House Matters Tampa Bay Real Estate Blog

Citrus Park Place is a new home community of only 34 homesites with roughly half of the lots situated on either a pond, pond view or open space.  Pricing for these single family homes range from the high $100's to the high $200's with spacious floorplans from 1,613 square feet to 2,763 square feet.  The builder offers distinctive exterior designs, various structural options and stunning architectural features to ensure the home is suited for your needs and designed for the way you live.

Another great feature of Citrus Park Place is that all the homes are being built with energy efficiency in mind.  All of the homes meet the Environments for Living™ performance standards, as well as meets the EPA's Energy Star™ program standards for home construction.

This Tampa Bay new home community is located in a prime location for some of the best shopping, dining and schools in the area.  The Citrus Park location offers easy access via the Veteran's Expressway to downtown Tampa, the West Shore Business District, Tampa International Airport, Pinellas County beaches or Orlando.

This is the first of a three part post on different loan options that are available.
The first loan is one that very few real estate agents even know about but that is becoming increasingly more popular. Through the USDA (yeah, that's right the guys that put the stamp on meats) there is a program set up called the Rural Housing Service. This federal program is aimed at helping develop rural areas and you might be surprised at what they consider "rural areas".

The program is available in Pasco and Hillsborough counties. The limitation is that the home must be in specific geographic areas, defined mainly by population. In Pasco County that includes areas east of the Suncoast Parkway (Land O' Lakes, Wesley Chapel, etc.) and in Hillsborough, areas beyond Brandon and outside Plant City (Riverview, Lithia, etc.). However, counties such as Pinellas have become too urbanized to get assistance from the program. Other limitations to the program are that the program excludes borrowers who already own a home, have too much debt or have too little income and there are limitation on how much you can borrow.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's blog for part two of this three part series.

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State officials have approved up to $15 million in incentives in an effort to persuade T. Rowe Price to move to Land O' Lakes. If the financal services giant takes the state up on their offer they would eventually move 1,560 full-time jobs to the 95-acre site just east of the Suncoast Parkway by 2012.

Currently, T. Rowe Price has 425 employees working out of leased facilities in Tampa. T. Rowe Price is looking to move to a new location when its lease on the Tampa location expires.

T. Rowe Price has not yet made a final decision on where it will locate but the Land O' Lakes location is one of five they are considering. The other locations are in Houston, Omaha, St. Louis and Tulsa.

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Fannie Mae is testing a new way to handle short sales. In this new pilot program Fannie Mae will test a new process by which Fannie Mae pre-approves the list price. Then if a buyer make a full price offer the lender will accept the offer as long as the transaction meets standard requirements. For the purposes of the pilot, Fannie Mae has validated a specific list of properties that have already met the following criteria:

The property must be secured by a Fannie Mae mortgage.
The mortgage must be serviced by Countrywide Home Loans.
The property must be a potential short-sale (i.e., the list price is less than the unpaid balance on the mortgage).

There are only about 400 homes in Orlando and Phoenix that have been selected for the pilot. That may be only a small handful of the "short sale" properties that we need to clear off the market but its a start. If this program works it could clear the path for other lenders to step up and do the same.

As it is, the typical time from offer to closing on a "short sale" property is four to six months. Most buyers don't or can't wait this long so they don't even consider "short sale" properties. These properties then just sit on the market and clog the system then eventually become bank owned (REO) properties and are priced below market value. Once sold, these properties make their mark on the value of the surrounding homes in the area. In order to preserve home prices we need to get these properties off the market as soon as possible and this program, if successful, could very well do that.

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Cuts totaling $1.2 billion most heavily hit education, health care and social services.  Gov. Charlie Christ is expected to to sign the measure with just a few line-item vetoes.

While school districts were warned of the cuts months in advance, its still not going to be easy for them.  Teachers in one district were asked to remove any personal appliances in order to save on electricity.  These personal appliances include lamps on teachers desks.  Apparently children may be the future but we don't money in the budget for the "future".

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Tampa is always full of activities but this year has a bit more in store for us.  With Super Bowl, Gasparilla, the State Fair and the Strawberry Festival coming there's no shortage of activities.

Super Bowl XLIII - February 1st
Most everyone is excited and anxious about this year's Super Bowl which is being held at our very own Raymond James Stadium.  The Super Bowl may not be until Feb. 1st but the festivities officially kick off on January 24th with the NFL Experience.  The NFL Experience run the 24-25th and 29-31st and only costs $18.50 (adults) and $12.50 (12 and under).  On January 29th, the festivities move to Channelside for the blu Kick Off Event.  Then on Saturday, January 31st make your way down to Progress Energy Park in St. Pete for the Third Annual DirectTV Celebrity Beach Bowl. 

Gasparilla - February 7th 10am-11pm
Don't miss the invasion as pirates take over Tampa Bay.  The pirates will sail into the bay at 11:30am.  This is a site not to be missed with the invasion to follow (parade) and lots of celebrating afterward.

Florida State Fair - February 5-16th
With the fair following Super Bowl, the 105th Florida State Fair will carry the theme this year of Touchdown, Tampa Bay.  Along with all the typical fair food and midway rides there will also be a Super Bowl themed show, Blitz, A Tribute to Halftime Shows, Live Shark Encounter show,  Florida Ranch Rodeo and other new shows.  You can purchase discount advance tickets at Sweetbay until February 4th for only $8 (Adults 12+) and $4 (Children 6-11). 

Florida Strawberry Festival - February 26th-March 8th
Whether you're heading down to cheer on your favorite for the Strawberry Festival Queen, eat a little shortcake, watch some entertainment or just brave a few rides, the Strawberry Festival has a little something for everyone.  This year's big headliner is country artist, Taylor Swift.  But, the biggest decision to make is whether you like your strawberries with shortcake, sweet biscuit (my favorite) or just dipped in chocolate.

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