It seems that not only Florida is having issues with revenues, but also the City of Toronto, Canada. Fraser Beach in his blog “The Toronto Real Estate Blog” discusses a transfer tax that people purchasing real estate in Toronto could be paying in the future. The transfer tax in Florida takes the form of Documentary Stamps paid by the seller of the property instead.
On the Inman News Blog Matt Carter discusses the new Bank of American No Fee loan and how Jack Guttentag compared it 11 ways with another lender. It seems that in 5 cases it was a better deal and six times it was more costly. Interesting notation at the end of Matt’s article is that Guttentag says “some borrowers won’t be able to comparison shop online.” Personally, I think that shopping online for a mortgage is pretty risky at best.
Maya Roney, from Business Week comments on the National Association of Realtors predictions for the housing market. National statistics are nice, but still a buyer or seller needs to look at their local real estate market rather than a national perspective. In addition, the person needs to look at single family versus condominium properties as well as the neighborhood that the property is located in. Today’s real estate market has become more complex and global analysis just does not really cut it.