Four home products won Best of IBS awards at the International Builder’s Show held by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Las Vegas, Nevada in January 2013, with one product winning two awards. These products were chosen for their excellence in functionality, design and innovation. More than 900 exhibitors representing various facets of the home building industry participated…
Read More »What’s the connection between Clearwater real estate and Sara Blakely, the youngest self-made billionaire on Forbes’ 2012 List of Top Female Self-Made Billionaires? It was in Clearwater, Florida where Sara Blakely was born in 1971, where she spent her childhood, where she touched her Clearwater High classmates with her early enterpreneurial endeavors, and from where she took off to attend…
Read More »There were 95 New Tampa homes that were sold in March 2012, the highest total sold by communities in Hillsborough County, based on sales data released by the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors (GTAR). The second highest total was that of Greater Sun City Center, which was 81. The following table shows the 10 most popular zip codes among homebuyers…
Read More »Florida is ranked 6th in the 2012 listing of the 15 best states based on tax systems for entrepreneurship and small business by the nonprofit organization Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council). Florida has a business tax index of 23.339, the sixth lowest index. The highest index is 63.007, which is that of Washington, D.C., and the lowest index…
Read More »The Florida real estate market can benefit from the selection of Florida as the second best state for business by a group of chief executive officers surveyed by Chief Executive magazine for its 2012 Best and Worst States Survey. Florida was second to Texas in popularity among CEOs. The state moved up from its third ranking in 2011. Among the…
Read More »There are at least 14 historic homes for sale in Tampa and listed with the Florida Multiple Listing Service, as of April 2012. In the towns and cities of Pinellas, such as Saint Petersburg, Clearwater and Dunedin, there at least 18 historic houses for sale. Historic homes are old homes, and, just like people, who are usually seen as old…
Read More »Out of the 146 metro markets being tracked by realtor.com, which is the official website of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the Tampa real estate market was again the fifth most searched metro property market in the U.S. in March 2012. Across Florida, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was the most searched. Here are the 10 most searched metro markets…
Read More »Tampa is the fourth most competitive large city in the U.S. for business, according to the KPMG 2012 Competitive Alternatives Study. Tampa is ranked among cities with population of more than two million. Tampa has a cost index of 96.4, far below that of San Francisco, California which is 104.5. San Francisco is the most expensive city for business among…
Read More »As employment income is usually the source of money to pay home mortgage loans, it can be said that the 30 highest paying jobs in Tampa can significantly impact the Tampa Bay real estate market. If these thousands of highly-paid professionals or employees buy their first homes, sell their homes and buy a better one, or invest in one or…
Read More »The Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida metro area was the 15th fastest-growing metro area in the entire country over the one-year period from July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011, based on population estimates published by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Tampa area’s population rose by 36,573, an increase of 1.3 percent from the July 2010 population of 2,788,151. Out of the 366…
Read More »The construction of another Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Clinic in the Tampa area adds to the list of factors that can boost military retirement in Tampa. Health care facilities, especially those that cater to military personnel and their families, are among factors that prospective military retirees consider when choosing their place of retirement. According to a VA chart, there…
Read More »Tampa is one of the Top 10 spring break destinations for 2012, according to the Orbitz Insider Index. It is ninth in the Top 10 list and it is one of four Florida cities that made the list. The other three are Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers. Florida is the only U.S. state with more than one city in…
Read More »The city of Tampa has been benefitting from the University of South Florida even before the construction of the USF Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS). It would gain much more so now that the CAMLS will start operating in almost full capacity in March 2012. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education 2009-2010 Almanac, the USF has…
Read More »President Barack Obama says that his new plan of reducing home loan rates will help underwater but non-delinquent homeowners through a more affordable and easier loan refinancing program. Republicans, however, say that Obama’s plan is not very different from previous housing rescue programs that largely failed. They insist that what the country needs is a massive job creation program, which…
Read More »If some home buyers don’t enjoy getting a pre-approval, it’s even more so that realtors don’t enjoy reminding buyers about the need to get a pre-approval. How great it would be if realtors can just get on quickly with showings anytime any new buyer asks for a showing, knowing that 100 % of all buyers will be approved by any…
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