Bob Forman's Real Estate Blog

Whether you are a 1st time investor or a repeater typically the same rules should apply to make a good return on investment. Many would be investors who are not given proper guidance end up buying a property that they get buried in and either make little or no profit. How do you avoid this you as...

Lehigh Acres is one of the most inexpensive places in the country to buy a four-bedroom house — and that simple fact has led to big changes for the community. A survey released Wednesday by Coldwell Banker Real Estate ranked Lehigh second in Florida and 20th nationwide at an average price of $111...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Nov. 4, 2013 – Good news for Florida homeowners: There are signals that the cost of home insurance could at least be stabilizing, with some insurers now filing requests to reduce their rates. Starting in July, insurance companies have filed at least nine requests for rate decr...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Nov. 8, 2013 – The Mormon church stands to own nearly 2 percent of Florida by completing a deal to buy most of the real estate of the St. Joe Co. for more than a half-billion dollars. The megapurchase was announced jointly Thursday by a corporate representative of church, which ow...

WASHINGTON – Nov. 8, 2013 – Sequestration could mean a $20 billion loss of defense funding for fiscal 2014 and possibly include a reduction in the allowance military families receive to help them pay for shelter. Many military households apply their housing allowance to home buying or renting. Th...

NEW YORK – Nov. 7, 2013 – For the last few years, buyers have been hard-pressed to land a mortgage if they didn’t have a 20 percent down payment, unless they turned to the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) low down-payment loans. But a growing number of banks now offer loans with just 5 perc...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Nov. 6, 2013 – Florida’s housing market continued to improve in third quarter 2013 with more closed sales, higher median prices, more pending sales and a stabilizing supply of homes for sale compared to the same quarter in 2012, according to the latest housing data released by Flo...

WASHINGTON – Nov. 5, 2013 – A recent study by Fannie Mae found that delinquent borrowers – homeowners facing foreclosure – are not bitter about homeownership in general. In fact, the study author concludes that the “majority still believe in the benefits of homeownership.”The survey found the fol...

MIAMI – Nov. 1, 2013 – Interest in single-family homes from corporate buyers such as equity firms has been a major factor in moving Florida’s residential real estate market out the recessionary doldrums. But there’s been another big source of demand for Florida residences: In 2012, one in five sa...

WASHINGTON – Nov. 1, 2013 – Though Congress has momentarily turned away from the political sniping that characterized this month’s government shutdown, economists and industry experts are watching Washington closely. They say the impact of the government shutdown, as well as coming changes to the...