Tune In – iSquare Mall + Hotel to be Opening Summer 2017
iSquareMall – Orlando Summer 2017
Year End Record Breaking Sales at The Encore Club at Reunion
Encore Club at Reunion Breaks Sales Records!!
Following our last update about the enticing Encore Club at Reunion Resort Special Floor plan, Encore has broken their sales record! With 5 brand new model homes and impeccable construction progress, sales have boosted this year-end immensely.
“40 Homes in 30 Days!!”
Encore Club at Reunion resort provides an ideal place for the family to enjoy miles of walking trails, lush landscaping appealing to the eyes, 5 resort style swimming pools, and plenty of outdoor activities. Yet don’t leave out the vibrant clubhouse that designate a place for arriving guests, housekeeping and maintenance services but will also offer thrilling community events ranging from wine tasting to children’s arts and crafts. Rest assured, Encore Club offers an upscale environment for it’s residents but gives back every chance to enjoy the well planned development.
There are only 20 home remaining from the Special Floor plan and they are said to go quickly! Don’t miss the opportunity to own this beautiful 8 bed floor plan saving up to $70k! Fill out the contact form below and one of our experienced agents will help make this dream a reality!
Realtor.com 2015 forecast: More first-time homebuyers
first-time home buyers
Realtor.com 2015 forecast: More first-time homebuyers
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Dec. 8, 2014 – First-time home buyers will return to the market next year, according to realtor.com’s 2015 Housing Forecast.
The first-timers rebound is among several key developments projected for the coming year by realtor.com, the website of the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) operated by News Corp’s subsidiary Move Inc.
“The residual financial effects of recession-driven job losses and subsequent unemployment have impeded millennials’ entry into the home-owning market,” says Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com. “In 2015, increases in employment opportunities will empower younger buyers to return to the market and fuel the continued housing recovery. If access to credit improves, we could see substantially larger numbers of young buyers in the market.”
Smoke offers one caveat, however: “Given a high dependency on financial qualifications, (first-time home buyers) activity will be skewed to geographic areas with higher affordability, such as the Midwest and South.”
Realtor.com’s top 5 housing predictions for 2015
1. Millennials will drive household formations: Both population and households have grown at a slightly higher pace in 2014, and this trend will continue in 2015 with modest improvement over this year’s increases. Households headed by millennials will see significant growth as a reflection of economic gains. Millennials will also drive two-thirds of household formations over the next five years. Next year’s addition of 2.75 million jobs and increased household formation will be the two key factors driving first-time home buyer sales.
2. Existing home sales will increase +8%: Existing home sales will grow as more buyers enter the market motivated by a clear belief that both rates and prices will continue to rise. The increase in home sales year-over-year will be similar to 2012, but this time the composition of properties sold will be more normal with minimal levels of distressed properties. While the majority of housing activity next year will be driven by baby boomers preparing for retirement, millennials will account for 65 percent of first-time homebuyer sales in 2015.
3. Home prices will gain +4-5%: Low inventory levels and demand driven by improved employment opportunities will push home prices up next year. While first-time homebuyers have many economic factors working in their favor, increasing home prices will make it more difficult to get into high priced markets such as San Francisco and San Jose, Calif. As a result, first-time homebuyer activity is expected to concentrate in markets with strong employment and affordability, such as Des Moines, Iowa; Atlanta and Houston.
4. Mortgage rates will end the year at 5%: Mortgage rates will increase in the middle of 2015, as the Federal Reserve increases its target rate by at least 50 basis points before the end of the year. Thirty year fixed rate mortgages will reach 5 percent by the end of 2015. One year adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) will rise minimally. Lower ARM interest rates will influence an uptick in buyer interest for adjustable and hybrid mortgages. While still at historic lows, rate increases will affect housing affordability for first-timers trying to break into the housing market and be another factor pushing them to less expensive locales.
5. Home affordability will decrease 5-10%: Affordability will decline in 2015 by 5-10 percent, based on home price appreciation and increasing mortgage interest rates. This decline will be somewhat offset by increasing incomes. When considering historical norms, housing affordability will continue to remain strong next year.
Realtor.com’s outlook for gross domestic product (GDP) and home sales and prices is more optimistic than NAR’s forecast, which projects existing-home sales to rise 5 to 7 percent and home prices to increase 3 to 4 percent, based on GDP growth of 2.5 to 2.8 percent.
© Copyright 2014 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
Orlando Property for Sale – Homebuilders fuel vacation-house boom
Orlando Property for Sale – Homebuilder fuel vacation-house boom
Gutted with foreclosures during the downturn Orlando’s vacation-home market or Orlando Property for Sale is making a comeback, with big-name homebuilders rolling out neighborhoods of six-, seven- and eight-bed-room pool homes.
The communities, which are popping up within about 5 miles of the Walt Disney World area, come with resort-style lazy rivers, water guns, water slides and Tiki bars.
The new line of vacation homes differs from cheaper land prices now allow builders to spread out the vacation hacienda with fully equipped houses and townhomes in traditional-looking neighborhoods. In years past, developers stacked up floors of tow- and three-bedroom condominiums in order to sell more units and cover the higher land costs.
Definitely at the peak, you would have had to build multistory condos to make the economics work for what you were paying for the land,” said Sean Stricker, vice president of Pulte Homes for North Florida. “Land prices are back, but they’re not as high as they were.”
Another factor driving the new, amped-up vacation homes is an increase in South American visitors to Central Florida, who tend to travel with extended family and who are interested in investing in income-producing rentals, developers say. Prices typically range from the low $200s for townhome-style units to the high $400s for more expansive, detached houses.
Orlando’s visitor volume reached 59.2 million last year, up 27 percent from 2009. International visitor traffic increased 45 percent to 4.8 million, according to the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau. Strickler said the Orlando area still gets its share of European tourists who travel in smaller numbers, but more tourists are coming from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Colombia – and those vacationers often prefer staying at a house with plenty of room for the entire family to relax.
In addition, increasingly popular websites marketing Orlando property for sale and vacation homes have popularized trips based at a house instead of a hotel. HomeAway.com, Airbnb.com and VBRO.com are among the specialty sites that book houses, allowing searches by bedroom count and the number of people who can sleep in a house. Even travel-booking service Expedia.com recently began offering vacation homes as an option to hotels.
Buyers can still face the struggle of finding property managers who adequately vet short-term vet short-term renters, keep the property in good shape and don’t overcharge.
Kissimmee property manager Nigel Worrall, who has written several books on vacation rentals, cautioned buyers to steer clear if they cannot cover most of the mortgage costs themselves, or at least half of the payments.
“The bottom line is that anyone thinking of buying a vacation home should not be doing so if them need rental income to make ends meet,” said Worrall, co-owner of Florida Leisure Vacation Homes Inc. “They certainly should not be doing so because someone else makes a promise to them that they will not be able to keep.”
When the housing market crashed starting in 2007, the vacation-rental market was hit particularly hard, with investors walking away from mortgages as the amount of visitors to the region slows. Orlando-area vacation-home rentals have been slower to emerge from the recession than hotels because many of the second homes were “less than ideal” vacation properties and ultimately feel into foreclosure said Steve Trover, chief executive officer of All-Star Vacation Homes in Kissimmee.
During the last year, the market has shifted.
The combination of increased demand and more affordable land prices has drawn Pulte Homes, K.B. Home, Minto Communities Lennar, Beazer Homes and Park Square Homes into the mega-house vacation-rental scene after years of construction standstill.
Pulte announced plans last month for its Windsor at Westside community off U.S.Highway 192 in the Kissimmee area. For $475,000 buyers can get nine bedrooms and six bathrooms in a single-family house outfitted with a private pool, granite finishes, stainless-steel appliances and tile roof.
Minto recently purchased 200 acres southwest of Celebration and is underway on the Festival community of 500 townhomes, which will have as many as five bedrooms and optional “pass-through” doors connecting two units.
“Tourism is up, and the propensity for buyers to come to Orlando is greater than ever. Now you see larger numbers of guests who like to share entertainment space,” Minto Communities Senior Vice President William Bullock said.
Even though the first models are not slated to open until March or April, Minto has been marketing Festival at buyer trade shows – primarily in Europe and South America.
By: Mary Shanklin ~ Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Property for Sale – Homebuilders fuel vacation-house boom
Orlando Property for Sale – Homebuilder fuel vacation-house boom
Gutted with foreclosures during the downturn Orlando’s vacation-home market or Orlando Property for Sale is making a comeback, with big-name homebuilders rolling out neighborhoods of six-, seven- and eight-bed-room pool homes.
The communities, which are popping up within about 5 miles of the Walt Disney World area, come with resort-style lazy rivers, water guns, water slides and Tiki bars.
The new line of vacation homes differs from cheaper land prices now allow builders to spread out the vacation hacienda with fully equipped houses and townhomes in traditional-looking neighborhoods. In years past, developers stacked up floors of tow- and three-bedroom condominiums in order to sell more units and cover the higher land costs.
Definitely at the peak, you would have had to build multistory condos to make the economics work for what you were paying for the land,” said Sean Stricker, vice president of Pulte Homes for North Florida. “Land prices are back, but they’re not as high as they were.”
Another factor driving the new, amped-up vacation homes is an increase in South American visitors to Central Florida, who tend to travel with extended family and who are interested in investing in income-producing rentals, developers say. Prices typically range from the low $200s for townhome-style units to the high $400s for more expansive, detached houses.
Orlando’s visitor volume reached 59.2 million last year, up 27 percent from 2009. International visitor traffic increased 45 percent to 4.8 million, according to the Orlando Convention and Visitors Bureau. Strickler said the Orlando area still gets its share of European tourists who travel in smaller numbers, but more tourists are coming from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Colombia – and those vacationers often prefer staying at a house with plenty of room for the entire family to relax.
In addition, increasingly popular websites marketing Orlando property for sale and vacation homes have popularized trips based at a house instead of a hotel. HomeAway.com, Airbnb.com and VBRO.com are among the specialty sites that book houses, allowing searches by bedroom count and the number of people who can sleep in a house. Even travel-booking service Expedia.com recently began offering vacation homes as an option to hotels.
Buyers can still face the struggle of finding property managers who adequately vet short-term vet short-term renters, keep the property in good shape and don’t overcharge.
Kissimmee property manager Nigel Worrall, who has written several books on vacation rentals, cautioned buyers to steer clear if they cannot cover most of the mortgage costs themselves, or at least half of the payments.
“The bottom line is that anyone thinking of buying a vacation home should not be doing so if them need rental income to make ends meet,” said Worrall, co-owner of Florida Leisure Vacation Homes Inc. “They certainly should not be doing so because someone else makes a promise to them that they will not be able to keep.”
When the housing market crashed starting in 2007, the vacation-rental market was hit particularly hard, with investors walking away from mortgages as the amount of visitors to the region slows. Orlando-area vacation-home rentals have been slower to emerge from the recession than hotels because many of the second homes were “less than ideal” vacation properties and ultimately feel into foreclosure said Steve Trover, chief executive officer of All-Star Vacation Homes in Kissimmee.
During the last year, the market has shifted.
The combination of increased demand and more affordable land prices has drawn Pulte Homes, K.B. Home, Minto Communities Lennar, Beazer Homes and Park Square Homes into the mega-house vacation-rental scene after years of construction standstill.
Pulte announced plans last month for its Windsor at Westside community off U.S.Highway 192 in the Kissimmee area. For $475,000 buyers can get nine bedrooms and six bathrooms in a single-family house outfitted with a private pool, granite finishes, stainless-steel appliances and tile roof.
Minto recently purchased 200 acres southwest of Celebration and is underway on the Festival community of 500 townhomes, which will have as many as five bedrooms and optional “pass-through” doors connecting two units.
“Tourism is up, and the propensity for buyers to come to Orlando is greater than ever. Now you see larger numbers of guests who like to share entertainment space,” Minto Communities Senior Vice President William Bullock said.
Even though the first models are not slated to open until March or April, Minto has been marketing Festival at buyer trade shows – primarily in Europe and South America.
By: Mary Shanklin ~ Orlando Sentinel
What Property for Sale & Black Friday have in common?
Property for Sale x Black Friday, for some shoppers, is a holiday in itself. Deals are scouted out in advance, with a schedule drawn up of where to shop based on store openings. Vehicles are arranged strategically, in order to hold on to the merchandise, and child care is taken care of. It can start on Thanksgiving itself, in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, or on Small Business Saturday. For some it’s an annual ritual.
Black Friday: A Holiday in Itself to Some Shoppers
In 2013, 92 million shoppers took part in this annual ritual – a rise of three percent from 2012. The National Retail Federation expects that over the holiday weekend (Thursday through Sunday) 140.1 million shoppers will hit stores and 95.5 million will shop on Black Friday itself.
When home buyers look for a property for sale and finally purchase a home, location matters, but convenience to shopping is important for 31 percent of recent home buyers according to data from the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report. By generations, convenience to shopping when buying a home is most important to Older Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation. Interestingly, these age groups are the least likely to go shopping Thanksgiving weekend based on the report from the National Retail Federation. Perhaps their proximity to shopping year round, means they do not see a need to. Shoppers aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to report planning on shopping Thanksgiving weekend.
Source: http://economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org/2014/11/28/black-friday-a-holiday-in-itself-to-some-shoppers/