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Friday, June 23, 2006
Open (house) for suggestions
As the local real estate market enters what the Florida Association of Realtors calls a “correction” — and we here at blog central call “declining sales” — folks have been forced to come up with creative ways to sell homes.
It’s a buyers’ market now, most agree, so how do you get buyers to look at your property when the list of homes for sale grows longer every day?
In Boynton Beach, Re/Max Direct is painting the town.
“We’re having artists display their works in our open houses,” said Realtor Stefanni Gius.
“We’ve also banded together with other Realtors, and the entire community has a Parade of Homes — showings of all the homes for sale,” Gius said. “We all support each other’s open houses.”
And for those buyers sitting on the fence waiting for new-home prices to come down, developers say that’s not going to happen any time soon.
Many developers say they can’t lower new-home prices because construction costs have risen dramatically. So, many are offering such extras as free carpet or appliance upgrades.
If you’re a seller — whether you’re an agent, a “FSBO” (“For Sale By Owner”) or a builder — what are you doing to increase the chances you can plant a “sold” sign in the front yard any time soon?
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Super-size our cribs
OK, OK, I’m sure you’re as tired of the phrase McMansion as I am.
But here’s one more reason to invoke the M word: Our houses keeping growing bigger and bigger, even as the lots under them get smaller.
That’s according to new research by the Census Department and the National Association of Home Builders.
The average floor area of a new home in 2005 reached an all-time high of 2,434 square feet — up from an average 2,349 square feet in 2004 and just 1,645 square feet in 1975, NAHB says.
New cribs are getting taller, too. The portion of two-story homes has soared, and some 58 percent of new single-family homes have ceilings that are nine feet or higher on the first floor. That’s up from only 15 percent three decades ago.
Plus, nearly 40 percent of new homes have four or more bedrooms, up from 21 percent in 1975.
And garage-doors are growing to fit big SUVs. The one-car garage door that once measured 7 feet by 9 feet now is 8 feet by 10 feet.
But one thing about our homes is getting smaller: the amount of land surrounding these juiced-up homes. Census data says the median lot size dwindled to 8,500 square feet in 2005 from 10,000 square feet in 1990.
But the builders group says soaring land prices mean lots still make up a quarter of the bill for a new home.
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