Has the market hit bottom?

In a recently release article from Reuters, it was reported that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had holdings as of September consisting of over 6 million shares of various home builder stocks. Centex, Beazer, and WCI were among the few of them.

If someone this big is making a move like this, are they speculating that the bottom has been hit?

This is the exact model that Buffett uses (is that surprising). Buy a promising product when it's down and prepare for the up-swing.

This goes hand-in-hand with my post on Learning to Invest. When the market is down, buy cheap, buy as much as you can, plan to hold it and prepare for the up-swing.

Click here for the article.

Conservation Easement around the Airport

On Tuesday St. Joe recorded the conservation easement for 9,609 acres. This will become permanent upon commencement of construction of the new airport.

To be quite frank, I had completely forgotten about the 10,000 acre conservation easement that is to be included in the land donation by St. Joe for the new airport. This is miniscule compared to the 40,000 acres St. Joe has committed to dedicate to conservation under the West Bay Sector Plan.

The West Bay Sector Plan consists of approximately 78,000 acres and was passed by the Bay county Commission in 2003.

Click here for the News Herald article.

Click here for the St. Joe press release.

Learning to Invest

It is no secret that the local real estate market is definitely in favor of the buyer. These changes come and go, although many would argue (and much of the evidence suggests) that the most current market changes are more significant than changes of the past.

A buyer's market is called as such because there is a greater amount of "inventory" on the market than there are buyers willing to purchase. Whereas a seller's market is great for the seller and may bring quick sales and high prices, a buyer's market is great for those that are looking to purchase. Along with a buyer's market comes competitive prices and a large selection.
This is a great time to buy; those who can afford to purchase, should. The deals are not around every corner, but they are there. The Panama City area has strong growth potential and still relatively affordable investment opportunities (if you are willing to dig).

I was reading through some of the columns at Yahoo Finance and found a great article from Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The article can be found by clicking here.

The bottom line is, we've got the beach; and the water and sand is beautiful. People love it here.

Pier Park

Construction of Pier Park is moving forward with the completion of Target and the beginning of the new movie theatre. I took some pictures over the weekend.

Also, check out www.PierParkRetail.com for more information.















This will be the new 16 screen theatre set to open in May. Click here for more information.

The Forgotten Coast and Greenbelt Laws

Florida's forgotten coast has been getting some good publicity lately. For those that don't know, the Forgotten Coast is referring to Port St. Joe. Although Port St. Joe isn't really "on-the-way" to anything, it is still thought very highly of by many vacationers. The News Herald published an article on it referencing some of the other articles that have been written about that area. I know we have some readers that work in the Port St. Joe area, let me know if you have more information on the articles written. The News Herald article can be found here.

Also, Florida's Greenbelt law is in the spotlight along with St. Joe. The recent decrease in pulp demand has resulted in a decrease in assessed value for much of their land holdings across Florida. The Greenbelt law was enacted to protect the state's agriculture farmers from receiving increasingly higher tax bills every year. This way, if property values were increasing, yet the farmer’s product yield was the same (and so is his profit), the farmer is essentially prevented from being "taxed" out of his property. The article can be found here.

Right now, however, to some people it would seem that St. Joe is abusing the "agricultural protection" of the Greenbelt law. Although to many people today, St. Joe is known as a real estate development company, it's roots stem from the paper business. The big question is: When do we start assessing the property as something other than agriculture?

Edited: One of our readers provided me with an article about St. George Island. This article can be found here.

Real Estate is Still Selling

Despite the apparent slow-down in the real estate market in the Panhandle, people are still buying. True, there are not as many buyers here than last year or the year before, but if it is priced right, someone will want to buy it. Below is data from the Bay County MLS.

Sold in Panama City Beach summer 2004

• 314 homes sold from a 3/2 in Woodlawn for $105k to a 2700 sf gulf front home for $2M
• 603 condos sold from a studio at Top of the Gulf for $147k to a Hidden Dunes 3200 sf penthouse for$950k

Sold in Panama City Beach summer 2005

• 272 homes sold from a 3/2 for $175k to a 3600 sf Lake Powell-front 4 bedroom home for $1.5M
• 598 Condos sold from a new studio at Majectic for $139k to a 4 bedroom, 3100 sf at En Soleil for $1.7M

Sold in Panama City Beach summer 2006

• 158 homes sold from a 3/1 for $145k to a 7200 sf bayfront home in Colony Club for $2M
• 313 condos sold from a $20k parking space in Calypso to a 4 bedroom penthouse in En Soleil for $1.6M

Summer is defined from May 1 to August 30.

Bay County Airport Construction Costs Continue to Rise

An article in the News Herald yesterday spoke into the continually rising construction costs of the new airport. The cost grew from $218M in 2000 to roughly $330M now. Increases in construction costs and inflation are to blame. In all honesty, what did we expect? As time passes, the price always goes up. Of course the price went up, the only question is how much more is it going to go up before construction can begin? A link to the article can be found here.

I stand in support of the new airport, but at what point do we throw in the towel and say this is too much money? At what point do we cross the line? There's always got to be a breaking point.

Something has to be done. We need to either get our airport up to regulation or build a new airport. Obviously modifying the existing one would be less expensive, but last time that was discussed, the environmentalists cited that harm would be done to the seagrass beds. What would cause more harm to the environment, extending the current runway, or building a new airport?

What if the airport purchased more land inland and 390 was re-routed? Would that be possible?