Category: Retirement Real Estate
February 17 - Sales of existing homes in the 4th quarter of 2007 continued the slide seen earlier in the year. According to the National Association of Realtors sales fell in 45 states; down 21% on a national basis vs. the year ago quarter. The median price declined a record 5.8% in the quarter. Prices increased in about half of the markets surveyed.
Hardest hit were Las Vegas, Jackson (MS), Sacramento, and the Riverside and Orange County areas of southern California. Foreclosures are often cited as the major cause of the declines. But all the news wasn't bad, showing that real estate is nothing if not local. Bucking the trend
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Published on February 17, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
The real estate market in South Florida, one of the hardest hit regions of the country, affects thousands and thousands or baby boomers who are considering retirement communities there. Your Topretirements editor has been in the Sunshine State for the past several weeks - this report summarizes his microcosmic view of the Florida real estate market.
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Published on January 22, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
January 2 - The new year might have just rung in, but the news for buyers of retirement real estate is the same - buyers are cautious as inventory piles up, sales slow down drastically, and prices come down only slightly. A dire New Year's Day front page headline in the Miami Herald screamed about "Home Sales and Prices" being in a "Nosedive". But aside from the softness in the market for retirement communities, another worry has emerged - unfullfilled promises and communities.
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Published on January 1, 2008
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
November 12 -- One of America's household names in construction, Levitt Corp, announced last week that its Levitt & Sons LLC division has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The division built retirement communities for baby boomers. In making its move the company cited cited "unprecedented conditions in the home-building industry" that were "particularly sudden and steep" in Florida and the Southeast.
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Published on November 12, 2007
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
November 5 — Here at Topretirements.com we spend a lot of time writing about why college towns make such great retirement communities. Now there’s yet another reason to choose a college town to retire in – they are much less likely to be involved in the sub-prime mortgage mess that…
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Published on November 5, 2007
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
The Baer House Inn in Vicksburg MS
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Published on October 28, 2007
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
October 8 -- Competition for the dollars of the newly retired is heating up, and it seems like Florida could be the state that takes the biggest hit. The Sunshine State, always popular for its retirement communities, has seen a number of negative factors that are increasingly deflecting retirees to other states in the Sunbelt.Retirement in Luxurious Fort Lauderdale
Some of the Florida downsides include overcrowding and traffic, increasing real estate costs (64% higher than just 5 years ago), a spate of devastating hurricanes, and ever-increasing insurance costs related to those hurricanes. The current housing bust is about as bad in Florida as anywhere.
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Published on October 8, 2007
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
September 15 - An inevitable but painful result of the slowing of the housing market is that many new retirees are having to postpone planned moves to a new retirement community. The stumbling block is of course their inability to sell their primary residence, typically most retirees' biggest assets. A September 13 article in the Housing Bubble Blog recounts the woes in several important California markets. The article mentions the limbo-like situation this has created for Ken Gonzales and his wife, forcing them to postpone their plans to downsize to a retirement community. Unfortunately they cannot get their price for their four-bedroom house in Riverside's Orangecrest community.
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Published on September 14, 2007
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
September 6 -- Many people, particularly those living west of the Mississippi, have considered at one time or other retiring in Mexico. After all the cost of living is usually less than half what it is in the U.S. or Canada, the winter climate is warm, and the scenery and adventures are amazing.
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Published on September 5, 2007
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
August 28 -- If you have been thinking about buying a retirement condo a recent news item in the Wall Street Journal might give you some pause. It seems that the condo market is now experiencing troubles as speculators default on their mortgages or fail to execute their purchase contracts. As banks and developers are forced to unload properties in a distressed market prices are falling, causing underwriters to lower appraisals and make loans harder to get. Feeding the fire is a rapid growth in newly built units - construction of new condos increased 145% in 2006, the highest level since 1985. It appears that new condo projects and condo/hotel conversions are the properties experiencing the most difficulty. Obviously most of these properties are not being built as retirement condos or in retirement communities - but the bad news in general markets is not without an effect on the active adult retirement market either.
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Published on August 27, 2007
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