Is Bigger Better? Buyers Looking at More than Size

These days bigger just isn't better. Buyers are looking for more economical plans with great layouts. Not that the large mansions are out of date or not hot anymore! Take a look at Larger Panama City Beach Real Estate Custom Homes and what you find are some wonderful homes! But there are a lot of buyers now looking at the needs of their family. With an increase in our Panama City Beach Real Estate market of retirees moving closer to their family we start seeing more and more of this trend. What works? What do they need to function on a daily basis? Take a look at the article below...it sheds some interesting national light to what we are starting to see more of in the Panama City Beach Real Estate Market.

Small Homes, Cottages Score Big With Buyers

However, home buyers these days increasingly are interested in smaller homes that consume less energy and encourage interaction among neighbors. Developers in cities such as Seattle, Boston, and Milwaukee are building cottage developments to meet the rising demand. Architect Ross Chapin and developer Jim Soules have erected nearly 50 Craftsman-style cottages during the last 10 years in the Seattle area.

The quirky homes sell for as much as $600,000, despite the fact that they range in size from just 800 square feet to 1,500 square feet. Chapin uses clever design tricks, such as corner windows and skylights, to give the illusion of more space. He also makes the most of every inch by including crawlspace storage and built-in bookshelves and cubbies. "These days, we drive to the house, open the garage door, go in," Indianapolis developer Casey Land told the Wall Street Journal. "But it's important to get to know your neighbors. I think people miss that."

Source: Wall Street Journal, Sara Lin (07/18/08)

Let us know more about your thoughts at www.InvestSmarter.com on this new trend in Real Estate and stay tuned as we bring more exciting points to the market!

Finally a Lender Steps up!

Well it's about time someone stepped up and realized the right thing to do to help out!!! Cheers to Wachovia! We have published posts on www.InvestSmarter.com about this insane ARM loans and the overextending issues around them as they state below. But finally a lender is stepping up to the plate to agree...of course they have to have a lot of these loans passed due...but at least they are making a statemetn. Of course the 70% drop in their stock probabaly didn't help much!

Wachovia to End Option ARM Loans Wachovia announced Monday that it would stop offering option ARMs and allow existing option-ARM borrowers to avoid prepayment penalties.Option ARMs give customers multiple payment choices, including paying less than the interest due, which means loan balances increase.More than 18 percent of the option ARMs originated in 2005 and 2006 are already at least 60 days past due, according to Barclays Capital, which examined loans that had been packaged into securities.Wachovia’s shares have fallen 70 percent in the last year and this could make the stock fall further.Source: The Wall Street Journal, Valerie Bauerlein and Ruth Simon (07/01/08)

There are some great deals in today's market place based on this so who really knows what will end up happening. Stay tuned to www.panama-city-beach-florida-mls.com or www.panama-city-beach-florida-real-estate.com today to see a little more about the wonders of this market and some of the ever changing properties that are available.