Destin Resort Newly Updated

Newly Renovated Meeting Space at Destin Resort

PRNewswire

Seascape Golf & Beach Resort is proud to debut a newly renovated Conference Center, featuring over 4,000 square feet of meeting space. Seascape is quickly becoming the Florida resort destination for meetings, groups and events held along the Gulf Coast. The new Destin meeting resort boasts a professional and flexible staff of conference service managers that can assist you with meeting planning, corporate retreats and special events.

Seascape Resort delivers flawless service and affordable meeting packages with impressive corporate retreat facilities, catering to both large and small groups. The resort amenities and services will help make your business gathering productive as well as fun. Enjoy access to beautiful white-sand beaches and a lush golf course. Golf group tournament services and golf group outings are specialties - making Seascape a fantastic choice for blending business with pleasure.

An array of Destin condos and the Emerald Bay Guesthouse offer a relaxed atmosphere that will make your stay feel like home. Large gathering space is available in our grassy dune with lots of room for families to recreate and socialize. For breathtaking views of the Gulf of Mexico and scenic sunsets, bring your party to the beach for dinner and cocktails at Whale's Tale Beach Bar & Restaurant.

A helpful staff of group directors is available to assist with planning activities of any size, including a forever-memorable Destin beach wedding. Seascape provides an all-inclusive choice with plenty of room for all your guests to share and group coordinators will assist you in creating a wedding of dreams; even with the bachelor party and farewell brunch.

Seascape Golf & Beach Resort offers luxury vacation rental options at an affordable price for groups big and small. The resort encompasses over 300 flourishing acres with spacious villas and condos throughout, including the brand-new Ariel Dunes I and Ariel Dunes II condominiums along with the Majestic Sun - an architectural icon rising high above Destin's emerald-green waters.

With a new Destin Groups website launched in 2008 that caters to vacation groups; with over $300 a day in resort discounts for your party to enjoy, including golf and beach activities; and with the newly remodeled Conference Center; Seascape invites you to join them in Destin, Florida for your next group event.

First-Time Homebuyer Federal Tax Credit

FROM: Brenda W. Casserly, President & CEO
DATE: February 23, 2009
RE: First-Time Homebuyer Federal Tax Credit

As you may have heard, significant improvements in the temporary First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit were signed into law on Feb. 17 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide a housing stimulus for first-time home purchases that occur between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2009.
This is even better news for first-time homebuyers than the tax credit announced in April 2008 because not only has the tax credit maximum increased from $7,500 to $8,000 - but more significantly - it does not need to be repaid unless the individual re-sells the home within three years.

There are several notable points about this federal income tax credit that I have bulleted for your convenience so you can easily explain the highlights to potential first-time homebuyers. They are:
" Credit maximum was increased from $7,500 to $8,000. The credit is calculated as 10% of the purchase price. Example: If the purchase price is $70,000, the credit is $7,000.
" Removed the repayment requirement, provided the homebuyer does not resell the home for three years.
" Eligibility remains for first-time homebuyers only. In this case, a first-time homebuyer is defined as an individual who has not owned a primary home at any time during the three years prior to purchase, but who may have done so prior to that time. Although certain income limits do apply, the amount of the credit is the same for all taxpayers, married or single.
" To be eligible for the full tax credit, the homebuyer can have an annual adjusted gross income of no more than $75,000 ($150,000 on a joint return). A homebuyer with an annual adjusted gross income above that level and up to $95,000 ($170,000 on a joint return) is eligible for a reduced tax credit.
" The tax credit can be claimed on one's individual or joint tax return for the purchase of any single-family home between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 1, 2009. It can be claimed on a 2008 tax return (to be filed by April 15, 2009), an amended 2008 tax return, or a 2009 tax return. Individuals should consult a professional tax advisor for exact tax calculations and timing.
To further assist you in communicating this good news, ERA Real Estate has created the Consumer Guide chart that explains these important points and a feature article in My PR Agent, entitled "First-Time Homebuyers Federal Income Tax Credit Improved and Extended," that you can send to the local media in your area. In addition, the National Association of REALTORS® has prepared a Major Modifications Chart that brokers/agents can use to understand the improvements made in the tax credit since last April. We have also attached a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for your use during first-time homebuyer seminars in your local market and in individual client meetings. Be sure to note that you are not a tax or legal professional, and of course encourage homebuyers to use their own advisors.
Keep in mind that this tax credit is retroactive. You should reach out to your recent first-time homebuyers who closed on or after Jan. 1, 2009 or are currently under contract to close in the near future. Plus, this is a great opportunity to call your customers and potential buyers and help get this important message out to those who can reap the benefits associated with it.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,

Brenda W. Casserly
President & CEO
ERA Franchise Systems LLC

NEW FHA REQUIRED DOWN PAYMENT STARTING JAN. 1, 2009

I just received this information about changing FHA requirements from Mark Elkins today.

Hello, I have received a few questions recently regarding the new required FHA down payment. Here is some clarification:

Beginning on January 1, 2009 the new required minimum down payment will increase from 3% to 3.5%. There is also another difference. Currently, we only need 3% in the whole transaction, which allows for part of that 3% to be used for closing costs. In the new requirement, the 3.5% will be for down payment only.

There will still be a maximum of 6% of seller concessions to the transaction towards closing costs.

Here is a link for you to view the FHA loan limits by county:

https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicostlook.cfm

If you have a borrower considering an FHA loan, there is still time to get the transaction closed by months end before the changes go in to affect. With our local underwriting and processing, we can move quickly.

We can also refinance FHA up to 95% LTV. Credit scores down to 620 with no credit score adds. With the new rates, it may be time to take advantage of this.

Call today for pricing or to enquire about one of our many financing programs.

Happy Holidays!!


Mark

850.420.4833

Florida Home Foreclosures Halted

600 Florida banks and credit unions have voluntarily agreed to halt foreclosures. This action affects statewide primary residences for the next 45 days. This agreement was negotiated by Governor Charlie Crist.

This creates an opportunity for many home owners to sell their homes over the next 45 days in the Destin area.
Hopefully these banks and credit unions will accelerate short sales to take advantage of this respite.

Destin Florida Video

Please take the time to see this video of Destin Florida.

Views include Destin Pass, Emerald Isle, Destin Harbor and Holiday Isle Beach.

Is the Destin real estate Market near the bottom?

There are more economists and investors that believe we are near the bottom of the market.
It is very clear that no two real estate markets hit their respective bottoms at the same time. So, the question is "are we near the bottom for Destin real estate". And the answer is a clear, maybe. But the dilemma is, if buyers wait to know where the bottom is, then the bottom has been past by many months and the best values missed.

Buyers may want to investigate the Destin MLS to see the what current pricing is today.
Contact me for any specific information.

Here is an article worth reading, but remember this is only one opinion.

The Housing Crisis Is Over
By CYRIL MOULLE-BERTEAUX
May 6, 2008; Page A23
The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.
How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005. New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50% and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982. Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of
GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability. The boom made housing unaffordable for many American families, especially first-time home buyers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, it took 19% of average monthly income to service a conforming mortgage on the average home purchased. By 2005 and 2006, it was absorbing 25% of monthly income. For first time buyers, it went from 29% of income to 37%. That just proved to be too much.

Prices got so high that people who intended to actually live in the houses they purchased (as opposed to speculators) stopped buying. This caused the bubble to burst. Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of
monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in. The next question is: Even if home sales pick up, how can home prices stop falling with so many houses vacant and unsold? The flip but true answer: because they always do.
In the past five major housing market corrections (and there were some big ones, such as in the early 1980s when home sales also fell by 50%- 60% and prices fell 12%-15% in real terms), every time home sales bottomed, the pace of house-price declines halved within one or two months.

The explanation is that by the time home sales stop declining, inventories of unsold homes have usually already started falling in absolute terms and begin to peak out in "months of supply" terms. That's the case right now: New home inventories peaked at 598,000 homes in July 2006, and stand at 482,000 homes as of the end of March. This inventory is equivalent to 11 months of supply, a 25-year high – but it is similar to 1974, 1982 and 1991 levels, which saw a subsequent slowing in home price declines within the next six months. Inventories are declining because construction activity has been falling for such a long time that home completions are now just about undershooting new home sales. In a few months, completions of new homes for sale could be undershooting new home sales by 50,000-100,000 annually. Inventories will drop even faster to 400,000 – or seven months of supply – by the end of 2008. This shift in inventories will have a significant impact on prices, although house prices won't stop falling entirely until inventories reach five months of supply sometime in 2009. A five-month supply has historically signaled tightness in the housing market. Many pundits claim that house prices need to fall another 30% to bring them back in line with where they've been historically. This is usually based on an analysis of house prices adjusted for inflation: Real house prices are 30% above their 40-year, inflation-adjusted average, so they must fall 30%. This simplistic analysis is appealing on the surface, but is flawed for a variety of reasons.

Most importantly, it neglects the fact that a great majority of Americans buy their houses with mortgages. And if one buys a
house with a mortgage, the most important factor in deciding what to pay for the house is how much of one's income is
required to be able to make the mortgage payments on the house. Today the rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 5.7%.
Back in 1981, the rate hit 18.5%. Comparing today's house prices to the 1970s or 1980s, when mortgage rates were
stratospheric, is misguided and misleading.

This is all good news for the broader economy. The housing bust has been subtracting a full percentage point from GDP for
almost two years now, which is very large for a sector that represents less than 5% of economic activity.
When the rate of house-price declines halves, there will be a wholesale shift in markets' perceptions. All of a sudden, the
expected value of the collateral (i.e. houses) for much of the lending that went on for the past decade will change. Right
now, when valuing the collateral, market participants including banks are extrapolating the current pace of house price
declines for another two to three years; this has a significant impact on the amount of delinquencies, foreclosures and credit
losses that lenders are expected to face.

More home sales and smaller price declines means fewer homeowners will be underwater on their mortgages. They will
thus have less incentive to walk away and opt for foreclosure.
A milder house-price decline scenario could lead to increases in the market value of a lot of the scrutinized mortgages that
have been responsible for $300 billion of write-downs in the past year. Even if write-backs do not occur, stabilizing
collateral values will have a huge impact on the markets' perception of risk related to housing, the financial system, and the
economy.
We are of course experiencing a serious housing bust, with serious economic consequences that are still unfolding. The
odds are that the reverberations will lead to sub trend growth for a couple of years. Nonetheless, housing led us into this
credit crisis and this recession. It is likely to lead us out. And that process is underway, right now.
Mr. Moulle-Berteaux is managing partner of Traxis Partners LP, a hedge fund firm based in New York.

Destin Real Estate Update - January 2008

The January numbers for Destin real estate sales and things are still slow.

There were 290 units sold, this is the lowest number since 1999. This means that now that we have gotten past the real estate bubble of 2002-2007 the Destin market is still being held down. This is creating unbelievable values for buyers. These values are selling quickly when they offered and a some point, I would imagine this year and the properties with the deepest cuts will be gone. After all not all owners have to or want to sell. Remember Destin Florida is one of the best beaches in the entire US; this is a very limited resource. Destin Real Estate is a better investment now than it was four years ago!