Palm Beach Tax Watch: Florida tops for International Buyers!

TaxWatch: Fla. tops for international buyers
Working with the International Client

Learn more about the growing international market niche: Attend Jacky Teplitzky’s 1.5-hour educational session at the Florida Realtors Convention & Trade Expo on Friday, Aug. 10, at 3 p.m.; and watch Florida Realtors Take 5 video hosted by Coco Waldenmayer.
ORLANDO, Fla. – July 2, 2012 – The Center for Competitive Florida, a division of Florida TaxWatch that evaluates the state’s fiscal policies, performed an analysis of foreign homebuyers in Florida. It finds that approval of a Silver Visa (or Retirement Visa) by U.S. officials would not only increase demand for Florida real estate, but it would also inject up to $25 billion into the state’s economy.

According to the report’s authors, Florida far surpasses every other U.S. state in the number of foreign homebuyers. Over the past four years, the state had more than twice the market share of runner-up California.

Since Florida already commands a large share of the international buyer market, TaxWatch analysts claim that approval of a Silver Visa would have an out-sized impact on the state. Under a Silver Visa program, retirees may live in the U.S. full-time under a special immigration status for people who no longer plan to work, which a Silver Visa would not allow. Currently, the U.S. has no Silver Visa program, but many countries do, including the United Kingdom and other European countries.

According to an earlier TaxWatch analysis, approval of a Silver Visa could add more than 100,000 jobs in Florida over 10 years.

The complete TaxWatch analysis is available online.

© 2012 Florida Realtors®

T hanks a Million!
Constance Crawford, P. A.,
CDPE, SFR
Advanta Realty
Primerica
Direct: 561-601-2622
Fax: 800-215-8895
www.ccrawford.advantarealty.com
www.ConstanceCares.com
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Congress votes to keep flood insurance program!

Congress votes to keep flood insurance program
WASHINGTON (AP) – July 2, 2012 – Congress on Friday approved a 5-year extension to the National Flood Insurance Program, which covers 5.6 million people.

Failure to renew the program would have been a blow to the fragile housing market because potential homeowners in flood-susceptible areas would be unable to close on mortgages or refinance loans. A two-month lapse in the program in 2010 resulted in some 1,400 home sales a day being cancelled.

Congress created the flood insurance program in 1968 because few private insurers cover flood damage, leaving the government to cover the costs of disasters. Many of those covered by the program live in flood-prone areas where flood insurance is mandatory for those with mortgages from federally regulated lenders.

The program was generally self-sustaining until Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes struck in 2005. The program now owes the Treasury nearly $18 billion dollars.

The plan approved Friday attempts to put the program on better financial footing by giving the government greater flexibility to raise rates. It also ends federal coverage for some properties, including vacation homes.

The flood insurance measure was included in a package of bills that also set federal transportation policy and prevent a doubling of interest rates for millions of college students.

It includes a provision by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., that enlists the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to assess the nature of hurricane damage. After Katrina, private insurers tried to avoid paying claims for wind damage, saying that homes were destroyed by federally covered water damage.

It also moves to improve the floodplain mapping of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the flood insurance program, and streamlines FEMA efforts to raise or move homes that are sources of repetitive claims to the insurance fund.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press.

Related Topics: Property insurance

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House on Seaspray fetches $6.63 million in private deal

By Darrell Hofheinz
DAILY NEWS REAL ESTATE WRITER
Posted: 9:28 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, 2012

With a new home under construction on the North End, Michael L. and Suzanne H. Ainslie have sold their vintage house and its guesthouse at 415 Seaspray Ave. for a recorded $6.63 million.
The buyer was Seaspray Associates LLC, a Delaware-based limited liability company, according to the warranty deed recorded by the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office.
The property changed hands in a private deal and was not listed in area multiple listing services when it sold.
Although Suzanne Ainslie is a real estate agent at Sotheby’s International Realty, she said no agency was involved in the transaction. The property — a double lot — had not been listed for sale since the Ainslies bought the main house 15 years ago, she said.
“We were thinking of listing it,” Suzanne Ainslie said this week. “It was bought by a couple who had come to our house for dinner. They loved the house and said if we ever decided to sell it to give them a call.”
She said she could not comment further about them or identify them because of a confidentiality agreement.
The property measures a little more than a half-acre and lies two streets north of Royal Palm Way on the northwest corner of Seaspray Avenue and Cocoanut Row. It comprises a four-bedroom Mediterranean-style house designed by architect E.B Walton that was completed in 1930, plus a smaller three-bedroom house built in 1960. In all, the structures have about 8,850 square feet of living space, inside and out, property records show.
The Ainslies have owned the main house, which has two stories as well as a third-floor tower, since June 1997, when they paid $1.47 million for it, according to property records. In 1999, they bought the one-story house next door for $650,000 from the late builder Bill Elias for use as a guest house, joining the two properties under a “unity of title” agreement, Suzanne Ainslie said.
Among their improvements, the couple renovated both houses with the help of architect Jacqueline Albarran of SKA Architect Planner. They also reworked the pool area and added landscaping that was designed by landscape architect Mario Nievera.
The Ainslies bought a vacant lot at 202 Plantation Road a year ago for $1.55 million and commissioned a custom house designed by Michael Perry of MP Design and Architecture, Suzanne Ainslie said. That house will be completed next April, she added.
The Ainslies also have two apartments, one they own jointly on Atlantic Avenue and the other in Suzanne Ainslie’s name on South Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach, property records show.
A private investor, Michael L. Ainslie serves on the executive committee of the Palm Beach Civic Association. A former president and chief executive of Sotheby’s Holdings, he also was a longtime director at Lehman Brothers Holdings Co. when the firm filed for bankruptcy in 2008.
The Ainslies have supported, among other local organizations, The Society of the Four Arts and Palm Beach Day Academy.
Before she became a real estate agent in 2003, Suzanne Ainslie worked in the financial and venture-capital industries and was an entrepreneur.
The deed of sale for the Seaspray Avenue house was dated May 31 and recorded a day later. It lists Seaspray Associates’ address in care of the Proskauer Rose law firm in Boca Raton.

Sal Ramos
Sales Associate – Realtor
South Florida – Luxury Estate Agent
Advanta Realty

Hablo Español
Falo Português

Certified International Property Specialist Trans-National Referral Certified

Mobile: 561-718-0539 or 561-318-0302
Efax #: 800-665-1363
Skype: sal.ramos1

Website: http://sramos.advantarealty.com Download My Mobile Real Estate Search App For Your Phone…. http://mobile.smarteragent.com/advantarealty/ar Mobile Website is: http://m.sramos.advantarealty.com Email: salsells4u@gmail.com

Florida buyer takes pair of Boca Raton condominiums for $8.5 million

By Alexander Britell

Luxuria in Boca Raton

A Sarasota-based limited liability company has paid $8.5 million for a pair of units in Boca Raton’s Luxuria condominium, according to a deed filed with the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office. The two units were sold directly by the project’s developer, Boca Ocean Development, to an entity called BTIBR, LLC, which lists Michael Furen as its managing member.
Boca Ocean Development is a subsidiary of the Trump Group, which is headed by Eddie and Jules Trump (no relation to Donald Trump).

The deal was confirmed to The Real Deal by Michael Goldstein, president of sales and marketing for the Trump Group.
BTIBR could not be reached for comment.

“It was a combination of 9,100 square feet, totally custom,” Goldstein told The Real Deal.
Goldstein, who is also heading sales at the 79-unit Mansions at Acqualina project in Sunny Isles Beach, said there were only two properties left at the 26-unit project.
The buyer is an end-user, not an investor, he said.

Trump Group has made a point of focusing on primary residential users, as opposed to investment groups, particularly at the new Acqualina project.

That development, which is set to launch construction by the end of the year, has already exceeded $200 million in sales.
While Boca Raton’s downtown area is working to reposition itself, the city’s oceanfront market has shown some strength through the downturn, albeit at a limited number of properties.
The deal worked out to an average of more than $940 per square foot, in the range of the most expensive properties in Boca Raton, including the recently-listed penthouse at Toscana North.
“The strength in Boca Raton’s oceanfront market has been confined to two buildings, as far as condos are concerned: One Thousand Ocean and also Luxuria,” said Seaside Property Group’s John Mclennan, who was not involved in the deal. “But both of those buildings are taking longer to sell than hoped for — substantially longer — but that’s where probably 95 percent of the luxury sales have occurred in the Boca Raton market.”

One Thousand Ocean has topped $50 million in sales in the past year.

Sal Ramos
Sales Associate – Realtor
South Florida – Luxury Estate Agent
Advanta Realty

Hablo Español
Falo Português

Certified International Property Specialist Trans-National Referral Certified

Mobile: 561-718-0539 or 561-318-0302
Efax #: 800-665-1363
Skype: sal.ramos1

Website: http://sramos.advantarealty.com Download My Mobile Real Estate Search App For Your Phone…. http://mobile.smarteragent.com/advantarealty/ar Mobile Website is: http://m.sramos.advantarealty.com Email: salsells4u@gmail.com

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