Florida Forclosures and the Holiday Season

With the holiday season quickly approaching, families are beginning to worry about more than just the gifts they will be buying for their loved ones. Many homeowners have now carried the burden of wondering if they will have a home for the holidays or if they will lose it to foreclosure. According to the Miami Herald, housing advocates are questioning whether lenders are living up to their promises of stopping foreclosures for the holidays or not. Despite the talks of a temporary moratorium to stop foreclosure, there are almost 950 set to foreclose in Miami for the month of December. Homeowners are becoming desperate for the moratoriums to become enacted while banks continue to talk with the state.

There is potential good news for homeowners and banks as the state of Florida recently recieved foreclosure assistance funds through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (The Real Deal). A total of $11.5 million in funds have been provided and Gov. Charlie Christ looks forward to use that money for foreclosure prevention counseling and legal assistance. Hopefully, this federal assistance will help hold up the banks/lenders from foreclosing on homes, at least in the month of December, and keep families at home enjoying the holidays. Only time will tell what the final verdict will be on the foreclosure issue in Florida.

Going Green & What it Means to the Real-Estate Industry

With the rise in environmental awareness across all aspects of society, real estate has entered the realm of eco-friendly practices and “green” initiatives. Now that more people are realizing the effects of waste, pollution, and other factors on the environment, they have become fond of products and services that are “green certified.” It is the idea that one is both helping out the environment and establishing a more sustainable lifestyle that sways so many individuals towards becoming environmentally responsible. 

For the real estate industry, this means that more developers and homebuilders need to engage in environmentally-friendly building when it comes to all types of residences. Organizations, like the U.S. Green Building Council, are leading the way in creating a housing industry that keeps nature in mind when building homes for people. With LEED Certification, houses can be built based on standards that are in line with environmental organizations. While some argue that the initial cost of “green building” can be costly, approximately 2.5% than regular building, others argue that the resulting water savings and energy efficiency make it “economically worthwhile” (New York Times).

As more studies surface on the subject of “green building,” homeowners and developers will come to see the benefits and sacrifices that come along with buying/building “green” homes. We can expect more information to be released through mass media and more awareness to be created throughout large regions of the US. It would be no surprise if the housing industry progressively adapts to this trend and begins to satisfy the latest consumer demand: eco-friendly lifestyles.

References: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/debating-the-green-building-premium/

Can Google Predict the Real Estate Market?

Can we find out what consumers are interested in by what they are searching for?

Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends) allows the user to compare the volume of searches between a time period and region. Although, it may not be all that scientific I believe there is a lot we can learn.

It is as easy as inputting a keyword and Google Trends will graph its popularity as a search term for you since 2004. It’ll also break down its use by geographic location.

Here are a couple of examples:
Track the Elections? click here
Track the Flu? click here

So how accurate can it predict the real estate market? Based on Google’s results there seems to be a spike of people searching for the keyword “Real Estate” right at the end of the year. What does this mean? Well we can only assume that most people have some free time during the holidays and have some time to search for that house they will be looking for and maybe purchasing the next year.

We are currently in that lowest point on the search for “Real Estate”….will the trend spike this year? We can only wait and see, but it just might be the right time to do some extra marketing for your property.