PROPERTY INSURANCE

State regulators on Friday gave tentative approval to the first rate cuts by private home insurance companies following last month’s passage of a new law giving the companies more access to Florida’s backup insurance fund.

INSURERS

Amid the changes that state lawmakers made last month to Florida’s property insurance regulations, one central issue was left on the table: the Florida-only insurance companies. Gov. Charlie Crist and key legislators are pledging to take a hard look at these insurers during the regular legislative session in March.

INTERNATIONAL

Foreign investors prefer America’s real estate market most in the whole world, University of Wisconsin-Madison research shows, with 63 percent of respondents ranking it as their top choice, followed closely by India and then China.

U.S. INCOME TAXES

The taxman cometh: With the April 17 deadline from the Internal Revenue Service approaching, here are 10 tasks to take care of before that date.  I personally thought it was the 16th – we get a extra day to file.

PROPERTY INSURERS

True or false: U.S. antitrust laws apply to Realtors but not the insurance industry. Answer: True. Federal oversight does not apply to insurers’ anti-competitive conduct, such as price-fixing, agreements not to pay and market allocations. But bills to change that status were introduced in the U.S. House and Senate yesterday.

MORTGAGE RATES

Rates on 30-year mortgages rose slightly to average 6.30 percent this week, reversing last week’s brief decline, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly nationwide survey.

HOME STARTS

Construction of new homes and apartments dropped by 14.3 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.408 million units — the lowest level in nearly 10 years, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

WORKFORCE HOUSING

Some workforce housing advocates are finding novel and more vocal ways to speak out. Leaders of a group of squatters in South Florida spoke last week about the need for workforce housing to students at Florida Memorial University. The makeshift village is known for being part-commune, part-protest.

HOME SALES

Florida’s housing sector continued to mirror the national trend in fourth quarter 2006, reflecting slower sales and stabilizing median prices in many markets. A total of 37,177 existing single-family homes sold statewide during the quarter, down 28 percent from a year earlier, while the statewide median sales price was $242,100.

CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE

Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-sponsored insurer, plans to send refund checks to all of its 1.3 million policyholders around April 15, one of several price reductions that customers will receive during the next few months as a result of the Legislature’s insurance reform package.

INSURANCE REGULATION

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink yesterday announced the name of Florida’s new Insurance Consumer Advocate — former Comptroller Bob Milligan. In addition to overseeing property insurance problems, Milligan is charged with finding new solutions to other insurance problems, including the inability of many Floridians, and notably Realtors, to find available, affordable health insurance.

PROPERTY INSURANCE

Florida isn’t alone in its uneasy relationship with property insurers. State Farm announced yesterday that it would not write new policies in Mississippi because it has had enough of the "untenable" legal and political climate. In Florida, several insurers have already done the same thing.

TRENDS

Looking for an investment house that will be popular for resale in 2015? According to an NAHB study, homes will change more rapidly over the next 10 years than they have in the past; but look for about 2,400 square feet, handicapped access, upscale bathrooms and kitchens, and a great garage.