Lisa Barton

Home prices continue to improve both nationally and in the Jacksonville Beaches and Ponte Vedra Beach areas.  Signs of a recovery were evident in the late spring, and became more established in the summer according to data released by Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index.  The index, which tracks prices in twenty major metropolitan areas, rose a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent in July from the previous month.

Imagine your future house.  There are some new trends in environmentally friendly homes that are on the horizon which initially may seem improbable but are already in the works.  The Wall Street Journal recently explored this topic when they asked several architects to put together their ideas on the most energy efficient homes that they could imagine.  The result?  Some really cool ideas that are not as far fetched as they may seem.

I’ve been in real estate sales in the Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Beach area for four years now. I started with a small brokerage company with only 2 other agents. This was a great learning environment for me because I had complete responsibility for building my business on my own. I earned my real estate broker license this spring and decided I was ready for a change. I found one! Last month I joined Prudential Network Realty. For those of you who don’t know Prudential (I think that may be only 2% of the adult population), it’s BIG!

Given that my particular focus area is the Jacksonville Beaches, I investigated the first quarter sales indicators for my specific target areas: Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach. Additionally, I looked at vital neighboring communities including Ponte Vedra South (which includes Vilano Beach and the Intracoastal), and NE St John’s County. The good news is that all aggregate real estate sales indicators for the Beaches area showed improvement in the first quarter of 2009 when compared to the same quarter last year. Specifically, home sales rose 5.1% from 117 to 123.

Here are five easy tips for saving energy in your home.

A new twist in the foreclosure world…some banks that are heavy with construction loans, have been foreclosing on homebuilders whose unsold spec homes have lost significant value with the real estate market decline. Some of the property that these banks own includes housing units in varying stages of construction. Believe it or not, some banks have begun demolishing excess properties in order to avoid the costs associated with finishing the construction and marketing the houses. Banks claim that this extreme measure increases the safety of neighborhoods by preventing squatters and vandals from trespassing. After demolition, materials used in construction are turned into mulch for landscaping or salvaged for usable materials that can then be resold.

As you’ve probably read, first time home buyers are driving the real estate market nationally, as well as here in Ponte Vedra Beach. I recently worked with first time home buyers who purchased a great 3 bedroom 2 bath house in Sandy Oaks, a small neighborhood here in Ponte Vedra. The house was originally listed for $349,000 and sold in April 2009 for $209,900. The buyers were able to secure a low interest rate and at this price purchasing a home was cheaper than renting.

Economic indicators are lining-up favorably for first time home buyers. Encouraged by several factors including: a first time home buyer tax credit, low mortgage interest rates, a high inventory and reduced home prices, first time homebuyers are driving the sales figures in the Jacksonville real estate housing market.

Harbour Island is an exclusive, upscale, boating community in Ponte Vedra Beach’s Marsh Landing Country Club. The focal point of Harbour Island is the beautiful yacht basin, which offers fully equipped boat slips and easy access to the Intracoastal Waterway. Homes in the basin have great views of the marina as well as views of the Intracoastal Waterway. Many of the other grand homes in Harbour Island have private docks in their backyards or directly across the street. These docks also provide easy access to the Intracoastal Waterway. The Estate Section of Harbour Island features large beautifully wooded lots either directly on the Intracoastal Waterway or on the marsh. Now, for the first time, the developer of Marsh Landing is selling the last remaining boat slips to current Harbour Island residents. These slips which are located in the yacht basin range from 40’ - 60’.

Back in January I commented on the direction of standard residential mortgage rates and pointed out that 5% interest rates were the best we had seen in the last fifty years. Rates continued to decline in March, and despite a slight blip up in the past few days, mortgage rates remain incredibly low and offer a great opportunity to home buyers.  Standard thirty year mortgages are now averaging 4.85%, with 15 year mortgages at 4.58 per cent.