The Highs & Lows Of Housing Inventory
b"With Terry Story, 27-year veteran Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker in Boca Raton, FL
Terry Story has been talking for months now about the lack of inventory driving up prices in the real estate market and generally making it increasingly more difficult for buyers to find what they can afford. Because location is sometimes everything, Terry explains that there are geographical exceptions. Trulia, the online resource for real estate listings, cites six metro areas currently recording annual increases in inventory: Fort Myers, Miami, and Sarasota, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Fresco, California; and Oklahoma.\\xa0 Interestingly, these are also the areas having had the biggest declines in the market crash of 2006.
Narrowing the discussion down to the South Florida market, Terry shows a bit of a recent decline in inventory causing a rise in prices and resulting in an average of 75 days for a home to sell. Most of the new housing construction, she said, is not taking place in her particular area, but more to the north and west of it.
Perhaps an indication of an overall confidence in the economy is at the root of the increase in real estate investments Terry sees going on.\\xa0 As opposed to what might be the more profitable venture of investing in stocks and bonds or even gold, many people like the sense of owning something they can feel and touch, the bricks and mortar sense of things. A note of caution with a real estate investment, however, is the difficulty of liquidating quickly if need be.
The question posed for this week\\u2019s segment we call \\u201cAsk A Real Estate Pro\\u201d is, \\u201cCan a home owner's association charge owners extra for gate control access?\\u201d\\xa0
Terry answers, \\u201cAbsolutely.\\xa0 They can pretty much charge for anything that they want.\\xa0 You see this all the time.\\u201d\\xa0 And owners should be aware that if they don\\u2019t possess a copy of the HOA documents for the buyer, they may be charged for a new set, including application fees, by the home owner\\u2019s association.
It\\u2019s wise to know the rules before going into negotiations of any kind and, before venturing into the real estate market, a qualified realtor is your best ally."