Here are the July 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 18 Homes Sold Lowest price: $145,000 Highest price: $1,350,000         Shortest Days on Market: 2 Longest Days on Market: 350     2009 17 homes sold Lowest price: $78,000 Highest price: $381,900 Shortest Days on Market: 23 Longest Days on Market: 314 Sales are essentially flat year over year, which is moderate news; Jacksonville Beach has been doing well in year over year stats, so even one more sale is good.  The GREAT news is the increase in the lowest priced home sold year over year, AND, the decrease in the days on market.  Both show us a starting trend line (I believe) that prices may be rebounding.  Days on market being significantly shorter also confirms sellers are pricing and presenting their properties correctly for t... 08/05/2010

08/03/2010

IT's the last Jazz concert of the series, this Sunday 8/8/10 at the Sea Walk Pavilion! These FREE concerts are fabulous for the whole family: you can bring coolers of sodas and and snacks, or they have concessions available on site.  Bring your chairs, or blankets to sit on and enjoy the music. This Sunday's line up is:         7:30 PM     R & R - Headliner  Starring: Rick Braun  and Richard Elliot        6:00 PM     Matt Marshak        5:00 PM     Jacksonville Mass Choir & Trio For more information, please visit the website: http://www.jaxbeachjazz.com/ 08/02/2010

I have always been raised to recycle - my mother recycled 30+ years ago in New Jersey, when we had to drive the magazines/newspapers, aluminum, and glass to the recycling center one town over.  We actually rinsed the aluminum foil before recycling it! Since I have recycling in my genes, so to speak, I was very surprised to learn recently that putting your recycling out the night before, while convenient, it's not good for the newspaper or other paper products in your recycling bin.  Why? It actually ruins the paper products and makes them completely unsuitable for the recycling process. If you can, leave your recycling in the house until the morning of pick up, or keep your bin fully loaded in your garage (space permitting) until the morning of. I know it's a bit inconvenient, however, ... 08/01/2010

 Just a few items to keep in mind: Clear yards of loose objects, bicycles, lawn furniture, garbage cans,etc. Secure boats. Remember that most draw/swing bridges will be closed to boat traffic after the evacuation order is issued. Protect windows, take down awnings, and otherwise secure home. Gather materials needed to take to a shelter or supplies needed if you stay in your home. Prepare to evacuate if it should become necessary. Fill cars with gasoline and check the battery, water, and oil. Check flashlight and radio batteries. Stay tuned to local radio and television stations for official weather and emergency statements. Obtain and mark clean containers for storing drinking water. Put together a survival kit. Refill prescription drugs or obtain any special medication. Make arrangeme... 08/01/2010

If your goal this summer was to run a race, this might just be the one to run! Join 1st Place Sports a the annual Tour De Pain Beach Run on Friday, August 13, at 7pm. Run from the lifeguard station to 37th Avenue South and back to the lifeguard station. Check out 1st Place Sports website here:  http://www.1stplacesports.com/  Carol Zingone is a Broker Associate with Prudential Network Realty. Recently honored as the Realtor of the Year for Northeast Florida - an award based on community service, professional qualifications and other attributes, Carol helps buyers and sellers throughout the Beaches, Intracoastal West and Greater Jacksonville, FL areas. She can be reached at 904/993-9048 or via email at carolzingone@clearwire.net.   07/29/2010

One of the many events Jacksonville Beach hosts is the upcoming Surf Into Summer Grom Surf Series.  Starting on 8/7/10, Saturdays from 8a-6pm, you can improve your surfing skills and technique south of the Jacksonville Beach Pier. More info and details can be found at: http://www.surfintosummer.com/   Carol Zingone is a Broker Associate with Prudential Network Realty. Recently honored as the Realtor of the Year for Northeast Florida - an award based on community service, professional qualifications and other attributes, Carol helps buyers and sellers throughout the Beaches, Intracoastal West and Greater Jacksonville, FL areas. She can be reached at 904/993-9048 or via email at carolzingone@clearwire.net.     07/28/2010

I managed a trip to Nantucket in June, visiting a friend's house, and cycled most of the island while I was there.  The weather was gorgeous with highs in the low 80's, and cool nights, a nice break from the heat and humidity of Jacksonville, FL. Hope to make the trip be a week long next year! This is the path to Dionis Beach, close to where I stayed...     Madaket Beach, with driftwood sculpture... Sconset Beach, on the opposite side of the island....       And, a house in Sconset...love the roof trellis! Carol Zingone is a Broker Associate with Prudential Network Realty. Recently honored as the Realtor of the Year for Northeast Florida – an award based on community service, professional qualifications and other attributes, Carol helps buyers and sellers throughout the Beaches, Intraco... 07/21/2010

In our current economic environment, we have seen an unprecedented increase in foreclosures, deed in lieu of foreclosures and short sales of home mortgages across the United States. Many homeowners are losing their homes due to many reasons including job loss, unexpected medical expenses and life circumstances. Fast forward to changed circumstances, those homeowners are now in a position to buy a home again. The mortgage lender will look at the type of circumstance that led to loss of the home and what the potential buyer has accomplished since the foreclosure or short sale. What about a short sale?  For buyers who have sold a home previously by a short sale, the guidelines for future purchase are  slightly different and less stringent. • If the short sale occurred due to financial mism... 07/18/2010

If you have parents who are in the process of considering a move to an active adult community, you should consider Brookdale Cypress Village! Conveniently located adjacent to Mayo Clinic on a 120 acre campus, Brookdale Cypress Village offers a Culinary Art Institute and trademarked dining program.  With innovative senior care provided onsite, Cypress Village offers outpatient rehab and home health care services. Cypress Village offers LifeCare on all of their apartments, and on several of the homes they own.  This gives residents the following benefits: Centralized healthcare on one campus Ability to control future long-term healthcare costs. Priority access to Assisted Living, Healthcare and rehab services. Their "Care For Life" guarantee offers: You will never be asked to leave if you... 07/16/2010

Jacksonville Beach is once again hosting a summer jazz series, and today is the second concert. Tonight is the second concert of the 9th Annual Summer Jazz Series. June's concert started things off with a bang, and July's concert promises to turn up the heat with another multi-talented line-up of performers. Headlining is guitarist Nick Colionne with his unforgettable sound and fabulous on-stage outfits. Nick takes the stage at 7:30 pm. At 6:00 pm the all-star lineup of TIZER featuring Lao Tizer and violinist Karen Briggs will perform. Opening the show at 5:00 pm is alto saxophonist Will Donato. Come out and enjoy this wonderful combination of music, and sea breezes, for free! Bring your blankets or lawn chairs and enjoy refreshments and food available for purchase from local vendors. E... 07/11/2010

Many people now have a neighboring house ths is what we in the industry consider "distressed", meaning it's a short sale, on it's way to foreclosure, or a foreclosure.   This means, in all likelihood that the yard is no being maintained, and it looks awful. Additionally, the unmaintained yard is an invitation for all sorts of other issues, including: weeds, vermin, squatters - the list goes on and on. What can you do?  Here are some options to consider, so you can at least take some action towards a resolution: Appeal to the Homeowner's Association.  There may not be budget to take care of the yard, especially if the homeowner is behind on their dues, but the property condition does reflect on the entire community and should be addressed. Take care of the yard either yourself, or have y... 07/09/2010

Here are the January - June 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 28 Condos Sold Lowest price: $116,900 Highest price: $1,760,000         Lowest Per Square Foot Sold:$105.57 Highest Per Square Foot Sold: $372.80       Of these, 20 were standard re-sales, 6 were short sales, and 2 were bank owned properties.             2009 24 Condos sold Lowest price: $150,000 Highest price: $2,000,000 Lowest Per Square Foot Sold:$180.07 Highest Per Square Foot Sold: $666.67       Of these, 18 were standard re-sales, 2 were short sale, and 4 were bank owned properties. Pricing is being affected by the amount of inventory in the condo market, although an additional factor is how challenging it is to get loans to purchase condos in today's financial landscape. Most lenders want to see 25-30% down, an... 07/05/2010

Here are the January - June 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 64 Homes Sold Lowest price: $25,000 Highest price: $1,000,000         Lowest Per Square Foot Sold:$25.51 Highest Per Square Foot Sold: $298.18    2009 43 homes sold Lowest price: $48,000 Highest price: $615,000 Lowest Per Square Foot Sold:$40.32 Highest Per Square Foot Sold: $226.77 I know most buyers want to hear more information about distressed sales (REO's/Bank Owned properties) and most sellers would prefer to ignore them - as they make up about 50% of our local Multiple Listing Service inventory, however, they are impossible to ignore, as they do have an impact on pricing, and value perception of the market. Foreclosure sales are up about 50% year to year, which is good, as the sooner we get the distressed inven... 07/05/2010

Here are the January - June 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 91 Homes Sold Lowest price: $87,500 Highest price: $1,000,000         Shortest Days on Market: 1 Longest Days on Market: 650   2009 74 homes sold Lowest price: $108,000 Highest price: $1,500,000 Shortest Days on Market: 1 Longest Days on Market: 843 Homes sold year over year are UP about 23% year over year, which is the best year to date performance of improvement when comparing Atlantic, Neptune & Jacksonville Beach. Pricing is actually fairly even, again, when compared with the other beaches communities (for clarification there are no condos included in these numbers, these are solely single family homes). Also the longest days on the market in both years do not belong to the highest priced property - in this year, ... 06/30/2010

Jacksonville Beach 1st Quarter 2010 statistics Here are the January – March 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 39 Homes Sold Lowest price: $87,500 Highest price: $660,000 Shortest Days on Market: 2 Longest Days on Market: 534 2009 40 homes sold Lowest price: $108,000 Highest price: $2,650,000 Shortest Days on Market: 1 Longest Days on Market: 420 Homes sold year over year are almost dead even. Days on market on the short end, effectively “doubled”, however, this is not statistically significant unless we see ALL days on market double, then we have an issue. The lowest priced property sold in the 1st Quarter of 2010 is about 20% lower than 2009. I will do further research to confirm my suspicions, however, I strongly suspect this is primarily the downward depression on pricing bas... 04/20/2010

Here are the February 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 14 Homes Sold Lowest price: $135,000           Highest price: $660,000          Shortest Days on Market: 9 Longest Days on Market: 218   2009 13 homes sold Lowest price: $109,500 Highest price: $400,000 Shortest Days on Market: 6 Longest Days on Market: 223 Jacksonville Beach is amazingly flat in year to year sold properties. The great news here is Jacksonville Beach is the SOLE town of the beach communities (Atlantic, Neptune & Jacksonville) that has INCREASED the sold price year over year (check my stats on Atlantic Beach & Neptune Beach for comparison.   The lowest sales price increased 18% year over year. Days on market are very comparable year to year as well.  Jacksonville Beach has about the same inventory of distres... 03/21/2010

 Here are the January 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 7 Homes Sold Lowest price: $87,500 Highest price: $450,000 Shortest Days on Market: 2 Longest Days on Market: 534 2009 13 homes sold Lowest price: $177,000 Highest price: $1,500,000 Shortest Days on Market: 12 Longest Days on Market: 420   At first glance, there seems to be absolutely nothing positive about these numbers, but if you’ve read my blogs faithfully (which I know you ALL do!), you know I am an optimistic Realtor. For example, the days on market on the short side is considerably tighter this year than last – which lends itself to the reality we are a more realistically priced market now.   January is typically a slower month, however, I have to report my Atlantic Beach Prudential office beat our January goals for ... 02/03/2010

Here are the December 2009 stats and 2008 for comparison - 2009 22 Homes Sold Lowest price: $89,900            Highest price: $400,000          Shortest Days on Market: 1 Longest Days on Market: 590   2008 13 homes sold Lowest price: $160,000 Highest price: $890,000 Shortest Days on Market: 28 Longest Days on Market: 465 First, the GOOD news: home sales in Jacksonville Beach, FL were UP 70% year to year!   Also look at the days on market, which, in most cases, is shorter in 2009 than in 2008, a great indicator of buyers believing properties are well-priced. Sales prices are still stabilizing, however, Jacksonville Beach had the largest year over year increase of Atlantic, Neptune and Jacksonville.  If you are ready to list your home, call me for a comparable market analysis to see what ... 01/19/2010

As most of us are looking to stretch our dollars, I have noticed some changes in my own spending and buying habits that I found interesting enough to share: Big Lots has a TON of deals, on both seasonal and everyday items. For example, they have small reed diffusers for $2.50 right now, great stocking stuffers, or as small gift exchange item. PLUS, I found my conditioner for 1/3 of the traditional retail store price.   The Ivory body wash is significantly less per fluid ounce than all competition, and it's thicker, so you effectively use less.  I was pleasantly surprised, really.   Regifting is not a crime, if done correctly. I regifted a board game at an event last night, it had never been used.  I am regifting a martini shaker and pair of glasses (very Mad Men style) at an event Monda... 12/10/2009