We recently closed on a home in the Murray Hill neighborhood for a young lady who was a first time homebuyer. The home she bought is a darling 3BR/1BA bungalow in the desirable neighborhood of Murray Hill. It was purchased by the seller in the high 100’s. After living there a few years, she tried to sell it amidst the rapidly falling real estate market and the house fell into short sale.

There was one very low offer on the home that did not get accepted by the bank but when the bank “countered” the low offer, they established a price that they would accept. This was put into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as a bank approved price and the young lady we were representing quickly wrote an offer on it.

After jumping through a few hoops and encountering a few stumbling blocks along the way, the sale closed in relatively quickly (about 3 months-which is for a short sale) on Friday of last week for $120K — one more property off the market, a great buy for our buyer and a happy ending to a short sale.

It’s rare that one of the crown jewels of Ortega Blvd. becomes available and we are proud to be the listing agents for one of the best homes on “the Blvd” (as it’s called by the locals).

Just listed at 3915 Ortega Blvd, this 4BR/3.5BA home is the epitome of classic elegance. Among it’s wonderful features are a grand entrance foyer, tall ceilings, formal living room with carved stone mantle, cozy library, slate patio, riverfront dining room, an incredible “river room” with walls of windows and fireplace, large kitchen, renovated master bathroom and professionally landscaped gardens. It’s situated on a high bluff with incredible vistas of the St. John’s river.

There aren’t many opportunities like this and we look forward to introducing this property to qualified buyers. If you’re considering a move to Jacksonville or looking to “trade up”, we’re standing by to be of assistance. Thanks for reading and we look forward to hearing from you.

Great News! We just listed a fantastic house on Elizabeth Place in Avondale that will knock your socks off. It’s a 3BR/2.5BA that’s been magnificently renovated including an incredible new kitchen and master bathroom. It’s got soaring ceilings in the great room, fireplace, walls of built in bookshelves, Pella windows, wonderful storage, professionally landscaped courtyard garden and more!

 In additon, the house is located on a dead end street (no through traffic) and there’s a waterfront park at the end of the street — enjoy the river without paying riverfront prices! Priced at only $550K with absolutely nothing to do — a true turn key home, this one is likely to go fast. Please call me at 252-5181 or Caroline at 463-1898 for an appointment to see this very special home.

Both of these homes were 3br/2.5ba homes with approx. 2,500 square feet. Both had garages and both had guest houses above the garage. The guest house on Greenwood was apparently in orginal condition and the one on Richmond street had some minor upgrades.

1837 Ingleside - At only $219 per square foot it's a DEAL!

We’ve got a fantastic listing on Ingleside Avenue that has 3br/2.5ba with lots of upgrades – so if you happen to have “missed out” on either one of the houses mentioned above and are still looking, please give us a call. At $644K and 2,940 square feet, our asking price is $219psf  AND our guest house and garage are NEW! The two most recent sales were at $229 and $232 per square foot.

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to get the latest and greatest about what’s going on in with real estate in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside, please give us a call! We’d love to help you find or sell a home in the neighborhood!

The month of April was a little wild for us. We had a couple of sales, took several listings and were working with a few buyers. It seemed, at times, that we could hardly come up for air. May, thankfully, has been a little more sane but I began to wonder — was April really busy for everyone?

I checked the number of sales for both single family homes & condos since the beginning of the year (in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside only) and found that April was, indeed, a very busy month with a much larger number of sales than the months before or after. You might think that it was because of the end of the first time homebuyer tax incentive but several of the sales were of luxury properties.

January – 13 single family homes sales - 1 condo sale
February — 21 single family sales  – 1 condo
March — 16 single family sales - 1 condo sale
April — 25 sales - 2 condo sales
May – 15 sales  — 3 condo sales ( through May 25th, 2010)

Interest rates have fallen to incredible lows (below 5% for a 30 years fixed rate loan), investors are back in the market (why not buy with very low prices and very low cost to borrow) and we have some great new listings coming up for the month of June.  Stay tuned…let’s see what the numbers next month reveal.

Thanks for reading — if you’re hungry for information about the state of real estate in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside — this is the place to get it! Subscribe to my blog and my posts will arrive (magically) in your inbox!

Jacksonville, FL based Gibraltar Mortgage, an affiliate of Wells Fargo Mortgage, recently announced a program where they will buy down the interest rate of your FHA or VA 30 Year Fixed mortgage by 1% for the first year for FREE.

FHA loans are available to all buyers purchasing a primary residence assuming they don’t currently have an FHA loan. Loan limits for the surrounding areas is $387,500.

VA loans are for current or former members of the military, national guard or reserves. There are qualifying parameters based on the veteran’s participation. The VA loan limits for Duval, Clay and Saint Johns County are based off conforming loan limits of $417,000 pursuant to the veteran’s remaining eligibility.

Thanks for reading. We write primarily about the state of real estate in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside. We’d love to have you subscribe so you can hear about the latest news for the area — new listings, recent sales, price reductions, mortgage news and more!

Since this time last year (12 months of data), the number of closed sales in this price range has increased by 14.04% and the amount of inventory has DECREASED (that’s a good thing) by more than 50% (53.31% to be exact). We are down to only 13.15 months of inventory meaning that if every home on the market in this price were to sell and no other new listings were to come on the market, it would take approximately 13 months for all of the inventory to be absorbed.

Most people define a “balanced” market where there are an even number of buyers and sellers to be around six months of inventory.  13 months of inventory is approximately double that of a “balanced” market and would indicate a buyer’s market. That’s certainly still true but considering that inventory levels have been as high as a three or four year supply, only thirteen months supply actually seems small by comparison.

So…thinking of selling? Wondering just exactly what your chances are of finding a buyer in this crazy market? Call the experts! The Powell Steilberg team consistently tracks and measures the market so that you have a realistic picture of what’s going on. It’s essential information to have and we have it!

Thanks for reading! For the state of real estate in the Avondale, Ortega and Riverside neighborhoods, subscribe to our blog and you’ll be the first to know about what’s going on!

This one’s been renovated to a T and has many wonderful details including: 
3BR/2BA
a brand new kitchen
beautiful wood floors
open spaces
fireplace
enclosed sunroom (perfect for painting, reading or an office)
renovated bathrooms
new roof
new AC
incredible outdoor entertaining area
two car garage

Priced at only $329,900 and within walking distance to the shops of Avondale, this one is a keeper! Take a look at these pictures and call us for an appointment.

Thanks for reading — for news about the state of real estate in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside, subscribe to our blog! You’ll be the first to know about new listings, recent sales, price reductions, mortgage rates and more!

If you read the blog I wrote about our new listing at 4620 Algonquin Avenue, were intrigued by the video I created or were in Atlanta when you saw the facebook entry and you’d like to see more, now’s your chance!  Our fantastic new listing at 4620

Algonquin Avenue in the Ortega neighborhood of Jacksonville will be open tomorrow from 3-5pm.   Tired of the commute to downtown from the beach? Want an awesome house in an great neighborhood that’s got almost 5,000 sf and 5BR’s and 5BA’s? An entertainer’s dream with all rooms opening to the outdoors and a great floor plan, this is one you don’t want to miss.

Thanks for reading — please join us for our next installment of the state of real estate in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside!

Unfortunately, the life of a realtor is often the same. We mean to call each and every one of our buyers and sellers every day.  The truth is that we DO think about you all the time.  Almost every day we say, we REALLY need to call (….).  But in the interim, life happens. Busy with getting a new listing photographed, negotiating a offer on a listing, attending an inspection, creating a flyer for your open house on Sunday, researching what the proper price of the house you want might be, searching through active listings for what we’re going to show you or calling to schedule showing appointments keep us from sittting down to check in and just say hello.

The realtor is the middle man. It’s through us that you learn “what’s going on”.  How did the showing go? What did the buyer think of my house? Do you think I’ll get an offer? Have you seen anything new on the market? What do you think we should offer on this house that we love? We’ve received an offer way below our asking price — should we make a counter-offer or just not respond? Have you heard anything from the bank on our short sale offer?

Despite knowing that the MOST important thing we can do is STAY IN TOUCH, it’s one thing that can be the most difficult to do. Please know that even if you don’t hear from us, we ARE thinking of you nearly every minute of every day — REALLY. And…..if we don’t call you — CALL US! We love to hear from you. Thanks!

Thanks for reading! If you like what you see, please subscribe so that our posts will be sent directly to your inbox. We write primarily about the state of real estate in Avondale, Ortega and Riverside.