The Pinellas County School Board tentatively approved raising the rate of property tax by .25 percent to make up for a $19 million dollar budget shortfall.  The 6-1 vote in favor of the increase was approved but with some form of negative comments directed toward the state legislature.

The approved millage increase is  will mean $25 for every $100,000 of a property's assessed taxable value will be due.  Final approval of the millage increase will come after another public hearing on September 15th.

Partial text of Section 22.49

"No person or persons shall engage in rough or potentially dangerous activity such as football, baseball, softball, horseshoes, tennis, volleyball, badminton, or any other organized activity involving thrown or otherwise propelled objects such as balls, stones, arrows, javelins, shuttlecocks, Frisbees, model aircraft or roller skates on any public bathing beach or park property except in areas set aside for that purpose."

If you didn't know that throwing a frisbee could be dangerous, I have the scars to prove it. (tiny one on my forehead when I was a one year old)  It adds character thouh in my opinion and I would hope that anyone learning to play catch would also do so as a character building excerise.

You throw (good or bad) and it makes you feel good or bad depending on how you did.

Catch the ball or drop it.  How you deal with these little life lessons is about as important to you in your life as anything could be.  I am not saying you have to catch the ball, or throw iit well.  What i do think is that if you don;t keep trying to do somthing , then what kind of character will that build you into.

The pastime of playing catch between freinds or a mother, father, son, daughter, etc. is one of the oldest that never gets old.  Families go out on thanksgivign and toss the fototball around.  Sons take that skill to little league and Proffessional atheletes even make whole careers from it.  Can you beleiev that the best course of action the City counsil made was to prohibit it on Clearwater beach?

I love Clearwater and have been going there or living there for over 30 years.  I live here now and have broken that rule on many occassions.  It isn;t readily enforced and it is there to protect someone from laying peacefullty in the sun and getting trampled on, but prohibiting outright seems a bit misguided.  I certainly don't see this rule staying on the books after the City counsil considers voting on it again next month, but it sure makes you wonder what other things are prohibited in your neighborhood.

Existing-home sales rose 2.4 percent in May. May’s increase follows a rise in resales in April as well. That’s the first back-to- back monthly increase in existing-home sales since September of 2005. Pending sales also rose. And while May’s pending home sales index of 90.7 represented a mere 0.1 percent from the previous month’s (upwardly revised) reading of 90.6, it was 6.7 percent higher than the index in May 2008. Indeed, May’s pending home sales index was the fourth consecutive monthly gain since October of 2004. Housing affordability continues at historically high levels as well. NAR’s Housing Affordability Index in May was 171.6. While that is off from April’s revised reading of 178.8, the index last May was 129.8. And remember that April’s index was the highest reading ever recorded since NAR began tracking housing affordability in 1970.

So what’s holding back our “independence” from the current recession and a true housing recovery? First and foremost – jobs. June’s employment figures showed that employers cut 467,000 payroll jobs during the month – a much larger number than most analysts expected. And the good news that May’s job cuts were smaller than originally estimated (322,000 rather than 345,000) was offset by revised April employment figures which showed 15,000 more layoffs than originally thought. The national unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent – that’s the highest level in 26 years. It’s likely that the unemployment rate will surely breach the double-digit threshold before it starts to trend back down in 2010.

However, another factor which seems to be impeding a housing recovery is new appraisal rules and they could be impacting the time it takes from contract to closing. There is a growing lag time between the pending home sales and closed sales. Traditionally, sales close one to two months after a contract is signed. In the past month, we’ve heard from a number of Realtors® that the appraisal process is taking longer.

The appraisal issue is a bit complicated. For instance, distressed homes often are selling for 20 percent less than normal homes in the same area (in May, distressed properties accounted for almost a third of all existing-home sales), but some appraisals don’t distinguish between traditional homes and distressed properties.

In many cases appraisers from outside the area are being used. They are hired by large, national lenders, perhaps with little knowledge about a local real estate market. The intentions of the new appraisal rules were to improve accuracy by removing undue pressure for inflation valuations. However, the pendulum may have swung too far in the other direction, leading to unintended negative consequences, including consumers paying higher fees, and appraisers receiving lower compensation.

Another consequence is a “lower quality” in appraisals – many appraisers themselves (and Realtors® as well) have indicated to me that they’ve seen an increase in lower quality appraisals; lower quality because those appraisals do not take into consideration unique housing features. The result of all of these “unintended consequences” from the new appraisal rules: the housing market recovery being delayed unnecessarily.

(More details about the new appraisal rules, current legislation under consideration and NAR’s efforts on this issue are available at www.realtor.org. The Association also has a “blog” on which you can share your concern and latest experiences with the new appraisal rules.)

All real estate is local and appraisals should be done by an expert with local expertise. Speedy clarification of the appraisal rules could smooth a housing market recovery and support the overall economy. NAR is currently conducting a study to assess the degree to which new appraisal rules are impacting home sales. And NAR is working with policymakers to ensure that appraisals are conducted so that home buyers and sellers can conduct their transactions with Realtors® in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner.

So let’s declare a bit more of our independence – and freedom from restrictive rules that are holding back a vigorous housing recovery. Only when that happens will we be free from the reins – and the reign – of our recession.

TAMPA, Fla. – July 22, 2009 – Losing your home to foreclosure may no longer mean you have to leave.

Congress and the Obama administration are considering a controversial plan that would allow homeowners to rent their foreclosed home for at least five years. The proposal is setting the real estate community abuzz.

“It’s clear that the modification plans have not been as successful as Congress had hoped,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economics and Policy Research. “We need something that will make more of an impact.”

The program could reshape Florida’s real estate market and the overall economy. Experts disagree on whether the effects would be positive or negative. One thing everyone agrees on is this: Florida doesn’t need any more vacant homes.

The Sunshine State’s foreclosure rate remains the third highest in the nation. During the first six months of the year, foreclosure filings jumped 50 percent from the same period last year. One in every 33 households received a default notice, auction notice or bank repossession.

Details of the rental plan are sketchy, but the idea is gaining momentum, according to U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary Herbert Allison. He told the Senate Banking Committee last week that the proposal was being considered for homeowners whose mortgages did not qualify for modification programs to make them affordable.

Some versions of the plan involve lenders selling foreclosed homes to approved professional landlords. In other versions, the lenders would sell to private investors or keep the home and hire a management firm to handle the rental arrangement.

The rent would be determined by the market-rate rent in the area, determined by a professional appraiser.

Jack Rodriguez, president of the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, said the plan would “tinker with the free-market enterprise.”

“I know where Congress is coming from,” he said. “But my gut tells me investors would shy away from this, and banks will end up stuck in the real estate market.”

Baker, who first proposed the plan two years ago, said it has evolved and continues to be tweaked. Even though people who take advantage of the plan would still lose their homes, Baker said, the plan could keep that from happening to others.

“The lender would have more of an incentive to work something out through a modification because the home would be worth less,” Baker said.

Under the plan, the lender still could sell the home but, Baker said, “The homeowner would come with the home.”

The homeowner, turned renter, would be allowed to stay until the lease runs out, which could last as long as 10 years.

One potential problem, however, is that many homeowners who lose their properties aren’t interested in staying as renters, according to William Apgar, senior mortgage advisor for the Department of Housing an Urban Development.

The program could have an unintended consequence, Rodriguez said. Lenders would feel pressure to shed properties to avoid becoming a landlord. Investors, who would have to give up some property rights, would low-ball lenders. The result could drag down housing prices even more. (The median sales price in the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater area was $141,100 in May, down 20 percent from $176,100 in May 2008, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.) Others think the plan is a win-win for everyone involved.

Don Burnham, a real estate investor in the Tampa area and co-founder of the Wealth Restoration Institute LLC, said the plan could be a hit.

Investors, he said, would want to buy the homes because they will know they have a long-term tenant and a steady revenue source. Lenders will like the plan, he said, because they’ll be able to find buyers faster. Homeowners would be happy because they’ll have a secure lease and not have to foot the bill to move.

Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter, said the plan is one of several the Obama administration is hoping will keep more homes from becoming vacant.

“We don’t yet know fully how the plan would work,” he said. “But if you have a warm body in the house who will keep it from going into disrepair and keep the lawn mowed, that will be at least somewhat helpful.”

Copyright © 2009 Tampa Tribune, Fla., Shannon Behnken. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Savvy Real estate agents are building on the concept of online property listings by digitally enhancing empty homes to make them more visually appealing. The practice, known as virtual staging, entails a Realtor e-mailing photos of a vacant residence to a professional stager who then adds images of furnishings, art work and other items that give the house a more inviting feel.

It’s becoming a popular marketing tool in today’s troubled economy, which has increased sales of foreclosed properties that tend to be empty. Moreover, sellers hit by the declining value of pinellas real estate are unlikely to shell out additional funds for traditional staging of their home.

In addition to Pinellas vacant homes, Realtors increasingly use virtual stagers to improve the marketability of homes that are already furnished. In those cases, the agent emails photos of several views of rooms to a virtual stager, who then provides recommendations for improving the presentation. The tips can be as simple as raising the lighting level or giving a room some personality through the addition of lamps or throw pillows.