Archive for State News
2009 Florida Budget Approved… and Good News For Home Buyers!
After an extended session, the Florida Legislature has adjourned and approved a $66.5 billion budget. The budget includes a few positive items for home owners and new home buyers. The highlight is $30.1 million for down payment assistance programs. Beginning July 1, those who qualify for the federal first-time home buyers tax credit will be [...]
Chinese Drywall Issues Hit Tampa Bay Area
While the rest of the world is focused on Swine Flu, Tampa Bay REALTORS are keeping a close eye on the chinese drywall issues. We’ve just found out about the first case in the Tampa Bay area. It was announced last month that Lennar Corp was named in the class action lawsuit regarding Chinese drywall. [...]
End of Session Recap
The Florida House and Senate have completed their 60th day of the 2009 session. While this is the day they should be adjourning, the 2009 regular session of the Florida Legislature has been extended a full week. The purpose of the extension was to allow more time to finalize the budget. During the regular session [...]
Need help with your downpayment?
The Florida Senate recently added $55 million in their budget for down payment assistance. The great thing about this, even though they are adding $55 million to the budget it won’t actually cost the state a dime. Their plan is to offer short term loans to home buyers who qualify for the $8,000 tax credit [...]
Chinese Drywall Issues
ORLANDO, Fla. – April 2, 2009 – Drywall imported from China continues to make headlines nationwide, and a growing number of lawsuits have been filed in Florida. In response to the problem, FAR’s Business Forms Forum Task Force is considering a new form that addresses Chinese drywall problems. Task force members are slated to discuss [...]
$8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit – Do You Qualify?
The government is now offering an $8,000 First Time Home Buyer tax credit. You may be thinking, “I don’t qualify for that, I’ve owned a home in the past.” Well, you may still qualify. For this tax credit, the IRS defines a first time home buyer as anyone who has not owned a home in [...]
Crist pushes property tax breaks
On February 20th, Gov. Charlie Crist proposed giving new property tax breaks to first-time homebuyers and further lightening the tax burden for business, landlords and snowbirds. The proposed property tax breaks for first-time homebuyers could be as much as $5,000. Crist gave only broad overviews of his latest proposals as he introduced his new budget. [...]
State Farm Withdrawal Is Approved
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty today announced an approval of State Farm Insurance Florida’s withdrawal from the state, but subject to several major conditions: • State Farm Florida shall surrender its Certificate of Authority within 30 days, which is needed to write or renew policies.• State Farm shall not place any of its policies in [...]
Got Citizens Insurance? Can you afford to keep it?
A task force is recommending that Citizens Property Insurance be allowed to end a three-year rate freeze and start aggressively hiking homeowner rates. The task force recommended that the Legislature caps Citizens’ annual rate increase to 10 percent on average statewide. They are urging that Citizens’ begin raising rates in January 2010. It seems a [...]
Florida’s $2.6 billion budget deficit gets final approval
Cuts totaling $1.2 billion most heavily hit education, health care and social services. Gov. Charlie Christ is expected to to sign the measure with just a few line-item vetoes. While school districts were warned of the cuts months in advance, its still not going to be easy for them. Teachers in one district were asked [...]