Finally, after a great deal of debate between the Florida House and Senate, a much sought after tax reform bill was passed. Now it is up to the voters in January to approve or disapprove the measure.

The nuts and bolts of the proposal are basically that the Homestead Exemption has doubled from $25,000 to $50,000 and the Portability issue has finally been addressed by providing statewide portability of the wildly popular Save Our Homes, (3% cap,) differential. A homeowner can now “port” the full amount of the differential if they are upsizing, however, if they are downsizing, the pro-rata share based upon market value of the new home as a percentage of the market value of the old home. There is a $500,000 cap on the amount to be “ported” and it is applicable to school taxes.

Here’s how the portability would work:

If it sounds a bit confusing it is, but the good news is that the legislature addressed the issue and now we are relatively free to move about the State without suffering to many consequences, such as our taxes rising by three times our current amount.

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With the enormous amount of inventory in the real estate marketplace, (now well over 3 years,) it is truly a buyer’s market. The big question on everyone’s mind is when are they going to start releasing some of that pent up demand and start buying.

The traffic in the greater Naples area has certainly picked up, witnessed by the fact that the normal heavily-traveled routes have seen increased congestion. As we get on toward the month of November, we should see even more traffic indicating “they’re back”. Funny…they may indeed be back, with more on the way, but they aren’t really buying. Oh sure they’re are certain pockets of interest with contracts being written, but mostly it’s very spotty.

In checking with people holding open houses, they voice the same concerns…where are the people? They all seem to reiterate the same theme, the people may be here, but they are showing no signs of real interest in looking.

Hopefully, we won’t be looking at another “season” that wasn’t. The buyers are probably just hanging around, (like the rest of us,) with their feet up reading their ‘buyer’s guides’, like us trying to get a handle on exactly what the heck is going on with this market! 

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You know it’s funny, I’m a very computer literate person, which can be good and bad. In this increasingly mobile society, (and I refer to the technological aspect,) fast is just not fast enough!

Having had broadband for a number of years and a wireless network in my house and home office, I now use an ‘air card’ with my laptop when doing open houses. That air card costs me $60 per month through my local cellular phone service provider, and when you

Is it worth it? Well I guess that it is, because if no one is coming through the particular ‘open house’ that I’m doing, it gives me a chance to get some things done on the internet that I couldn’t normally do. I can also justify the cost by the mere fact that maybe someone who does show up will need immediate information from the MLS, although I really can’t recall that ever happening. 

(I think that is why I told my other half that I needed the card!)

But when you figure how much it is actually used, (maybe 16 hours a month at best,) it costs a pretty penny per hour. The one thing that really does bother me though isn’t the cost monthly, but rather the speed. After having true broadband for my wireless network, although they call it broadband, the air card is pretty damn slow. As a matter of fact, I find myself waiting an obnoxiously long time for sites to load more often than not.

After going to my local Sprint PCS store to complain and see whether they had a faster card, I was told that it all had to do with the configuration of the local towers. They said that if I lived in New York or Chicago, my speeds would be far different and much faster because of the towers there.

Great…just what I need to do is leave Naples and move to New York or Chicago just to increase my speed. Somehow…I don’t think so!!!

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The great debate continues to rage on about tax reform and more especially about the portability issue within the State of Florida of Homestead Exemption and 3 percent Save Our Homes cap. The Florida governor, Charlie Crist, has been pushing the legislature to remain in session until they pass a significant reform package and they did indeed agree to extend their session.

The interesting thing is that some of them on the Democratic side might be doing some foot dragging, while claiming to be looking thoroughly at proposals. Since they are in full control they essentially could stop any reforms from happening in this session. The huge risk is that they will certainly anger voters, who have literally demanded that the legislature take action and take action now. There have been many ideas and proposals, but to date, there is nothing firmed up to bring to a vote.

The portability issue, (more specifically of the Save Our Homes cap,) is major, since most of us are feeling locked in our homes, because a move would eliminate that 3% cap and the tax implications would change drastically. There have been some who are willing to vote for it, but would limit it to port within the county. In my opinion, that is way too restrictive and the new law should allow portability anywhere within the state. 

I do know one thing, if they don’t take action and do allow the session to expire, there is going to be hell to pay!  

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With residential real estate in the greater Naples area taking a plunge during the past year and a half or so, so also has the rental market. Not only is there a glut of homes and condominiums for sale, there now is an enormous glut of rental as well.

Certainly it is a natural phenomenon due to the fact that the homes and condos that the investors and ‘flippers’ had intended to dispose of and did not, are now going at bargain prices on the rental market. These former high rollers, (at least in their own minds,) with the bargain rents have hopes of creating some sort of cash flow, in many cases, just to stay afloat.

Many of the developers who were converting rental unit to condominiums, have now reversed direction because of the lack of interest when the buyers dried up and have gone back to renting the former rentals. This now causes problems for the landlords who are faced with increasing property taxes, as well as the higher cost of maintenance of the properties. Because of this situation, formerly positive cash flow in many cases, has turned negative and now the owners are forced to sell in a down market.

Not quite what people envisioned when moving to paradise!

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The Naples Press has somewhat slowed down on the constant bashing of the local Naples Real Estate Market that has taken place over the past two years.

Quite frankly it is something that I have never fully understood, considering the normal Sunday real estate section of the Naples Daily News is beefier and full of more advertising than almost any national or large city newspaper in the country. That includes the heavyweights like the New York Times, LA Times, Detroit Free Press, or even the Times-Picayune and what makes that section so impressive is that it is the realtors who support it through massive advertising.

Like a heavyweight champ, realtors have continually taken it on the chin, (through the negative press,), and yet got up and still supported the newspaper through their advertising. Even though there was small talk of an organized boycott of the paper, I think when people fully understood the implications of the Anti-Trust Laws, they backed down.

Still, I find it incomprehensible that the paper would do such a thing. Not only did it leave a negative impression for those entertaining purchasing real estate in the greater Naples area, it also had to have had a severe effect on the local economy as well.

I found it poetic justice that the international developer, Jack Antaramian who had contracted to purchase the Naples Daily News building pledging to turn it into magnificent condominiums, backed out of the deal citing market conditions. Could it be that he read too much of the morning paper?!?!

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