Happy Memorial Day!

As the country is heading into the Memorial Day weekend, marking the beginning of the summer season in much of the country, its original meaning often gets a bit lost:

The Holiday was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.

In the spirit of our fallen soldiers: enjoy Memorial Day!

In the meantime, my wife and I go packing – we're moving this weekend.

_______

Source: Wikipedia. Photo: Cliffside Beach umbrellas ©Louis Davidson, date unknown

South Florida plummeting residential inventory

Even as housing prices seem to bottom out in South Florida, supply has shrunk close to 2005 levels, according to Bloomberg's Businessweek.

BW reports that inventory has become so scarce that Realtors are resorting to unconventional methods to get listings. An agent based in Broward County began hosting happy hour soirees for potential sellers, a tactic that led to four listings, all of which landed buyers within a week.

“I tell them if they sell today or in two years, there won’t be a considerable amount of appreciation in their house and they might miss an opportunity to buy at the low end,” she said.

Southeast Florida total housing inventory. Source: SEF-MLS

Above chart includes all types of housing, including single family homes, townhomes and condominiums. Below are the current numbers for single family homes only for Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties for the month of April:

Southeast Florida single family housing inventory, April'11 - April'12. Source: SEF-MLS

[Businessweek via The Real Deal, own statistics compiled from SEF-MLS]

Bogus viral email on home sales tax leads to confusion – again

Bogus email from 2010 made misleading claims on a new real estate sales tax

A viral email from 2010 claiming that the "Affordable Care Act" will add a new 3.8 percent sales tax on all houses marketed after 2012 has returned to confuse sellers, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The email claims that a buried clause in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “is set to screw the retiring generation who often downsize their homes.”

The email is correct in that there will be a new 3.8 percent sales tax on homes, but the tax only applies to individuals with incomes over $250,000 or those who make a profit of more than $250,000 on a sale, in which case, only the amount greater than $250,000 will be taxed.

[Palm Beach Post via The Real Deal]

Supermoon to shine Saturday Night

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a space ship arriving from another galaxy? An elaborate Stephen Spielberg movie prop? An interstellar pizza pie? No, it’s Supermoon!

Scientists call it a perigee moon, a phenomenon that happens once a year when the moon, which has an elliptical orbit, makes its closest approach to the Earth. This year’s version will rise in the sky on Saturday night, achieving perigee status at 11:34 p.m. EDT. It will be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter, according to the folks at NASA.

The best time for a little moon-bathing will be a minute later, at 11:35 p.m., when the Earth, moon and sun line up to maximize the moon’s brilliance.

Tony Phillips, the Mr. Wizard of NASA, notes that all the myths about hospital admissions increasing, crime running rampant and people behaving strangely are just that — myths. “The truth is, the moon is less influential than folklore would have us believe.”

The last supermoon, which occurred on March 19, 2011, received lots of media attention because it was 400 kilometers closer than the one will be on Saturday night.

But conditions should be ideal for viewing as National Weather Service forecasters in Miami predict a perfect night with partly cloudy skies and a low near 70. There will be a balmy breeze out of the south at 9 mph.

The moon will rise on Saturday night at 6:34 p.m. and set at 5:59 a.m. Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Source: Palm Beach News. Photo ©hplang50 

Chance Encounters with Modern Architecture (2)

The idea behind "Chance Encounters with Modern Architecture": A postcard of sorts, of unexpected finds of modern architecture – or perhaps art – which caught my eye, but without demanding or warranting a lengthy post.

It's about sharing delicious little morsels that pop up while on your way to church, Seaboard Wines or Emil's Sausages.

Today: Doctor's Office and Single Family Residence in Feldafing/Germany 

What is it: A freestanding two-story single family home with doctor's office downstairs. Built ca. 2006. (Notoriously private, shielded by strict laws and not granting access to tax records like in the US, details on European buildings like this are nearly impossible to obtain. Sorry.)

Why did it catch my eye: Feldafing, a small village (pop. 4,300) in Bavaria on Lake Starnberg, has been a summer retreat for wealthy industrialists from Munich in the 18th and 19th century. The building style from that period tends to be opulent, even for summer retreats, and rather traditional. The love of Germans for modern architecture pops everywhere though, including in this little gem, overlooking the golf course (founded 1926), the lake and the Karwendel mountains. 

Where is it: Feldafing, Bavaria/Germany. Map.

NE elevation

NE elevation

NE elevation

Approximate view facing ESE

As always, your comments are more than welcome!

The South Florida Housing Market in March; OT: Mac Virus

Today, two topics: the market for single family homes in March, and as an Off-Topic ("OT"), a virus targeted at Macs.

First, the market:

As the home-buying season begins in earnest in many parts of the country, Southeast Florida – which enjoyed an unusually mild winter, to the dismay of many including me – continues on its path of odd market behaviour, namely rapidly shrinking inventory accompanied by mildly rising asking and selling prices.

As dramatic as the numbers for single family home sales are, looking at the Tri-County area won't tell the whole picture, so I will briefly point out some of the differences between Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.

Inventory: Palm Beach is the shrinkage leader, with 4.6 months (means: at the current speed of sales, there would be no more homes for sale in 4.6 months. A balanced inventory is assumed at approx. six months), followed by Dade with 5.3. and Broward with 6.7 months. All three counties show a substantial decrease month over month as well as compared to last year.

Asking prices: Palm Beach is the most expensive at $399,000 (median asking prices of all single family homes), then Dade with $320,000 and Broward at $289,000. The same goes for asking prices per sf, ranging from $164/sf to $143/sf.

Selling prices: Here is where it gets interesting. Palm Beach median selling prices beat Broward only by the width of an eyelash, with Dade at the end. So, what happened to those higher asking prices in Palm Beach?

Pouffff!

Buyers in Palm Beach simply did not honour the seller's demands. They beat them down or flocked to Broward, where houses in March sold faster and at 5 percent higher price per sf than in Palm Beach (or Dade). Interesting, no? Note to sellers and their Realtors: this is not a Seller's Market, despite the lack of selection in certain areas as well as prices brackets.

This week by the way I learned that Realtors© – but not the public – will very soon have access to monthly market data by zip code. That indeed is lovely and constitutes an excellent research tool. The FAR (Florida Association of Realtors©) has contracted with a research firm to supply those data to its members; when the data bonanza begins I do not know yet.

OT: A Mac Virus

In my office as well as at home, I use Macs exclusively, so the appearance of a serious virus targeting Macintosh computers this week caught my attention.

The thing is called Flashback, technically not a virus but malware. Read on cnet.com what's it all about and what you can do against it, in case you use Macs and haven't taken any counter measures yet.

But wait – there's more!

The German news weekly Der Spiegel has even more detailed recommendations than cnet, but you have to read German to make real use of the article.

However, two recommendations from the Spiegel piece are worth mentioning:
1. the free Sophos Antivirus tool works very well,
2. my browsing experience with the recommended "NoScript" Firefox extension – blocking Java scripts on your web pages which is Flashback's method of infiltration – is less than enjoyable.

Actually, it's a pain in the butt.

Worth it? Highly likely. Will I keep it? Dunno yet.

Put your Home Maintenance on Auto-Pilot

 ...and keep your Pad from turning into a Money Pit.

Home maintenance is one of those things that's easy to forget or put off, because many tasks only need to be done once in a while or a few times a year.

If you're not careful though, you can end up being that house in the neighborhood with the overgrown yard, peeling paint, and a list of expensive, possibly could-have-been-prevented repairs.

But what if you're the busy or forgetful type?

Turn to technology, of course (yet another good excuse).

Lifehacker (one of my favourite daily reads) created a home maintenance schedule which you can import (ics format) copy, customize, and subscribe to in a simple click so you'll never forget important maintenance again. Read on here.

Photo ©KathyL