Pinellas Property Online

On June 19, 2010, 10:30-11:30am, Pinellas County Extension will host a FREE residential energy efficiency course led by University of Florida faculty.  This educational course will provide materials (energy saving devices to all participants), tips and incentives to help your home become more energy efficient, while maintaining the same comfort level.

More importantly, the course will ultimately help you save money on utility bills!

The class will be held at the Seminole Community Library at St. Petersburg College, Seminole Campus (9200 113th St. N., Seminole, Florida).

Space is limited, so register now!

To learn more about sustainability at St. Petersburg College, contact Jason Green at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Then visit http://www.spcollege.edu/sustainability, join the facebook group and follow us at http://twitter.com/sustainableSPC.

In order to know when to evacuate for hurricane surge flooding,
you must KNOW YOUR ZONE! Keep in mind,
you evacuate to avoid deadly surge flooding.

There are many ways to learn your zone.
Evacuation Lookup includes update features! Pinellas County’s Evacuation Level Lookup has a new feature for you. Enter your address and you will be provided not only information on your evacuation level, but also the closest shelter, the closest special needs shelter and the closest hotel accommodations.

Sales of existing homes in Florida rose 27 percent in April, which means that sales activity has increased in the year-to-year comparison for 20 months, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Another positive sign: Last month's statewide existing-home median price of $140,100 was 1 percent higher than the statewide median price in April 2009.

Existing home sales rose 27 percent last month with a total of 16,781 homes sold statewide compared to 13,244 homes sold in April 2009, according to Florida Realtors. Statewide existing home sales last month increased nearly 3 percent over statewide sales activity in March. Meanwhile, April's statewide existing-home median price was 2.3 percent higher than March's statewide existing-home median price of $137,000. It marks the second month in a row that the statewide existing-home median price has increased over the previous month's median.

Americans' confidence in the economy rose in May for the third straight month, fueled by growing optimism about future job prospects.

Still, many worry improvements in shoppers' mood and spending may be reversed because of sharp declines on Wall Street fueled by fears that a debt crisis in Europe could hammer global growth.

The Conference Board, based in New York, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 63.3, up from a revised 57.7 reading in April. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected 59.

The increase was boosted by consumers' outlook over the next six months, one component of the index, which soared to 85.3 from 77.4, the highest seen since it reached 89.2 in August 2007, before the economy entered in a recession.

The National Association of Realtors(NAR) hopes to see a flood insurance extension before the deadline, but a possible hiatus could threaten some scheduled closings.

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) lapsed briefly earlier this year and it's set to expire again on Monday, May 31, 2010. In a letter sent out to Realtors today, NAR said it's working with Congressional allies to avoid another potential lapse in the program.

NAR is actively lobbying for passage of several pieces of legislation that are moving through Congress and contain NFIP extensions of varying length.

It is unclear, however, which extension is likely to pass before the deadline. Each extension bill has different provisions, and the number of them could make passage more difficult as lawmakers get behind different bills, leaving no single bill with the necessary number of votes for passage.