Coastal Florida Real Estate

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.

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!

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