TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate early Thursday approved its version of a property tax relief package that rolls back city and county taxes while providing extra tax breaks for first time homebuyers and business owners.

The vote sets the stage for the House and Senate to immediately begin working out their differences over how to address a brewing property tax crisis that led hundreds of homeowners from across the state to protest outside the Capitol earlier this week.

“This plan benefits every single property owner in the state,” said Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden. “I think it’s pretty awesome.”

The House plan, passed Wednesday, calls for a major cut in local government property taxes and would let voters decide if they want to eliminate property taxes in exchange for an increase in the state’s 6 percent sales tax. The House plan could ultimately lead to a 2.5-cent increase in the sales tax, making it the highest state-mandated sales tax in the country. But House leaders are predicting homeowners could ultimately save $35 billion over the next five years. Read more

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A survey of the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans shows that they are less inclined to buy a second home now than they were when the stock market was cooler and real estate was hotter.

In the spring of 2005, when the real estate market was at its most torrid, 6.3 percent of people with an average net worth of $3.1 million said they intended to buy a second home, according to a report from the American Affluence Research Center.
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Osaka, Japan, New York City, and Washington, D.C., rank as top markets for real estate investment in 2007, according to an analysis by Urban Land Institute and PricewatearahouseCoopers.

The report took into account market expectations of top industry professionals. The top markets shared some key qualities:

• Located along global pathways with major international airports and ports
• 24/7 living and working environments
• Attractive settings in comfortable climates
• Geographic barriers limiting sprawl
• Brainpower jobs attracting an affluent, highly educated workforce

“Clearly, location is becoming ever more important in real estate investment,” says ULI President Richard Rose.  Read more

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Massachusetts’ home prices increased in March for the first time in a year, the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS® reported yesterday in its monthly report on the real estate market.

The median price for a single-family house was $344,000 in March – 0.1 percent more than a year ago. Condominium prices increased by 3 percent to $279,000.

“They’re hovering where they were a year ago, which shows the market has stabilized,” said Doug Azarian, president of the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS®. Read more

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Fixed mortgage rates broke a string of four consecutive increases, dipping this week in response to favorable news on the inflation front, according to Bankrate’s national survey of large lenders.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate slid to 6.29 percent, with an average of 0.27 discount and origination points, says Bankrate, which operates consumer finance Web site Bankrate.com. The average 15-year fixed rate mortgage, popular for refinancing, inched lower to 6.02 percent.

With larger loans, the average jumbo 30-year fixed rate nosed higher to 6.59 percent. On adjustable rate mortgages, the average 5/1 ARM sank 6.11 percent and the average one-year ARM held at 6 percent.

The alternating good news/bad news on the economy has kept mortgage rates in a narrow band of approximately one-eighth of a percentage point in the past two months. Read more

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Anticipating cuts in property taxes by the state Legislature, the Palm Beach County administrator ordered countywide reductions in next year’s budget, a decision that could mean there won’t be enough money to hire sheriff’s deputies, buy fire vehicles or open planned library facilities.

County Administrator Bob Weisman said Wednesday that he expects county commissioners to view the measures as mistakes — but ones they will have no choice but to implement.

“It’s bad government to do it,” Weisman said. “It’s going to leave government unable to do things for the people that they should.”

In a memo to commissioners, Weisman said the county will have to cut down to the bare basics of its 2007 budget of $4.4 billion while dealing with skyrocketing gas, insurance and construction costs. Read more

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TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate early Thursday approved its version of a property tax relief package that rolls back city and county taxes while providing extra tax breaks for first time homebuyers and business owners.

The vote sets the stage for the House and Senate to immediately begin working out their differences over how to address a brewing property tax crisis that led hundreds of homeowners from across the state to protest outside the Capitol earlier this week.

“This plan benefits every single property owner in the state,” said Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden. “I think it’s pretty awesome.”

The House plan, passed Wednesday, calls for a major cut in local government property taxes and would let voters decide if they want to eliminate property taxes in exchange for an increase in the state’s 6 percent sales tax. The House plan could ultimately lead to a 2.5-cent increase in the sales tax, making it the highest state-mandated sales tax in the country. But House leaders are predicting homeowners could ultimately save $35 billion over the next five years. Read more

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The heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac told a House Financial Services committee Tuesday that they are devising new types of loans to help distressed borrowers.

Richard Syron, Freddie Mac’s chairman and CEO, says the company is developing more consumer-friendly subprime products that will provide stable financing alternatives. He expects them to be available by mid-summer. He says the new products will include 30-year and possibly 40-year fixed-rate mortgages as well as adjustable-rate mortgages with longer fixed-rate periods.
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Mohsin Bari came from Pakistan seven years ago to work as a software consultant and quickly moved ahead in an industry clamoring for more foreign workers. He started a family, bought a three-bedroom house on a corner lot in Pembroke Pines and moved up the ladder.

Now Bari worries that his push to succeed in the United States is threatened by skyrocketing property taxes, which have stretched his family’s budget. He’s upset that, even as a homeowner who is legally in the country, he doesn’t qualify for a homestead exemption or the 3 percent Save Our Homes tax cap.

South Florida property appraisers say there are hundreds of people like Bari, legal immigrants who have lived in the United States for years but don’t yet have green cards or qualify for breaks on their property taxes. The trend has become more pronounced as immigrants account for more and more of the newcomers to Broward and Palm Beach counties, and it coincides with a hot debate over how to lower property taxes for cash-strapped homeowners.

Like snowbirds and business owners, many legal immigrants don’t qualify for the residential tax breaks that have helped hold down taxes on primary residences.

The situation has Bari wondering if he should sell the home he worked so hard to acquire. Although federal authorities have approved his labor certification, his green card application is still inching through the system. Read more

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A coalition of housing activists and civil rights groups has called for a six month moratorium on foreclosures to provide time for financially troubled homeowners with time to solve their problems.

The Leadership Council on Civil Rights, The Center for Responsible Lending, The National Council of LaRaza, and the NAACP called on lenders to voluntarily adopt such a moratorium in the wake of reports of increasing mortgage delinquencies and the bankruptcies and/or failure of some 30 subprime lenders.

At a Washington, DC news conference on April 4, spokespersons for several of the organizations predicted a wave of foreclosures would soon result from what they called “reckless and unaffordable loans.” They laid the blame for the current situation at the feet of lenders, real estate agents, and the investors who purchased the subprime loans. Read more

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