Coastal Florida Real Estate

Jupiter's election results are in and incumbent Mayor Karen Golonka was re-elected.  Challenger Jimmy Burg conceded that incumbent Karen Golonka won a seventh term late Tuesday as the town’s mayor, even as final votes were still being counted.  

Voting machine cartridges did not read properly for several precincts in Jupiter, forcing election workers to resort to a backup method, counting paper ballots with a machine. The glitch delayed final election results for Jupiter. 

Burg, making his first try at elected office, raised about $60,600 in campaign contributions, twice as much as Golonka, who raised about $30,100. The three-year mayor position pays $22,200 annually.   

Turnout was strong, said Jupiter poll workers. “You would have thought it was a presidential election,” said Merrill Helm, a poll worker at the West Jupiter Recreation Center at Indiantown Road and Central Boulevard. 

“All that negative stuff got me more motivated to make my voice heard,” said Nancy Branch, a Burg supporter who lives in the Shores neighborhood. 

In the race for two town council seats, the two incumbents easily defeated their challengers. 

Jim Kuret­ski, a project manager at Florida Power & Light, defeated attorney Tom Ryan in the North District seat. Todd Wodraska, vice president of Special District Services Inc., defeated Lew Lax, a retired newspaper owner and publisher, in the city’s South District.

While I may not agree with everything done here, Jupiter is a great place to live!

This just in:

A study by the California Association of Realtors shows a decrease in the number of consumers who say they would use the same real estate agent again to 22 percent in 2009 from 79 percent in 2004. When asked why they would not retain their previous agent, 64 percent said their homes languished on the market and 51 percent were upset that their house fetched less than they had expected.

The study findings show that sellers with unrealistic expectations blame their agents when a transaction does not go as planned, but agents often are indeed at fault for failing to inform sellers about current market realities when it comes to pricing and financing. See my blog postings on this. 

In the short term, agents can expect consumers to prefer working with individual agents, believing that a large brokerage cannot provide the personal response and service they so desire. Agents also need to drum up the courage to turn down overpriced listings that likely will not sell. See my blog postings on this issue.

Over the long term, Realtors must focus on skill, hard work, and the use of technology to provide personal service and deliver the information of most interest to clients. Moreover, agents should immediately respond to calls and e-mails, listen to their prospect’s wants and needs, and make good on their requests. 

I have posted before that picking the right agent is just like picking the right doctor.  In these turbulent times, a professional "bedside manner" is critical.  And this survey demonstrates why professional pricing help is also so critical.  You, the seller, are not in the business and have emotional ties that will cloud your ability to price the home to sell.  The last 3 homes I have sold have only averaged 4 weeks on the market. 

Jupiter Farms, maybe one of the most overlooked areas in Palm Beach County for a great family lifestyle, is hosting it's annual Easter Egg Hunt & Family Fun Day.

The event will be held in the Jupiter Farms Park which you reach by taking either the Florida Turnpike or I-95 to Indiantown Road and heading west about 2 miles.  You will come to a traffic light at Jupiter Farms Road where you will turn left and the Park will be on the right.  You might want to check out Town & Country Feed Store while you are there.

The egg hunt starts at noon.  There will also be an egg toss and old-fashioned games like a three-legged and sack races.  Burgers and dogs will be available for sale.

The event is sponsored by The Jupiter Farmer and Jupiter Farms Residents.

Is this a great place to live?  Absolutely!  Here are some other places to visit:

www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net

www.youtube.com/richardsites

www.lifeisgoodpart2.blogspot.com

Then, send along to your friends.

Riverbend Park in Jupiter is holding it's Annual Pioneer Family Farmstead Day on March 27 from 10-3.  The Park's Farmstead  hosts it's Third Annual Historic Gas Engine and Tractor Show.  One of the highlights is the operation of the 1930 sawmill by volunteer sawyers who cut huge pine logs into lumber. 

The lumber is used in the ongoing construction of the Farmstead.  The Florida Flywheelers Club, collectors of historic engines and tractors, will provide demonstrations of their equipment.  Also featured will be sugar cane grinding, feeding the farm animals, pony rides and old-time games and activities. 

Admission is free so bring a blanket or lawn chairs and sit under the shade of the oaks and enjoy the music of the South Florida folk musicians.  Boy Scout Troop 109 will also be providing food. 

To get to the Park, take the Florida Turnpike or I-95 to Indiantown Road, (706) and head west 1 mile.  Riverbend will be on the left.  When you are finished with the Park, you might want to take a ride and get acquainted with Jupiter Farms.  The Farms is easily one of the most overlooked spots in the area to call home and there are lots of homes for sale.  There is no HOA and you can quarter and ride horses out here.  We love it here!

 Check out My You Tube Channel and My Web Site then send along to your friends!

With the growing trend toward mobile units (phone type devices) and away from even the laptop, apps are available to help the consumer even more.  I had my first smartphone in 2004 with fingertip control and the ability to write on the screen.  Just no apps.  Then the iPhone and the droid came along.

Zillow.com, which has a free app, says people are using it to look up 2 million properties a month. In addition to Realtor.com, other popular apps include ones offered by ZipRealty, Coldwell Banker, Better Homes and Gardens, and the Corcoran Group.

The apps provide the same information that Web sites do, but they allow users access without having to lug a computer around. They can make house hunting easier for both practitioners and buyers because the information is so immediately and widely available.  

Be sure and check out My Web Site and My You Tube Channel and send to your friends.

As I post to my blogs from my little piece of paradise here on the coast of Florida, more than once I have lamented about the poor pricing practices that are dragging down the market.  You can go back through my posts to find these Case Studies of seller's who did not understand, no matter how educated or intelligent, the proper pricing of homes.  This is exacerbated by real estate agents who go along with this pricing in hopes of finding an uninformed buyer.  Sure, there are plenty of them out there!

So here is today's take on the pricing issue:

The oceanfront manse pictured above at 1370 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan just sold for $12 million.

The property last sold in June 2009 for $22.45 million. The seller was Germantown-Seneca Joint Venture of Maryland, the buyer MGM Design LLC of Illinois.

“Somebody got a great buy,” said Frank McKinney, a mansion builder who has owned 1370 S. Ocean twice over the years.

McKinney said the seller was a hedge fund that was taking losses on some of its properties. Once upon a time, McKinney marketed the estate for $50 million, but the highest sale was for $27.5 million in 2000.

Meanwhile, McKinney said he has lowered the asking price of another Manalapan estate, Acqua Liana, to $24.3 million from $29 million.  That's a price reduction of nearly $ 5 million.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture increased its Florida orange crop forecast for the 2009-2010 season by 2 million boxes today.

The state's commercial growers are expected to produce 131 million 90-pound boxes of oranges.

The forecast was increased despite more than a week straight of sub-freezing temperatures in January in the state's citrus belt, resulting in frozen fruit and leaf damage.

"This estimate is evidence that Florida citrus came through the 'freeze that would never end' in better shape than we first thought," said Michael Sparks, vice president/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a Lakeland-based grower organization. "It was a tough patch but one that can't underestimate the resiliency of our industry."

The crop is not expected to yield as much juice, the USDA said. The projection for frozen concentrated orange juice is decreased to 1.53 gallons per box, down from 1.56 gallons per box in February.

In response to the freezing temperatures, growers began harvesting their remaining fruit at an accelerated rate, moving fruit from the grove to processing plants, the USDA said.

Last season Florida produced 162.4 million boxes of oranges.

The grapefruit forecast remains unchanged at 18.8 million 85-pound boxes. In the 2008-09 season, 21.7 million boxes of grapefruit were produced.

Accdording to the Palm Beach Post:

The region's jobless rate soared in January and statewide unemployment remained at a 35-year high, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation said today.

Palm Beach County's jobless rate rose to 12.5 percent from 11.7 percent in December. Martin County unemployment rose to 13.6 percent from 12.6 percent in December. St. Lucie County unemployment rose to 14.9 percent from 14.2 percent in December.

The statewide unemployment rate was 11.9 percent, well above the national average of 9.7 percent. Construction continued to be the worst-performing industry, shedding 20 percent of its jobs over the past year. Health care and social assistance remained the only sector to add jobs.

This is still a great place to live!  www.CoastalFloridaRealEstate.net   www.youtube.com/richardsites