Blackburn Coastal Realty

Would you go into a store who did not have great advertising pictures and, if in a mall, a sexy store window? Homes are no different!The Eyes Have It.  What Do They See When They Look At Your Listing?   When it comes to voting..."Aye" is affirmative.  "The ayes have it" means those who voted in f...

Today the US Federal Reserve announced that they would be printing $40 Billion extra new US Dollars per month Posted on September 13, 2012 by Bill Blackburn The US Federal Reserve, as expected, announced that they would be buying $40 Billion of US Mortgage Bonds per month until we get inflation.B...

Bubbles.....I am reminded of the toy for children that has a few pegs to drive into a wooden stand.  When the child drives in one peg with a little wooden hammer, another pops up as a result.  This is an early lesson in economics for children! To create jobs and encourge the public to buy stuff (...

It is a bit counter-intuitive that in a period of extremely low long term mortgage rates, savvy buyers of higher end properties are almost always paying cash. If you buy a higher end home here, sellers expect you to pay cash.  The main reason is that appraisals are running well below the market p...

Very good post....these problems are not rare, particularly in Florida and markets like ours.   With both a huge runup in prices a few years ago, along with heavy cash out refinancings at the top,marriages often fail when these financial bubbles break. The partner being "awarded" the house and vi...

Selling a home should be by aggressive merchandising....just like other products!  We, in the real estate sales business, seem to ignore this basic part of marketing our product...the seller's property.Change the Paint Color, Stage it, and SELL Your Home (Before & Afters) ~ Tips for Selling your ...

Private insurance companies, for the most part, are unwilling to write hurricane insurance required by mortgage lenders for coastal Florida.  Citizens Insurance, the Florida government owned insurance company, became the insurer of last resort to keep the real estate market from crashing...no ins...

This past week Tampa Bay Florida was chosen as the most depressed metro area in North America....ahead of number two Detroit and number three Miami. During the same week, it was announced that the Florida Boat Sales number (a good gauge of the degree of optimism) was UP 34% in 2011 over 2010....a...

Today the Dow Jones average was down 500 points at one point in the day.  Why is this? Because "the market" was disappointed that the Fed did not do even more to boost the US economy.  But what about us in the real estate business?  Well, house are cheap, inventories are dropping and average days...

Interest rates are dropping like a rock!Stock markets are crashing!The US Dollar is declining fast.The Federal Reserve cannot cut interest rates  any lower (as they are almost zero now) to stimulate folks to buy stuff and hire people at businesses.  Europe has problems that are more severe than o...