Lisa Barton

Winter is upon us and according to the National Fire Protection Association, nearly half of all home heating fires occur during the winter months.  It’s always wise to review safety tips and make sure you and your family have an escape plan in place. 

Happy New Year! There are encouraging signs in the real estate market as we wrap up 2010. Pending sales are up with a 21% increase from this time last year. An increase in pending sales suggests that the glut of inventory should eventually regain balance. Closed sales have followed the same upward trend, with an 11% increase year over year. And, an additional piece of good news, the percent of original list price received at sale has increased 1% over this time last year. (Normally a one percent increase is not reason to celebrate, but in this case, it's a positive indicator because it is no longer declining).

If you are thinking of joining a country club this year, one option to consider would be a membership to the beautiful Marsh Landing Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach. Social and recreational opportunities abound.  Features include a main ballroom and a full-service dining room, both with panoramic marsh views of the 9^thhole. There is a fitness center which includes an aerobics room, strength training and cardio equipment, massage room, and locker rooms. The tennis pro shop can help you with all of your tennis needs. Ten Har-Tru tennis courts are available. The centerpiece of the community, the Ed Seay golf course, weaves through pockets of marshes, soaring pines, floral landscape, and is the home to a variety of wildlife.

The electric cart network that surrounds Nocatee is finished!  It’s the first of its kind in Northeast Florida.  Electric golf carts, or similar low-speed vehicles, can be used as an alternate form of transportation around the entire community.  Connector roads have been built between communities and amenities to increase the network.  This interlinked Greenway Trail System includes miles of wide, multiuse pathways that wonder between communities, shopping, wetlands, and recreation areas. 

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors held its annual holiday luncheon in The Plantation’s lovely clubhouse. Cathy Brown, Executive Director of the St. Johns Council on Aging, was the keynote speaker and shared some interesting facts about St. Johns County:

• Twenty-five percent of residents with a Florida Driver’s License are over the age of 60. 
• There is one hospital in St. Johns County with 316 beds.
• Twenty-eight percent of those eligible to vote are over the age of 60. 
• Twenty-three percent of county residents are over 60, divided fairly evenly between males and females, and are predominantly white. 

Did you know that Marsh Landing, a gated community in Ponte Vedra Beach, has two parks? Osprey Park is the smaller of the two with a playground and basketball court. The recently renovated Fletcher Park spans two acres and contains a new playground, soccer field, and volleyball court. Both parks have restroom facilities. 

In 2011, a running track will surround Fletcher Park and a new pavilion will be built.

Looking for other recreational activities in Marsh Landing? Sidewalks double as bike paths and lead to the Intracoastal Waterway overlooking a number of beautiful estuaries. 

The Marsh Landing Country Club is also available to members and guests and has a wide range of recreational offerings including a fitness center, swimming pool, tennis courts, and golf.

While no sector of real estate has been able to escape the declining market conditions, the luxury market (homes valued at $1,000,000 or more) have traditionally been slightly more protected from depreciation. Right now, the percentage of distressed sales for luxury homes in Ponte Vedra Beach and Jacksonville are significantly less than the local average of all homes for sale.  Many sellers in the luxury market have the personal wealth to wait-out the economic conditions, rather than sell their home at a loss. According an article in the Business Section of the Florida Times Union, there is a high inventory for homes on the market for above a million dollars. Keep in mind though, buyers in the luxury market are still looking for deep discounts--just as buyers are in general.

According to the Florida Times Union, data from the Multiple Listing Service indicates that sales in the $1 million or more market are up 6% this year.  Positive signs can be taken from this trend. The luxury market is often the first to recover and this increased activity may indicate that the housing market is at or near the bottom. Combine this with low mortgage rates and the fact that the banks are relaxing lending requirements for jumbo loans, and you’ll find it’s a great time to be a luxury home buyer!

 In my office (Prudential Network Realty Ponte Vedra), we’ve definitely seen an increase in buyer interest and in actual sales of luxury homes. Our high-end listings are seeing much more traffic than they were during the past two years and we’ve had several sales of high-end homes this year.

Prudential Network Realty will now offer even more services to customers!  Prudential has been selected to join RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network.  This exclusive new network has only been extended to 50 brokers nationwide that are committed to providing a full range of real estate services and timely information to consumers.  Download this PDF to find out how these new services can help you make real estate decisions.

Once again, I’ve been reviewing the listings and sales for this quarter in the Jacksonville Beaches communities: Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, and Ponte Vedra. There are a few favorable market trends across the entire Northeast Florida market and each of these individual communities that I wanted to share.

Major lenders including Bank of America, GMAC Mortgage, and JPMorgan Chase are suspending foreclosures in 23 states where judicial approval is needed. The banks are also asking Fannie Mae to delay the sale of the foreclosed homes whose loans were sold on the secondary market.