Florida snowbirds challenge fairness of 2-tier tax

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. -- May 23, 2006 -- In late March, hundreds of Florida homeowners jammed the chambers of county commissioners in Fort Pierce to protest rising property taxes. Ed McIntosh, a 75-year-old retiree, showed up with a foot-tall stack of complaints from homeowners, 623 letters in all.

He read a batch of them aloud, one tale after another of seasonal residents juggling rising insurance costs, hurricane-repair bills and escalating property taxes, which have more than doubled in five years in parts of the state.

Such protests have become commonplace in Florida as the state's snowbirds -- winter residents, who are mostly retirees from the Northeast, Midwest and Canada -- fight back against a tax system they believe is unfair and onerous. Mr. McIntosh, a retired Ford Motor Co. finance manager who lives in Beulah, Mich., spends four months a year along the Atlantic coast in Jensen Beach. He complains that seasonal residents are "being discriminated against ... We're carrying the state on our backs."

http://www.planetrealtor.com/florida/news/daily/news.cfm?article=n2-05232006

Housing cool-down is 'orderly,' Fed chief says

WASHINGTON -- May 19, 2006 -- Confirming what home buyers suspected and real estate sales figures have indicated for months, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday that the U.S. housing market was showing clear signs of cooling off.

Bernanke said the slowdown is "moderate" and "orderly" and pointed to the overall strength of the economy.

"We're seeing slowing in sales, slowing in starts. There also seem to be signs that prices are not rising as quickly as they have been for the past few years," Bernanke said in response to questions after a speech in Chicago, Bloomberg News reported.

http://www.planetrealtor.com/florida/news/daily/news.cfm?article=n1-05192006

Florida's housing market in 1Q 2006: Median price up, sales ease

ORLANDO, Fla. -- May 15, 2006 -- In first quarter 2006, Florida's housing sector followed the national trend, demonstrating signs of a market adjusting to rising mortgage rates, higher inventory levels and a better balance between buyers and sellers. Statewide sales of single-family existing homes totaled 45,864 during the three-month period, a decrease of 20 percent compared to 57,532 homes sold during the same quarter a year ago, according to the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR).


http://www.planetrealtor.com/florida/news/daily/news.cfm?article=n1-05152006

NAR: Housing market taking a breather but staying strong

WASHINGTON -- May 10, 2006 -- The housing market is settling but should experience its third best year in 2006, with job creation and a growing economy offsetting some of the effects of rising interest rates, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, says the market is adjusting to higher mortgage interest rates. “Coming off a prolonged period of record sales, housing is taking something of a breather this year,” he says. “Even so, interest rates remain historically low, we’ve added about 2 million jobs over the last 12 months and the economy continues to grow -- that will sustain healthy levels of home sales in 2006, but they’ll stay below the peaks experienced during the last two years.”


Lereah forecasts the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to rise to 7.0 percent this summer and hold at that level during the second half of the year. The unemployment rate is expected to average 4.7 percent, compared with 5.1 percent in 2005, while growth in the U.S. gross domestic product is seen at 3.5 percent in 2006, the same as last year.


http://www.planetrealtor.com/florida/news/daily/news.cfm?article=n1-05102006