My New Blog

Wow!  Those living up in the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. are getting hammered with bad weather of epic proportions.  Temperatures are dropping 30-50 degrees in one day, huge amounts of snow falling, Lake Erie flooding into Chicago, high winds of 50-70 mph along with snow.  Gotta tell you, for all the hype that they give to hurricanes they sure downplay these winter storms.  I can't imagine living through these winter storms, freezing my niblets off, not being able to go outside or worse yet, having to go outside.  The wind plus the snow plus the sheer hellaciousness of it all is more than enough to call it quits up there, at least during the winter for God's sake!  I know that not everyone can afford to have a second home, especially one somewhere warm, but it's much more affordable than ever here in Naples.  Another solution for those frozen Northerners would be to purchase a condo or home with some friends or family, specify how it's going to be used by each, and have a warm place to run to when this kind of nasty weather breaks out. 

We were on floor duty yesterday and got a call from a man in IL who was freezing up there and wanted to find out about Naples Florida property.  He'd never been down here before and didn't know anything about it other than it's warm, it's pretty, and it's affordable these days.  If you've got the money to buy a  second home, Florida is one of the best places to do so.  Eventually, when you decide that you don't want to live up north any more, there's no state income tax here, you can homestead your property, and most importantly, you can stop freezing your niblets off.

The votes have been counted and it looks like we're going to have property tax reform here in Florida... at last!  This is really going to make a huge difference to those sellers and buyers who have felt trapped in their homes because of the hit that they would take based on losing their homesteaded tax base and getting a new one.  Now we have portability and homeowners will be able to take up to $500,000 of their prior exemption with them to their new property.  Also, the amount of the homestead exemption has now risen from $25,000 to $50,000. 

The fact of the matter is that when you look at property tax rates through the state of Florida, there is only one county where property taxes are really low.  That's Collier county, here in Naples.  Everywhere else, property taxes are so much higher throughout the state of Florida, up to double the amount that we pay here in Collier County.  That's just another good reason to make your move to Naples today. 

By the way, beautiful day, blue skies, slight cloud cover, convertible weather baby!  Don't worry, we don't mind sharing, so come on down.

Is there any doubt which is better?  Just heard on the news today that a storm is beating the western U.S. with 30 inches of snow and 100 mph winds.  Today, the sun is shining, the sky is perfectly blue, no clouds, there's no humidity, and it's about 70 degrees.  That alone is reason enough for me to own in Naples Florida.

There's so much hype about the falling real estate market.  Absolutely, real estate was overpriced in 2005 during the frenzy.  Absolutely investors made the market go insane.  And absolutely, investors are now out of the game.  Sellers are much more realistic in this market and buyers are so much more savvy.  Homes that are selling are selling because they're priced right; when they're priced right, the buyers are snapping them up.  Homes are selling at a fair clip here in Naples Florida but the news doesn't want to admit that.   Real estate has adjusted to a point where there isn't more adjusting to do.  We see a lot of Naples homes that are priced back at 2004 prices.  That means that the sellers are not taking any appreciation for 2005, 2006 and 2007 which tells me that when people realize that mortgage rates are at an all time low and so are prices, the market is going to rebound.  Not a crazy spike like the 05 buying frenzy, but definitely a nice upward trend.  You can't predict when it's going to happen, but it's definitely going to happen.  Whether a first or second home, at least real estate is an investment that you can touch, unlike a falling stock. 

Regardless, it's just a perfect day to be living in Naples Florida.  Come on down and share our bliss.