverage if I want. Choice is good when it comes to Chevy versus Ford, but it's unacceptable with insurance?

Here's where I'm coming from: I saved more than $1,500 a year by waving Pasco sinkhole coverage. True, I won't be able to milk my insurer for $50,000 when I spot an innocent crack in my driveway. But it's the price I'm willing to pay.

In fairness, Bill Newton, head of the consumer group, said he produced the video wtihout support of any interested sinkhole lawyers. Newton's position is we should have cheap coverage that includes sinkholes and go after the "criminals" whose insurance fraud is raising rates.

Good news: Tampa-St. Petersburg area foreclosures slow down

Foreclosure activity in the Tampa-St. Pete metro area is still way up over last year, but at least it declined from August to September.

The firm RealtyTrac said foreclosure activity, which it defines broadly to include thousands of homeowners late on their mortgage payments, retreated 19 percent month over month locally.

Here's the totals from Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties: 4,787 in September versus 5,904 in August. In Florida as a whole, foreclosures declined 1.7 percent the past month.

Florida is No. 2 in the nation in foreclosures, second only to Nevada, the company says. One in 248 homes are entangled in some stage of the foreclosure process. It said the worst two foreclosure markets in Florida are Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale.

Let it be said that state-by-state foreclosure comparisons are terribly flawed. Many states provide incomplete statistics to RealtyTrac about homeowners late on payments. So Florida's totals look higher thanks to its open records laws.

In the tank: Latest from Tampa Bay area home sales

You can't escape the conclusion that local home sales will get worse before they get better.

Just picked over sales of existing single family homes and condos reported by Realtors in September for Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

Realtors reported 1,823 home sales in September in the three counties. That's the worst monthly sales total in at least 5 years, and 39 percent behind the 2,972 sales in September 2006.

Home buying normally trails off from August to September as summer vacation winds down and kids go back to school. But the month-to-month drop was steeper this year.

The experts suggest it's tied to the inability of many buyers to get loans in the tighter credit market.

Hillsborough sales fell 44 percent year over year, the worst of the three counties. Pasco was next at 40 percent, followed by Pinellas at 31 percent.

Congress tinkers with two laws concerning Florida homeowners

Some good news and some bad news about housing from the recent Kiplinger Letter, a weekly economic forecast published in Washington, D.C.:

First the good: If you're forced into a "short sale" to avoid foreclosure - selling the home for less than you owe the bank - you might not have to pay all your taxes on that "forgiven debt." The federal government considers that forgiven debt taxable income. But Congress is telling Internal Revenue Service to waive taxes on part of that debt if it exceeds the value of a person's home. Tax collectors might also agree to let you stretch out such tax payments.

And the bad: This concerns a ton of of homeowners in Florida. Sellers of second homes could face a tax hike next year, even if they've lived in the house for two of the preceding 5 years. Current law says sellers can exclude gains of up to $500,000 if they meet residency requirements. But Congress plans to pass a law making some of those gains taxable. The new rule applies to sales after 2007.

Trump Tower Tampa sued....again

Hard luck seems to follow Trump Tower Tampa around: Two more buyers are crying fraud and suing to get their deposit back in the proposed luxury high rise.

In the latest lawsuit, filed Monday, Jugal and Manju Taneja argue they were misled into thinking New York tycoon Donald Trump was a partner when in fact he's merely licensing his name to the 52-story project for half the profits.

In 2005, the Tanejas put a 20 percent deposit of $528,000 on a unit selling for more than $2.5-million. Two years later, the building has yet to go vertical. Trump was named defendent in the suit. So was the tower's Tampa developer, SimDag/Robel LLC.

What's the status of the project? We know this much: SimDag and Trump are trying to piece together an 11th hour deal in which a hedge fund would loan the project $200-million.

Trump has hinted he'd like The Related Group, a Miami company he's worked with before, to take over the Tampa development. SimDag has resisted yielding control, to The Donald's disappointment.

One thing's for sure, this story still has legs. Stay tuned.

Miami mortgage hell: Could it be as bad here?

The Miami Herald did a story yesterday about the mini-disaster brewing around the use of exotic mortgages. Here's a key passage:

The rationale for taking the risky loans was almost always the same: With the market steadily rising, you could make plenty of money if you could get into the game. Borrowers, suddenly able to upgrade to a swankier neighborhood, figured that they would later work out financial details such as a resetting loan. But that works only as long as property values rise.

Read it all here.

Chicago traders don't like Florida housing outlook

Believe it or not there's an exchange in Chicago where traders try to make money guessing the direction home prices will take the next 5 years.

It's called the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and speculators are wagering prices will drop an average of 10 percent through 2011 in 10 major cities.

Here's where it gets stickier for us: Miami, the only Florida city on the list, was singled out by traders as potentially the worst home price performer. Traders expect Miami prices to fall 28 percent from the middle of this year to 2011.

Before you get too gloomy, Miami's market, with about 80,000 homes for sale, is arguably more stressed than the Tampa Bay area's.

And keep in mind the exchange registers only about 20 trades a day, according to the Wall Street Journal. That's a tiny sample on which to base your financial future.

The next worse housing markets were all out West: San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Miami always aspired to be Hollywood East. Now it's got it's wish.

Most stable U.S. home markets: We don't make list

Go figure. Our home sales and prices have been nosediving and we don't make the list of "most stable" housing markets among the country's 40 largest cities. The list, from Forbes and Economy.com, shows each city followed by the expected home price increase into 2008.

1. Seattle, 3.09%
2. Pittsburgh, 3.37%
3. Columbus, Ohio, 3.49%
4. Dallas, 5.45%
5. St. Louis, 3.01%
6. Cincinnati, 2.65%
7. Atlanta, 4.4%
8. San Antonio, 5.35%
9. San Francisco, 2.5%
10. Fort Worth, Texas, 3.09%

Read the whole article here.

Is office real estate getting a case of the housing willies?

Just what we needed. Housing's in the tank and now office real estate isn't looking so peachy either. Here's the take from a local expert I've spoken to several times:

If every Tampa Bay area office project currently under development gets built, the regional economy will be buffeted –– though not too severely –– by a surplus otherwise known as “overbuild,” says one commercial property expert.   

Stevens E. Tombrink, CCIM, regional vice president for real estate services at Equity in the Tampa region, said he isn’t too worried Tampa’s office market will reach the “overbuild” stage.

 

“We pay very close attention to every project, so we have a clear picture of both the macro and the micro in office development,” Tombrink said.  “The truth is that only a percentage of projects under development now will ever open.  Office development is a rigorous, time-consuming enterprise, and typically more projects start the development process than end it,” he said.

 

Tombrink said office development in the region is more severely affected by high-flying insurance costs and property taxes, which have substantially reduced Florida’s competitive edge in attracting new business and industry to the state.

 

“The true effects on these price hikes are just now being felt and they will only get worse as time goes on,” said Tombrink.  “With all our efforts to create new employment here, the cost spikes are particularly disheartening,” he added.

 

Florida’s flagging housing industry is adding new woes to the region’s economy, Tombrink explained.  With fewer new homes under construction, demand for retail space is also slowing at a time when rents are approaching a ceiling.
 

Florida reports big dropoff in licensed Realtors

Florida has begun to cull its Realtors ranks, reflecting hard times in the housing industry.

Here's what a call to Tallahassee unearthed: In the real estate license renewal period that ended Sept. 30, 64,418 out of a possible 86,452 agents renewed their licenses.

That's a drop-off of 22,034 Realtors, or 25 percent.

Realtors re-up their licenses every two years and only a quarter of licenses are up for renewal at any one time.

Total number of licensed agents in Florida is still a very healthy 348,280, surprising in a state that's seen home sales fall about 40 percent this year.

The explanation from local Realtors groups is that people like to keep their licenses active even if they've struggled to sell a home this year. You never know when things might turn around.

Surprise, surprise: Biggest source of job cuts is housing industry

Layoffs in the housing industry have yet to bottom out, according to this report from CNN/Money. It's safe to say Florida provided a fair share of the cuts. More on that later.

Does Trump Tower Tampa have financing this time?

Is Trump Tower Tampa finally getting a real financing deal after two years of would-haves, should-haves, could-haves?

Developers of the long-delayed 52-story downtown luxury condo high-rise on the Hillsborough River say they have a "commitment agreement" for a $200-million loan to start construction.

Such a letter outlines the terms of a loan while listing conditions borrowers must meet before funds are disbursed

Developer SimDag LLC has been negotiating financing with an undisclosed New York hedge fund after traditional bank loans proved elusive in the housing downturn.

Announced with fanfare in February 2005, Trump Tower Tampa has been plagued with problems, including soil instability on the 1.5-acre site. Construction is expected to take more than two years.

New York tycoon Donald Trump is licensing his name to the deal in return for 50 percent of the profits on each condo unit.

The Related Group, a Miami developer with ties to other Trump projects, has expressed interest in nudging aside SimDag to build the project. SimDag has been reluctant to relinquish control.

No good news from pending home sales report

The National Association of Realtors said pending homes sales are lower than expected. Why does it matter? Pending sales are a way to predict home closings one to two months in the future. According to this story, mortgage unavailability is a big factor in the lackluster sales.

St. Petersburg builder's former business partner faces prison

Dozens of Tampa Bay area residents got burned when St. Petersburg builder Construction Compliance Inc. (CCI) went bust and left their homes unbuilt. Now they owe a collective millions of dollars in construction loans to Coast Bank, in many cases without even a concrete slab to show for it.

CCI tried and failed to work out a deal with private investors last year to stave off bankruptcy. The company's savior at the time was a Bradenton guy named James Licata.

Well, Licata turned out to have a colorful past. This from a Sept. 28 press release from the U.S. Attorney, District of Connecticut.:

JAMES J. LICATA, 54, of Bradenton, Florida, formerly of Greenwich, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today before Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to Count One of a Superseding Indictment, which alleged that LICATA engaged in a scheme to defraud a financial institution, namely, Roslyn Savings Bank of Jericho, New York.  The Superseding Indictment alleged that LICATA sought and obtained a $19 million dollar loan from Roslyn Savings Bank based on a series of material misrepresentations relating to his financial condition.

According to documents filed with the Court, LICATA admitted that, during the course of a loan application process in March 2001, he engaged in a scheme to defraud the Bank by willfully failing to disclose or by failing to have others disclose material information, namely, that loans relating to certain New Jersey real estate identified on his  personal financial statements were in default and that the properties securing those loans were proceeding to foreclosure. 

Judge Burns has scheduled sentencing for December 17, 2007, at which time LICATA faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years and a fine of up to $1,000,000. This case was investigated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division

Meanwhile another builder that financed through Coast that seems to be following CCI into corporate insolvency. Here's the story.

Tampa area home sellers big on "by owner"

Real estate agents probably won't like these numbers, but the Tampa Bay area is among the top ten regions for using the services of ForSaleByOwner.com.

The company said 1.6 percent of its listings come from our area. But it's evasive about hard numbers, so we don't know how many listings that 1.6 percent represents. Here's the chart from the company:

Top Cities in 2007
1.       New York, NY (12.7%)
2.       Chicago, IL (5.1%)
3.       Washington, DC (3.2%)
4.       Miami, FL (2.6%)
5.       Los Angeles, CA (2.3%)
6.       Norfolk, VA (2.1%)
7.       Atlanta, GA (2.0%)
8.       Salt Lake City, UT (1.8%)
9.       Dallas, TX (1.7%)
10.     Tampa, FL (1.6%)

Some common sense out of Orlando

Orlando's real estate market is about as close as you can get to ours. So it's worth hearing from our sister city in central Florida.

Here's a good column from the Orlando Sentinel.

Reader beware: If your think we home buyers are all pawns and dupes of greedy forces beyond our control, you probably won't like her take-responsibility-for-yourself message.