The Blue Wave Real Estate letter - June 2008
Owning
real estate in Walton County is an absolute privilege. It is a
beautiful area, rich in natural resources, award-winning architecture
and it provides a lifestyle second to none whether you live here
full time or own a vacation home. On the real estate side of things
the good news is there has been a spike of sales activity lately,
price being the sales key. And I am happy to report that next to
St Joe, the largest land owner in the area, H2O has been responsible
for the highest sales volume along the 30A corridor.
But the market on a whole is still in recovery and some of the folks who purchased between 2004 and 2005 have gotten caught short on the upside of the cycle, finding themselves in the position of owing more on their property than it will currently sell for. Of course in a market like this it’s always best to hang on to your property because in the long-term real estate has a history of solid appreciation. However, if you simply can’t wait for the recovery, you need to know your options. That’s why I added a section on the website that explains a little bit about the short sale process.
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What do short sales have to do with the green side of real estate? Reducing our existing inventory will help our economy and I gotta believe a strong economy is good for the environment as long as we make a real effort to be careful and aware of what we are doing to keep it strong. It’s fascinating to watch the Presidential election this year. The good news is that no matter who wins the Presidential election in November, it is a pretty sure bet environmental policies will be changing too because no matter who or what is affecting climate change, changing it is and the free market has finally begun a strong turn toward finding ways to make a profit on fixing what’s broke.
It’s
fun to watch the brightest minds rising to the challenge of finding
alternative energy sources. It will be even better when our government
extends more tax incentives to reward green lifestyle choices and
even more mortgage companies give better rates for green sensitive
homes or for retrofitting existing homes with energy efficient additions.
Rather than looking at the tragic side of waiting so long to acknowledge
these issues, we need to look forward and embrace the wonderful discoveries
that will come out of addressing them. Speaking as a realtor, what
I can do for to help in that cause is to encourage builders to see
the marketing advantages of incorporating energy efficiencies in
their new construction. I also try to encourage all of us with homes
we are going to live in for awhile to consider adding things like
insulation, switching to energy efficient appliances and sealing
our homes to be energy smart now. The sales benefit to that is that
when we do sell our homes, those are the elements that will be the
most valuable in differentiating our product from others for sale.
If you have any questions on Green Real Estate e-mail me at bruce@BlueWaveRealty.net
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Bruce
N. Johnson Blue Wave Realty Certified EcoBroker |
The Green Building Report - March 9, 2008
South
Walton really does have it all. Not only the beautiful beaches
and amazing places to live, and play but the Florida Panhandle is
one of the nation’s six “biological hot spots”.
That means it has many rare species, and many of these rare species
are found only in small areas. The area is in beautiful company with
the other five others on that list are:
Hawaii,
the Southern Appalachians,
the San Francisco Bay area,
the Death Valley region, and
Southern California.
My partner Laurel and I walk our cocker spaniel through the State Forest
between 30A and Hwy 98 almost every day and enjoy watching the subtle
and not so subtle changes of the seasons here. We have had a kind of
up and down winter this year with some bikini weather days, (well I don’t
wear them but I can’t help to notice when others do), and we’ve
had some cold nights that left us with frost on the windshields.
Now the spring flowers are starting to come up and we enjoy
the discovering them on our morning walks. On the weekends we ride
our bike one mile to the beach access and mostly just spend time
watching the sparkling waters and clear blue sky that you get on
a regular basis here. We think the shore birds are more showy and
active in the late winter/early spring time than during the summer.
Or maybe we just see them better when there are less people.
Being a Realtor with the housing market as off as it has been, we find
ourselves working on short-sales which while a boon for buyers they are
difficult for the sellers. But it is part of our job to do the difficult
with as much professionalism as we do the fun part of our job.
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To balance it all with a dose of what’s really important we will continue to keep you informed of some more “green” news in the area as well. To that end, read on about a special forum being held at the South Walton County Courthouse. SWCC Special Public Forum: Saving dollars with natural systems; the economic value of conserving native plants and wetlands. South Walton Community Council in partnership with Nokuse Plantation will hold a special forum at the South Walton County Courthouse Annex in Santa Rosa Beach on April 5 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The forum will be held in the BCC chambers. Dr. Bruce Means will present his research on the economic value of preserving native vegetation and wetlands throughout the Walton County ecosystems. Dr. Means is President and Executive Director of the Coastal Plains Institute and Land Conservancy , a nonprofitorganization founded in 1984 that is dedicated to conserving the rich biodiversity–and elevating public awareness and appreciation–of the vast Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. Means and his research have been featured in important national publications as well as documentary films for National Geographic Television, BBC Television and PBS. Might be fun to check it out the forum if you can.
If you have any questions on Green Real Estate e-mail me at bruce@BlueWaveRealty.net
The Green Building Report - 2007
Recently articles that might have left a few readers a little bit more than nervous about their coastal future. However, we have to remember, just as we as a people, worked together to reduce the negative effects on the ozone layer, most experts tell us that if we act quickly, we can also reduce the negative effects of global warming. So let’s act. Green building is a lot easier than people think, and it can be economical. You can build green for as little as 2% more than traditional building.
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Buildings
use more energy than transportation. And
as we have all seen, as products become more widely used and
competitive, costs drop. There are even special green mortgages
that will help you finance a home or renovation.
If you spend an extra $10,000 for an energy efficient home
and you mortgage payment at 6.5% on a 30 year fixed goes up $800
in a year but you energy bill drops $1200.00 you're up $400.00.
That’s the way many mortgage companies look at it.
Plus most of the mortgage payment is tax deductible and the gain is tax free. You can also get green mortgage for renovating an existing house. Energy efficient homes are in most cases stronger, safer, and more resistant to mold and termites. What’s not to like! We are not talking space-ship houses or houses made from straw, (though they do make very good energy efficient straw houses, I think they would be a hard sell here. Can’t help but think of the big bad wolf blowing down the straw house.) You can take virtually any house design and make it green. Being a Realtor I always think of a homes value. In the future all new homes will be green and homes that are not will not be as valuable. What we need are more builders and developers and homebuyers in Northwest Florida who realize this is not the future, but the present.
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A few years ago when you heard anything that had Green in front of it most people had an image of left wing radicals in inflatable boats and the peace sign trying to block an oil tanker or whaling ship. Now green is coming into the mainstream, being adopted by left right and center. This is happening as we Americans realize two of our most pressing problems nationally, and worldwide are related to green issues. The first is our national interests, which include keeping our economy strong, insuring our freedom and strengthening our values. Our dependency on fossil fuels has kept us involved in regions were some people don’t like our involvement and wish to do us harm both physically and economically. The other is the widely concurring opinion that global climate change is happening right now, and burning fossil fuels is the major contributor. How do we turn this boat around? We all know the answer, become less dependent on fossil fuels and develop alternatives. America is the worlds leading economy with some the best minds in the world. We are the Can-Do society of the world. We have the ability to develop the technology, all we need is the will. But won’t that hurt the economy? From what I see, many new businesses and jobs will be developed as new technologies are brought on stream. Mankind has being around for a long time, but we have only being burning fossil fuels for a short time. And as of now we can’t manufacture it. We can all do something to make a difference. Even with Real Estate choices!
If you have any questions on Green Real Estate e-mail me at bruce@BlueWaveRealty.net