Foreign Buyers make the difference

Upturn in Florida home sales a welcome surprise
 

The following story provides insight into the world’s positive view of Florida as a smart real estate investment. It was published by Xinhua, a Chinese news agency that claims over 800 million website visitors.

(Xinhua) – Sept. 1, 2011 – One of the first U.S. states to have its economy crushed by the U.S. housing market recession is now experiencing a rather happy surprise – its housing market is undergoing an upturn.

Despite an unemployment rate of 10.7 percent, which is higher than the national rate of slightly over 9 percent, enough people are buying houses in Florida, especially in the Miami area, so that the state’s housing market is no longer considered an imminent problem by housing and regulatory agencies.

What makes this even more unique is the fact that the status of Florida’s housing market seems to be in the opposite condition of the national housing market.

End of July statistics by the U.S. Department of Commerce show that total sales of newly built homes in the U.S. declined for the third consecutive month. Total sales in July fell almost one percent.

On another housing market matter, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), the rating agency which created a global storm by downgrading U.S. credit rating in early August, is currently being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice to see whether or not S&P mis-rated home mortgage securities. S&P declined to be interviewed by Xinhua for this story.

With all of the above fiscal-related problems negatively affecting the U.S. housing market, how are the Miami and Florida housing markets now having success? Todd Nordstrom, a Realtor for Keller Williams Realty in Miami Beach, got the answers.

“The recent building boom has brought a tremendous increase in residents to the (Miami) downtown areas. At this time, approximately 85 percent of all condominiums built in the last boom are currently occupied, which is fueling new restaurant and entertainment options. Foreign nationals account for over 50 percent of all sales in the (Miami-Dade) county,” said Nordstrom.

According to Nordstrom, “foreign nationals with cash due to rising currencies” were attracted to Florida by its lower home prices. They are mostly nationals from Brazil, one of a few countries that have witnessed rapid economic expansion in the past decade despite the recession that hit the U.S. and other major industrialized countries.

A spokesman for RealtyTrac, which publishes the monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, also gave its explanations for the housing boom in Miami and Florida.

“We believe a slowdown in foreclosure activity, that started 10 months ago because of problems with foreclosure paperwork and documentation, is actually helping the Miami and Florida housing markets to experience this upturn,” said Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac.

Miami and Florida’s good-fortune housing market environments have happened elsewhere in the U.S. – most notably in Phoenix, Arizona – and “prices have passed the tipping point where buyers are willing to jump in, and the temporary lull in the foreclosure activity has helped to boost buyer confidence as well,” Blomquist said.

Yet there are two other possible reasons for Miami and Florida’s upturn in their respective housing, according to Brad Sullivan, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

“Florida/Miami has a relatively high concentration of retirees that may contribute to the demand for housing, relative to states/metro areas with a higher share of unemployed persons. The Southeast in general was/is growing faster than many other parts of the country – the upper Midwest, for example,” noted Sullivan.

The Miami-Dade housing market has had 12 consecutive quarters of increased sales. Condominium and home sales in the Miami-Dade area rose almost 50 percent in the second quarter of 2011.

The Internet is another source for would-be homebuyers to refer to if interested in buying a house in Florida. RealtyTrac.com and Foreclosure.com, which has monthly charges for customers who are given a grace period of seven days without fees, allow Internet users to examine Florida foreclosure records. Another website, Equator.com, does the same, but for no charge at all to customers.

While the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is considering making tens of thousands of government-owned foreclosed homes into rental units, the medium price for a single-family home in the West Central Florida region dropped 3.2 percent from June to July. The medium price for such a home is now 125,000 U.S. dollars.

According to S&P’s Case-Schiller home price index, from June of 2010 to June of 2011, Tampa had the largest decrease in the price of a single-family home than anywhere else in the U.S. In that time span, the price of a home in the region of Tampa declined by 9.5 percent.

When RealtyTrac released in late July its mid-year report of the 20 metropolitan areas in the U.S. that had the most foreclosures, only one Florida area – Cape Coral/Fort Myers, which rated at 12 – was listed. One year ago, Florida had nine areas and cities listed in the top 20 of RealtyTrac’s listing.

But in Washington D.C., a number of federal agencies have churned out data and reports about the housing market that seem to conflict – and the upturn in the Miami and Florida housing markets is no exception.

On Wednesday, the FHFA issued a 83-page report about the status of housing markets all throughout the country, which stated that Florida’s housing market was down 8 percent in the second quarter of 2011 compared with the same period of last year.

Yet Andrew Leventis, a senior economist for the FHFA, admitted that all is not glum for the Miami and Florida housing markets.

“The strength (of both housing markets) is that there are incredibly affordable price levels for houses and that interest rates are at historic lows. If you want to buy a house in Florida and you have good credit, there’s a good chance that you can get a 30-year loan, which Americans love to do. There’s a lot of inventory (i.e., unsold homes) out there,” noted Leventis.

Miami-Dade County is not the only area of Florida’s housing markets that is now experiencing robustness. In Orange and Seminole counties, both located in the middle of Florida, Realtors note that there is anywhere from four to five months of backlog inventory houses available – meaning that all types of homes, from single- family houses to mansions, are available to would-be buyers.

In Leon County, only 9 percent of all homes available for purchase were sold in 2010, yet 2011 figures showed that this statistic is on the rise.

DataQuick.com, a website which posts real estate news and custom data, reported that in the immediate Miami metropolitan area, the number of foreclosures decreased to it’s lowest level since 2007.

From FloridaRealtors.org  -  Sept. 1, 2011

Henry B. Nathan is a Realtor at United Realty Group Inc.

Visit my websites:

Condo-southflorida.com

GoldenIsles-homes.com

Golden-Beach-Homes.com

The Beach Club Condos

How State Farm won and how they got away with it.

It does not happen too often nowadays.
Good journalism is the essence of our democratic values.

I real the following in the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

It is so revealing that I have no choice but to post it on my blog.

The article is not so much about the ruthless conduct of big insurance companies, but especially revealing on how our legislators can allow them to carry out these preposterous and immoral ripoffs.

Did you ask yourself why the cost of owning a home has gone up so much during the last few years?

We all know that INSURANCE.is one important element.

You think you know what's going on?  Think again.

An intricate web of offshore companies set up with the only purpose of escaping regulations and skimming the consumer is the essence of the whole scheme.

You think you have escaped their grip?  Not so easy!

Shameful?

What is being perpetrated against our middle class is across the board and unbelievable.

Banks, Insurance companies, are only the tip of the iceberg.

But, as a realtor, looking as the worse real estate crisis in history, I can't but write my indignation.

HERALD-TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION

How State Farm cashed in on a crisis

A Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigation

When State Farm stepped up its march out of Florida, it loudly and publicly claimed hurricanes were pushing it toward financial disaster. The company argued it had to leave the Florida coast -- and drop nearly half a million customers -- because it could not profit in a state wracked by so many storms.

But State Farm never really left Florida.

A Herald-Tribune investigation finds Florida's largest insurer has instead found an easier way to profit from homeowners desperate for coverage. And the desperation State Farm helped create allows it to command some of the highest rates in the world.

The conduit for this back-door insurance is DaVinci Reinsurance Ltd., an offshore company with no physical office or employees of its own that sells policies to insurers to cover their storm losses.

The virtual corporation was launched in 2001 by State Farm and a Bermuda reinsurer with which it has close ties.

State Farm provided $200 million in seed capital. Its partner, RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., took on management and the recruitment of other investors.

While it has little physical presence, DaVinci is now one of the state's most important hurricane reinsurers. Contracts show DaVinci provided coverage last year to more than 50 Florida insurance carriers representing the owners of 3.7 million homes.

Through DaVinci, State Farm quietly continues to collect money from thousands of former customers who were told their homes were too risky to insure.

Collectively, these customers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to State Farm's offshore reinsurance venture. Without a hurricane, the $300 million in Florida premium paid to DaVinci from 2006 through 2009 has been largely profit. Florida's payments for 2010 are not yet available.

The advantages to State Farm are clear.

In Florida, the insurance rates State Farm can charge are regulated by the government. Profits are controlled and taxed. The potential loss from a major hurricane is measured in billions of dollars.

DaVinci's premiums, on the other hand, are as high as the market will bear. Based in Bermuda, it avoids U.S. taxes and faces no limit on profits. If a hurricane strikes, State Farm would lose no more than its investment in DaVinci -- $350 million at the end of last year.

State Farm officials would not disclose the company's current ownership interest in DaVinci. Nor would RenRe release the names of DaVinci's directors. Securities filings show that since 2008, State Farm has had an option to leave DaVinci, but as of December 2009 it had not exercised that right.

A spokesman for State Farm responded to questions from the Herald-Tribune with a two-sentence statement.

"Reinsurance exists to help insurers protect homeowners from major catastrophes," wrote spokesman Phil Supple. "In this instance, State Farm is simply an investor and not actively involved in this reinsurer's underwriting decisions." 

Stacked against State Farm Mutual's $92 billion in assets, the investment in DaVinci is small. The cash payout so far has been only $100 million in dividends split between State Farm and other investors, including the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. But the impact on Floridians has been huge.  

DaVinci helped facilitate the transformation of Florida's home insurance market into one reliant on thinly capitalized, Florida-based companies and unregulated offshore reinsurance.

DaVinci, along with its partner RenaissanceRe, writes a specialized form of reinsurance that allows investors to launch and operate new Florida insurers with relatively little cash.

"It brings more capacity ... I would welcome State Farm to do more of it in a heartbeat," said Joe Graganella, president of two Florida insurance companies, Capitol Preferred and Southern Fidelity, which buy coverage from DaVinci and RenRe. Without that protection, it would be hard to do business, Graganella said.

The expansion of DaVinci's coverage in Florida, however, was also self-serving. 

DaVinci's presence made it easier for State Farm to withdraw from Florida's densely populated coastlines and in five years shed more than 865,000 customers -- by helping give those customers a place to go.  That, in turn, aided State Farm politically.

The company's withdrawal has put pressure on lawmakers to give concessions to the insurance industry, but is not so cataclysmic as to prompt state intervention to prevent it. In the end, Florida officials allowed State Farm to sharply raise rates and eliminate policy discounts while shifting to safer parts of the state and retaining its highly profitable auto insurance operation in Florida.

Earnings projections filed with state regulators show State Farm expects to collect as much premium in 2011 as it did before its exodus.

"State Farm has done a good job, an excellent job, in pulling the wool over the eyes of many of my colleagues in the House and Senate," said state Sen. Mike Fasano, a Pasco County Republican and a critic of State Farm. "They've convinced them that State Farm is poor and they're losing money and the Legislature is willing to come to their rescue."

OPPORTUNITY IN DISASTER

DaVinci emerged from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Within weeks of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, it was created by State Farm and its Bermuda partner, RenaissanceRe, to capitalize on price increases that followed the disaster. State Farm's original $200 million stake gave it a 40 percent share in DaVinci and a seat on the board of directors. RenRe provided 20 percent of the money and manages the venture. At the outset, DaVinci was a nominal reinsurer for Florida. It specialized in low-risk contracts with large U.S. insurers such as Allstate and Zurich American. 

That changed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

To take advantage of rising reinsurance rates, DaVinci shifted its attention to hurricane risk, raising $375 million, including $25 million more from State Farm. It doubled its capacity to write reinsurance and refocused much of its business on Florida. 

Together, DaVinci and RenRe became the largest provider of hurricane coverage to Florida-based insurers. The rates they charged Florida insurers post-Katrina doubled, RenRe executives told stock analysts at the time. The company's pursuit of such distressed markets is a central part of its business philosophy.

"Where there's gunfire we don't run toward the bullets, but we like to get involved when there's still smoke in the air," RenRe CEO Neill Currie told the Herald-Tribune two years ago at a reinsurance gathering in Monte Carlo. "It works out pretty well, because we come riding in on the horse."

National reinsurance records show that in 2005, Florida-only insurers provided 23 percent of DaVinci's U.S. revenue. By 2009, it was 41 percent. 

Interviews and documents examined by the Herald-Tribune show DaVinci focused on selling the riskiest, hardest-to-get coverage most critical to Florida's weakest property insurers.

There is little competition in that niche, and reinsurance brokers said the price for such protection is among the highest in the world, sometimes more than 50 cents for $1 in coverage. " 'Opportunistic' is the absolute key word," said John DeMartini, vice president at Towers Watson, a national reinsurance brokerage. "DaVinci cleverly stepped into the void."

What's more, State Farm organized its withdrawal in a way that helped it keep control of its most profitable business -- car insurance. It created a list of insurers to which State Farm agents could direct dropped customers. 

Homeowners who switched to those companies could retain their multi-policy discounts. State Farm agents also keep their clients if they move them into the state-created Citizens, or to the pre-approved companies -- most of which are backed by DaVinci reinsurance coverage. Details about DaVinci were kept quiet enough that several longtime Florida State Farm agents told the Herald-Tribune they were not aware most of the pre-approved companies had a connection to State Farm.

EVERYWHERE, A BIT OF STATE FARM

Tampa resident Trudy Hensley canceled her State Farm home and car policies in 2009 after seeing her premium jump 66 percent in two years. 

State Farm's threat to drop Florida residents angered her enough to look for coverage elsewhere. She switched to Tower Hill. What she did not know was that the Tower Hill group, including four insurers under that umbrella, is by far DaVinci's largest Florida customer. 

The Tower Hill companies together paid State Farm's reinsurance venture more than $48 million in premiums from 2004 through 2009. "It's very unethical. I have no feelings of Good Neighborliness," Hensley said. "I'm not happy at all. It's another case of those big insurance companies taking advantage of people." 

Hensley's first reaction after being told about DaVinci was to ask for a list of companies that do not buy reinsurance from the company. It would be hard to find one.

By 2009, DaVinci, in partnership with RenRe, had provided some hurricane protection for 54 Florida insurers, including Allstate and fast-growing Universal Property & Casualty. The duo supplied the majority of hurricane protection for six companies, a list that included Security First, Argus and the now-defunct Northern Capital.

According to financial contracts reviewed by the Herald-Tribune, DaVinci was the third-largest commercial provider of hurricane reinsurance in Florida by the end of 2009. As State Farm dropped customers along the Florida coast, many remained in the State Farm family when they were picked up by companies using DaVinci reinsurance, including Northern Capital. The Miami-based insurer was started in 2007 by the owners of a security guard company. 

Alexander Anthony and Albert Fernandez put up $8 million and approached state regulators with an offer to take on more than 45,000 homeowners who had been dropped into a state-run program by State Farm and others.

Like many Florida start-up insurers, Northern Capital lacked the money to insure that many homes. It could have drastically scaled back its growth plans to fit the money it had. Instead, it devoted two-thirds of its income to buy reinsurance, letting it insure thousands more homes. 

Northern Capital concentrated its business in Miami-Dade County and adjacent areas -- a region State Farm closed to new business in 1992. Despite that, 90 percent of Northern Capital's private reinsurance in 2007 came from DaVinci and RenRe. The decision was a fertile opportunity for State Farm's venture.

Northern Capital paid DaVinci as much as 40 cents for every $1 in protection it received, akin to paying $80,000 a year to insure a $200,000 home.

A risk assessment done for state regulators shows Northern Capital's coverage from DaVinci had a technical value -- the average annual expected hurricane loss -- of no more than 4 cents per $1 insured. But DaVinci demanded to be paid 10 times the actual risk. 

That cost landed on homeowners. A Herald-Tribune review of scores of reinsurance contracts found similar terms for other companies. In 2009, Southern Fidelity paid 52 cents for every $1 of protection bought from DaVinci and RenRe. Homeowners Choice paid the two companies 43 cents per $1 of protection. Capitol Preferred also bought high-risk coverage last year at 57 cents on the dollar; Gulfstream paid 32 cents for every $1 of coverage. 

As Northern Capital illustrates, the contracts worked out better for State Farm than for companies that bought the coverage. With no hurricanes, DaVinci kept the $20 million it collected from Northern Capital.

In early 2009, state regulators accused Northern Capital of paying too much for reinsurance and put it under secret supervision. 

A year later, the company had so little money regulators shut it down.

From the Sarasota Herald Tribune – December 6, 2010

Henry B. Nathan is a Realtor at United Realty Group Inc.

Visit my websites:

Condo-southflorida.com
floride-immobilier.fr

GoldenIsles-homes.com

Golden-Beach-Homes.com

The Beach Club Condos

More about Traffic Cameras

Did you get it yet?
I hate Traffic Cameras.
The more I read about them, the more I think about them, the more they represent a symbol of greed by inefficient government, resourceful when it comes to overwhelm citizens with new and creative types of taxation, stingy when it amounts to services provided. Here is another story on CBS4.com about Red Light Cameras in South Florida:

Hallandale Beach Red Light Cam Generates Big Bucks

The City of Miami Beach is expected to add 15 new red light cameras after a vote Wednesday night. The city currently has 10, and assistant City Manager Robert Middaugh says the cameras reduce traffic crashes and promote safer driving.

"It really does create a heightened awareness as people go up and down the streets to pay attention to the intersections and pay attention to the traffic laws," Middaugh said.

While Miami Beach plans to add cameras, Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London wants to get rid of the only red light camera in his city. He calls it a hidden tax.

"It's a speed trap, it's a red light traffic trap. It's about the revenue, it's not about public safety," London said.

CBS4's Natalia Zea did some checking and found that Miami Beach issues an average of 1,000 tickets a month, but that is small potatoes compared to Hallandale Beach's camera at the intersection of US-1 and Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

The one red light camera there is giving out an average of 700 more tickets every month than all 10 of Miami Beach's cameras combined.

Hallandale is making a killing off those tickets to the tune of $1 million since January. Some drivers were furious to learn that.

But Hallandale Beach police said there are simply more drivers making rolling turns on red lights at their intersection. 93 percent of the tickets they've issued were for that violation. CBS4's cameras caught plenty of people rolling right on the red.

Middaugh believes Hallandale officers reviewing the video footage and issuing the tickets are stricter on the rolling right turns than Miami Beach cops.

"We're not writing as many tickets as the others and that's okay. We didn't do this for revenue, we did this to reduce intersection accidents," Middaugh said.

Hallandale police deny that. Either way, some drivers we spoke with like Bob Mendola say no matter the speed, the intersection, or the camera the law is the law.

"If it's the law and you break it, you should be ticketed.

I got it Big Brother.

Henry B. Nathan is a Florida Realtor at United Realty Group Inc.

Visit my website: http://www.condo-southflorida.com

where you can search for Aventura Condos, Florida Condos, Sunny Isles Condos

More conflicts between buyers and developers

Buyer goes after Related assets in condo lawsuit

A Coral Gables law firm is seeking to garnish Related Group assets for failing to pay a condo depositor despite a Miami-Dade Circuit judge’s order.

The company was ordered to pay Rafael Maldonado $16,388 after Circuit Judge Jon I. Gordon sided with the would-be buyer, who demanded the return of a portion of his down payment after he failed to close on the condo under a 2005 contract. Maldonado’s attorneys, Robert G. Post and Carlos A. Romero with Post & Romero, say it’s a story they’ve heard too frequently since the housing market crashed: a developer engaging in delaying tactics and not returning deposits.

The funds remain in an escrow under the control of Chicago Title Insurance. Romero said the company will not release the funds without authorization from Related. Romero’s firm filed a motion for a writ of garnishment against the company Monday. Escrow account managers at Chicago Title’s Florida offices did not return calls for comment before deadline. Although the April 13 judgment does not state when the funds should be paid, Romero cites a state law that allows for collection on the judgment after 10 days if the defense doesn’t post bond or seek an appeal. Monday was the 27th day.

“It seems to me that if the developer just wanted to pay, it would have done so in 2009 without making an innocent party jump so many hoops unnecessarily. These delay tactics continue to be seen and felt by innocent buyers,” Romero said.

He said the developer’s in-house counsel, Elizabeth E.S. Hollander, is now coming up with reasons to justify delaying payment. “This in-house counsel took the position that they had a ‘reasonable amount’ of time to pay the judgment,” Romero wrote in an e-mail Monday. “The judgment neither reflects nor provides for postponement of payment for any time, let alone a reasonable period of time.” Hollander, Related’s assistant associate general counsel, argues the judge’s order could be interpreted to allow the company to disburse funds at a later time, according to an e-mail provided by Post & Romero. Hollander declined comment.

The company’s lead attorney in the case, Related vice president and associate general counsel Betsy McCoy, did not return calls by deadline. The final judgment ordered the company to pay Maldonado a portion of his deposit. He put down $59,780 on a $298,900 unit on the 11th floor of the Arquitectonica-designed 500 Brickell West Tower condominium. Gordon ordered Related to return 25 percent of the deposit plus interest as required by the purchase contract. When Maldonado found the unit in 2005, the Puerto Rican attorney thought it was a perfect fit.

He was looking for a small condo near the heart of the city, a place to stay during short visits to see his mother and sister. The one-bedroom unit was just a few steps from the gym, on the same floor as the swimming pool and had a sunset-view balcony. When the housing bubble burst, the condo lost value, and Maldonado — who represents developers — decided to pull out of the deal and keep a portion of the deposit. “The worst part is they sold the apartment to someone else, and they haven’t paid me my miserable 25 percent.

I’m losing a considerable amount of money,” Maldonado said Tuesday. “I’ve been dealing with canceling this for over a year now.” Related, which uses the motto “Redefining cities and skylines” on its Web site, was one of Miami’s most prolific condo builders during the boom years and became a national leader in the industry.

Like many other developers, Related went into contraction mode, recently pulling out as a partner in the Trump Towers luxury condo in Sunny Isles Beach.

Henry B. Nathan is a Florida Realtor at United Realty Group Inc.
Visit my website: GoldenIsles-homes.com
where you can search for Golden Isles Real Estate

They will never give up!

Look at what I have read today:

The amount of cynicism is infinite, but we are getting used to it.

So, these insurance companies are so, but so worried that Citizens, (the state sponsored Property Insurance company which insures a large proportion of our homes against hurricane risks), could get in trouble. Actually Citizens is their competition and they are doing fine.

Listen to this: “Floridians would be faced with even higher assessments from Citizens. We simply can’t afford to let that happen,” said Jay Newman, chairman of Davie-based Sawgrass Mutual Insurance Co.

Have these insurance companies suddenly become our new public advocates?

What they can't or do not want to afford is losing the business of Floridian homeowners who would be caught under their grip without remedy if these bill are ever passed.

These insurance companies have been trying to raise their rates for a long time. Even though we haven't had a major hurricane in five years. Not only so, but they now also want to limit the consumers' claims, by:

"reining in" the PUBLIC ADJUSTERS (because they are too friendly to the consumer - you're right: collect more and pay less is good for business)

And last but not least, we are not dupe because:

" Both bills also call for insurance rate hikes, an issue downplayed by the group."

This is in reality the bottom line and all what really matters. These are powerful corporations and their ultimate goal is to make money at any cost and as much as possible.

We all understand that. So don't try to fool us into all this nonsense. They want to make more money, that's all.

This is what I read in the news today:

A Tallahassee-based organization that represents Florida insurers is urging state lawmakers to pass legislation they claim will shore up the property insurance market.

Without passage, the Property Insurers CEOs Group claims that Floridians will end up “saddled with billions of dollars of debt, should a major storm strike the state.”

The group, which comprises CEOs representing 21 insurance companies statewide, held a news conference Wednesday morning to warn that, with just two weeks left before the end of the legislative session, systemwide changes are desperately needed before hurricane season begins June 1.

The group is urging passage of Senate Bill 2044 and House Bill 447, which, among other things, impose a three-year limit on hurricane claims, require that insurance payments be used to repair homes damage by a hurricane or sinkhole, eliminate frivolous sinkhole insurance claims, address fraud and strengthen laws to guarantee the solvency of insurance companies.

Both bills also call for insurance rate hikes, an issue downplayed by the group. Instead, they noted that, if insurers can’t attract enough capital, more Floridians would be dumped into Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run property insurer of last resort.

“Floridians would be faced with even higher assessments from Citizens. We simply can’t afford to let that happen,” said Jay Newman, chairman of Davie-based Sawgrass Mutual Insurance Co.

Members said that even though Florida has not had a major hurricane in several years many private property insurers are not building the capital reserves that would be needed should a big storm, or a series of storms, hit the Sunshine State. “If a catastrophic storm strikes the state, it will be left to residents to pick up the difference in the form of assessments added to their insurance premiums,” the group claims.

The group said that, according to figures from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, 52 state domestic property insurers and the Florida subsidiaries of three national carriers had underwriting losses of $750 million last year, despite the fact that there were no hurricanes.

The group also is calling for public adjusters to be reined in.

“There are many good public adjusters and they serve the public well in terms of language barriers, we recognize and respect that. What we don’t respect is fraud, invented claims,” said Bob Ritchie, CEO of Tampa-based American Integrity.

David Beasley, president-elect of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters, said his organization has been working on compromises and agreed language to the legislation that will benefit not only consumers, but also the insurance industry.

“A lot of times, we are painted with a broad brush that doesn’t reflect the best efforts,” he said. “A lot of public adjusters are there to support consumers first. Sometimes, that comes in opposition to carriers.”

Beasley said that, while there are people in any business who “take shortcuts,” his organization has always supported initiatives including tougher licensing and education standards.

Source: South Florida Business Journal – April 21^st, 2010

Henry B. Nathan is a Florida Realtor at United Realty Group Inc.

Visit my website: http://www.condo-southflorida.com

where you can search for Aventura Condos, Florida Condos, Sunny Isles Condos

THE BEACH CLUB CONDOS - Hallandale - Update

Surprising statistics at the Beach Club Condos in Hallandale.

As of April 4th, 2010
There were a total of 165 units for sale on the MLS. Of those:

38 at the Beach Club One - 1 studio, 5 one-bedroom, 10 2-bedroom, 22 3-bedroom
60 at the Beach Club Two - 2 studio, 12 one-bedroom, 23 two-bedroom, 23 three-bedroom
67 at the Beach Club Three - 1 one-bedroom, 18 two-bedroom, 42 three-bedroom


During the previous 12 months, 121 units were sold at the Beach Club complex.

29 at the Beach Club One - sale prices between $290,000 and $900,000
51 at the Beach Club Two - sale prices between $213,900 and $1,750,000
47 at the Beach Club Three - sale prices between $286,000 and $850,000

That indicates one fact: At the present rate of sales, the inventory at the Beach Club will be reduced to a minimum quantity. There is a 15 month inventory. About 11% of the total units.
This is the healthiest it has been since the complex inauguration.

Buyers are mostly in solid financial condition. Many have bought their unit cash. Whoever could have got a mortgage loan must have been a privileged borrower, with great paying ability.

The Beach Club Complex is a luxury complex right on the ocean in Hallandale.


Henry B. Nathan is a Florida Realtor at United Realty Group Inc.
Visit my website: http://www.condo-southflorida.com
where you can search for Aventura Condos, Florida Condos, Sunny Isles Condos,