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Belle Harbor Condos - Guide to Clearwater Beach FL Condos for Sale

April 10th, 2010 Categories: Clearwater Beach Florida, Condos for Sale

 Belle Harbor Condominiums - Clearwater Beach FL

Clearwater Beach Fl Looking for the best Clearwater beach condos and town homes today well introduce you to one of our favorites, Belle Harbor Condos on North Clearwater Beach located directly across from the Sandpearl Resort. It actually has views of both Clearwater Beach to the west and Clearwater Harbor and downtown Clearwater to the east.     

In late 2001, the Clearwater City Council gave Belle Harbor the go-ahead to build these Clearwater Beach luxury condos and townhomes. In June 2002, the developers, JMC began accepting reservations for these Belle Harbor condos and townhomes they would later build. Completed in 2005, Belle Harbor includes 200 individual homes with 10 floor plans that range from 1,542 to over 4,700 sq. ft in two separate towers. (JMC also is the developer of Mandalay Beach Club, Sandpearl, The Grande and The Meridian on Clearwater Beach and Sand Key) 

This community attracts many full time residents because it offers a sense of comfort and space while still being located in the “action” on Clearwater Beach while you can walk to lots of restuarants, Pier 60, the Clearwater Marina, Public tennis courts the Clearwater Recreation center and more.   

Here’s a short tour through Belle Harbor condos and community to give you a better feel for this luxury waterfront condo community: 

Belle Harbor Condos - Amenities

Belle Harbor condos are located in a gated waterfront community with 65 boat docks. This Mediterranean inspired gated Clearwater Beach community covers 6.5 acres on the Clearwater Harbor intracoastal waterway, is handicapped modified with elevators, and features:

So, if you are looking for an upscale luxury boating community on Clearwater beach, then look no further than Belle Harbor.

 Related Articles:

If you’d like to know about what’s happening in a particular Clearwater Beach FL condo community just give us a call and we’ll bring you up to speed on what’s happening right now.  

Clearwater Fl homes search mls button

And if you’re looking for a Clearwater FL Realtor we’d like you to know that we are passionate about being your real estate advocate. We’re committed to delivering Results daily based on Integrity, Knowledge & Experience - helping you find the perfect Clearwater Beach houses for sale.

Call us today

We’d like to be YOUR Clearwater Beach Real Estate Team!

Call Cyndee @ 727.710.8035 or Jack @ 727710.8036 

Warmly,
Cyndee and Jack Haydon
Charles Rutenberg Realty

Clearwater Real Estate Office
1545 S. Belcher Rd
Clearwater Florida 33764 
727-710-8035 (Cyndee’s cell)
727-710-8036 (Jack’s cell)
Call us today, to setup some time to view these beautiful Clearwater Beach condominiums and townhomes.

Posted by Cyndee Haydon | Currently No Comments »

Clearwater Beach FL - Clearwater Beach Condos are Really Selling

April 9th, 2010 Categories: Clearwater Beach Florida, Condos for Sale

Clearwater Beach Fl -  You know we work with lots of Clearwater Beach Fl buyers so we keep our finger on the pulse and the last two weeks we’ve been seeing Clearwater Beach condos are selling. So many people are still believing the news media and all the doom and gloom - however that is not true everywhere. Prices on Clearwater Beach have dropped dramatically the last 2 years and people who still think they are going to buy a beachfront condo at 20+% off the price the seller’s are asking are in for a rude awakening.  

In the last 30 days, 20 more Clearwater Beach Florida condos went pending and 15 Clearwater Beach Fl condos closed and it wasn’t the “cheapest beachfront properties” - though there’s always a market for those. We’ve seen buyers who’ve been on the fence decide for themselves that the bottom is here or may have passed. Why do I say that - I know of more than one occasion where a cash buyer paid more than the appraised value for a condo; Clearwater Beach condos getting multiple offers and some of the highest priced ones even getting full asking price.

There’s so much mis-information out there I wanted to share some of the facts. This information only covers Clearwater Beach Fl - not Sand Key or Island Estates sales for the last 30 days.   

 The highest priced unit to sell was a front unit at the Sandpearl Residences - which closed for $1,825, 000 and 99% of the asking price at $707 a square foot. 3 properties sold for over $1 million. The average for the last 30 days was $716,563 or $292 a square foot with an average sold price of 90% of the asking price - which is skewed a little low with a couple of short sales that finally got resolved.

When you look at the 20 pending sales for properties in Clearwater Beach Fl you find that there is still one what appears it will sell for over $700/sq ft- it’s a beachfront house that was listed at $2,499,000.  Several of the condos under contract are Belle Harbor Condos,  Mandalay Beach Club Condos or luxury Sandpearl Condos. We had buyers looking last week and the pickings on good units was definitely thinning.

These 35 properties do not account for the 19 that are under contract and moving through the contingency period.  So that’s 70 properties off the market in the last 30 days for Clearwater Beach alone and I know of several that are in the negotiation process as I write this.     

So what does this mean to you? If you’ve been waiting convinced that prices will continue to drop - we’re not seeing that play out. No one knows what tomorrow brings (I never expected the banks to fall and become Government run in a blink of an eye so each person has to assess this info for themselved) I can say that I know of people that were convinced themselves - and they may still end up being right but on more than one situation - awesome beachfront condos have gotten offers lower than we’ve seen in 7 years and we’re seeing offers now higher. So you decide. If you are looking for the long term it seems like now is the time to find you piece of paradise or be prepared to pay more for it in the future. 

If you’d like to know about what’s happening in a particular Clearwater condo community just give us a call and we’ll bring you up to speed on what’s happening right now.  

Clearwater Fl homes search mls button

And if you’re looking for a Clearwater FL Realtor we’d like you to know that we are passionate about being your real estate advocate. We’re committed to delivering Results daily based on Integrity, Knowledge & Experience - helping you find the perfect Clearwater Beach houses for sale.

Call us today

We’d like to be YOUR Clearwater Beach Real Estate Team!

Call Cyndee @ 727.710.8035 or Jack @ 727710.8036 

Warmly,
Cyndee and Jack Haydon
Charles Rutenberg Realty

Clearwater Real Estate Office
1545 S. Belcher Rd
Clearwater Florida 33764 
727-710-8035 (Cyndee’s cell)
727-710-8036 (Jack’s cell)

Posted by Cyndee Haydon | Currently No Comments »

Clearwater Beach Florida Condos | Buyers and Sellers Hurt by Jumbo Loans

April 12th, 2009 Categories: Clearwater Beach Florida, Clearwater Florida, Condos for Sale, Sand Key Florida, Tampa Mortgages

Clearwater Beach Florida - As most of our readers know we work hard to get great deals for our Clearwater Beach condo buyers unfortunately there are some great buys on luxury condos in Clearwater however one of the major roadblocks  interested buyers encounter is the fact that in the Clearwater Beach Florida / Sand Key Florida area the allowable Fannie Mae loan limit for conventional loans is only $417,000 with at least 20% down.

Clearwater beach florida condos Sandpearl ResidencesNow I would agree that in most areas of Clearwater real estate - this would be plenty, however, when you consider we’re home to some of the best beaches in the United States, it’s not nearly enough if you want to buy a typical beach condo and are looking for a reasonable loan.

Even if you were planning on buying a condo and putting 20% to 25% down it’s a problem because most Clearwater Beach Florida oceanfront 3 bedroom condominiums are still selling from $800,000 to well over $1 million dollars even in today’s real estate market.

Related article: 

Clearwater Beach FL Jumbo Borrowers Squeezed and so are Sellers

So what does this mean for the Sellers with Clearwater beach condos they are looking to sell?

In my experience…

1) Clearwater Beach low conventional loan limits are causing a lot of mortgage pressure to purchase properties for $520,000 (or less)  give or take so a buyer can buy a condo with a loan of less than $417,000.

2) Clearwater Jumbo rates (and terms) further limits the number of ready and willing buyers in this “jumbo” price point - so with less willing and able buyers there is again more pressure on sellers to make a deal with the remaining buyers - and we’re seeing cash is king. Our last two beach condo buyers paid cash for their gulf beachfront condos.

What’s hard to believe is we are currently working with many buyers who are the best clients a mortgage lender could want (excellent credit, no debt, no issue with income qualifications) and yet they are not willing to buy a second home / vacation home under the recent terms one National bank / lender gave … For Jumbo loans on beach condo purchases needing a loan over $417K but under 1 million they didn’t even offer a fixed rate loan only a 5/1 ARM at  5.75% with a 1% point so basically when conventional home buyers are getting mortgage rates under 5% - some of the best possible borrowers are being asked to pay a premium of almost 7% and up.

When I asked “why?”,  the banks told me that it’s because “Jumbo Loans” are currently the highest loans in default. Unfortunately, those I see in preforeclosure  and foreclosure on the beaches now are very different than the potential buyers we are seeing. We all know lending had loose guidelines back a few years and many real estate buyers got in way over their heads - these are not the buyers we are working with today.

77% Pending Sales of Clearwater Beach Condos and Sand Key Condos are NOT Jumbos

There are currently 22 Clearwater condos under contract and pending sale in the Tampa Bay MLS - of that 17 of them has a listed purchase price of under $420,000, 4 are in the $600K’s and one is pending at $849,000 (all of which could be lower on closing - we don’t know the negotiated purchase price at this point). It’s not surprising that it was recently reported that 50% of all real estate sales in Florida this year have been cash transactions.

In our experience, today’s Tampa mortgage rates for Jumbo Loans have caused several of our clients to scale back their Clearwater beach condo purchases and others have postponed them while they free up additional funds to make up the difference in purchase price and “conforming loans”.  We’ve seen several people who planned on buying beachfront condos for @$800,000 and now have scaled back $200-300K to qualify for the conforming loan rates and terms.

So if you are a seller on Clearwater Beach Florida today (or Sand Key, Island Estates and our Gulf beaches) the best thing that can happen for you right now is that Banks get bank into the Jumbo loan market and begin to offer more attractive Jumbo Loan rates and terms for these willing Clearwater Beach buyers. With rates where they are - if Jumbo’s loosen up many of our buyers tell us they would prefer a larger more expensive condo if there aren’t punitive lending terms for them.

Well there was some good news this week….

Clearwater Beach Real Estate gets some good Jumbo Loan news

Today I read an article that stated “that the hard-to-find jumbo loan may be making a comeback.  Bank of America is among the major banks rolling out jumbo mortgage programs and holding the loans in their own portfolios.

It will offer loans from $730,000 to $1.5 million with 30-year fixed rates under 6 percent; but borrowers must make a 20-percent downpayment, have good credit, provide proof of income, and hold six months’ of principal, interest, property tax and insurance payments in reserve.”

I know we are constantly working with  local bankers who offer in-house “portfolio loans” - we can only hope that other banks, both local and national, will follow Bank of America lead in the Jumbo loan market.  If you have questions and need a good local banker, give us a call and we can introduce you to several good lenders and we will continue to keep you posted on what’s happening on our beaches.

Clearwater Beach Real Estate - Selling or Buying - Waterfront Condos or Homes - We Can Help!

Clearwater beach florida condos for saleIf you’ve been thinking about buying or selling a waterfront or oceanfront beach condo or house in the Clearwater St Peterburg Tampa Bay area…

Call Us Today at (727) 710-8036 to hear more about how we can help you!

Contact us for a FREE quote and to find out your Tampa Mortgage options and you can search all Tampa St Petersburg and Clearwater condos for sale right now..

Copyright © 2007-2009 Jack and Cyndee Haydon, Clearwater REALTORS and specializing in Clearwater Florida, Clearwater Beach Florida, and Pinellas County Waterfront homes and condos. Information is deemed reliable however it is not guaranteed and subject to change at any time.

Posted by Cyndee Haydon | Currently 11 Comments »

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