Hello world!

Ask any homebuilder, the past ten years have been tough.

When the market collapsed, the collective question among them was “when will things get back to normal.”

My answer ten years ago was that we had a long way to go. Tallahassee was grossly over-built and over-developed for residential lots that the recovery was likely going to take us into the early 20s for supply and demand to stabilize. My forecast was not well-received by the women and men who build homes for a living.

But here we are, on the doorstep of the next decade and new home sales remain at a historically low level, though a new trend appears to be forming. Better or worse? Find out in this week’s special report.

Download the June 2019 supply and demand report for homes in Tallahassee, FL.

The four corners of the Tallahassee real estate market are segmented by price range and the current months’ of supply of homes for each quadrant and each price range are shown.

You can use this information to recognize home values and to prepare yourself to successfully negotiate your next transaction when you buy a home or sell a home in Tallahassee.

It’s Summer. It’s hot. So let’s talk about swimming pools.

There are plenty of homes with pools on the market, and I have found that buyers, sellers, and even some appraisers do not really know how to place a value on the swimming pool in a real estate transaction.

In fact, some appraisers use a number of $15K of added value (because that is what they were taught fifteen years ago). Rather than use some rule of thumb, I have gone to the market to see what sellers and buyers have concluded when selling a home with a pool, and you can see the results in this week’s one-page special report.

Home values are still rising, but the rate of growth appears to merely be “normal” after several years of above normal returns.

Appreciation in the existing homes market is important to track (meaning separate of the overall market that includes new construction), as it provides existing homeowners with the information they need to properly price their homes when it comes time to sell.

Check out the current appreciation rate and what it means for our housing market in this week’s one-page special report.

The majority of homebuyers who use a mortgage loan when buying a home in Tallahassee use a conventional loan product.

In 2018, three out of every four borrowers used a conventional loan.

The graph in this week’s special report shows that nearly one in four homebuyers paid cash while 77% used a loan. We show how the loan share breaks out, as well as our concern about recent changes in the FHA.