Kevin J Cooney - Broker Associate, Realtor

Thousands of Tampa Bay area residents have lost property after falling behind on their mortgages and even homeowners association dues. But there’s a third way people are losing homes and land: delinquent property taxes. In the first nine months of this year, the owners of more than 200 properties in Hillsborough County have lost them in ...

Commercial real estate vacancy rates are flat, and projections for improvement have been moderated because economic growth and job creation have been weaker than expected, but modest improvements are expected over the coming year, according to the National Association of Realtors®.   Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the weakening ...

Florida’s existing home and existing condo sales experienced an upswing in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest housing statistics from Florida Realtors®. Existing home sales rose 1 percent in 2Q 2011 with a total of 52,421 homes sold statewide; during the same period the year ...

Free counseling can help struggling homeowners try to find ways to keep their homes: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides a list of government-approved counselors on its website, hud.gov. The counselors often know of special programs that lenders don’t, said Kevin Maher, director of community education for the ...

 Within the next decade, 16 million new housing units will be needed to meet population growth and shifting demands, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in its latest annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report. That means household growth, which has dropped drastically in recent ...

 More than 300 National Association of Realtors member organizations, including several local Realtor associations in Florida, and a number of foreign affiliates took part in a global open house event over the weekend of June 4-5. NAR President Ron Phipps said real estate agents challenged with moving homes in a tough market environment had ...

 Consumer confidence among Floridians remained at 68 in May, ending three consecutive months of decline, according to a new University of Florida (UF) survey. “While the overall consumer confidence index has declined steadily over the last several months and remained flat this month, there has been some uncharacteristic volatility in ...

Real estate investors, by three to one, will be more active in their local markets compared to typical homebuyers in the next 24 months; and 69 percent of investors say it’ll be easier to find properties in the near future, according to a survey of real estate investors released by Move, Inc., the management company overseeing ...

Pending home sales fell in April following increases in February and March, with unusual weather and economic softness adding to ongoing problems that are hobbling a recovery, according to the National Association of Realtors®. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, dropped 11.6 percent to ...