REAL ESTATE HEADLINES
  • REAL ESTATE BRIEFS: Murray Homes wins Silver Aurora Award
    Murray Homes is celebrating another award-winning project. The builder won a Silver Aurora Award for its 4,223-square-foot Sarasota Modern Retreat, designed by the Guy Peterson Office for Architecture.The client ordered a main house and adjacent guest house positioned on the two separately platted lots, connected for livability, but not infringing ... read more
    By Staff Report
  • LEW SICHELMAN: Remodeling succumbs to the virus
    If you are stuck in your house, gazing furtively at all the things you don't like about it, you're not alone. Homeowners across the country are seeing things that need to be repaired, replaced and improved. And it seems some are doing something about it.National home improvement chains such as ... read more
    By Lew Sichelman
  • REAL ESTATE MATTERS: What are the tax ramifications of selling a vacation home turned investment property?
    Q: I read your article on avoiding capital gains tax on second homes in our Sunday paper. I have a question that is along those same lines, except it's a little more complicated.My wife and I bought a condominium in Florida in 1985 as an investment rental property. We rented ... read more
    By By Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin, Tribune Content Agency
  • Developers: No plans to drop ‘plantation' in Florida community names
    When Charlene Smith and her husband Matthew began searching for a place to live in Florida, they considered several communities before deciding on ICI Homes' Plantation Bay.The couple moved from New York City into their new home here three weeks ago. While both are Black, the community's name didn't bother ... read more
    By Clayton Park
  • Sarasota-Manatee home price growth at risk
    Nearly a decade of growth in home prices in the Sarasota-Manatee region could be coming to an end.Home prices in the two-county area now stand a 75% chance of falling over the next year, real estate database CoreLogic said Tuesday.That is higher than the 50-50 odds of lower home prices ... read more
    By John Hielscher
  • CELEBRITY HOT PROPERTIES: Pharrell attempts to spin off second LA home
    Even in real estate, Pharrell Williams' style stands out. The Grammy-winning artist's Hollywood Hills home - a dazzling glass-covered compound known as the Skyline Residence - has come up for sale at $11.95 million.Williams has a penchant for buying architecturally interesting estates. Earlier this year, he put his 17,000-square-foot mansion ... read more
    By By Neal J. Leitereg and Jack Flemming, Los Angeles Times
  • REAL ESTATE MATTERS: Buyer worried about seller seeing preapproval letter
    Q: Does a real estate agent need to get copies of our preapproval letter from our lender before taking us to search for homes? My concern is that I make if an offer on a house, the agent would provide a copy of a preapproval letter from my lender that ... read more
    By By Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin, Tribune Content Agency
  • HAROLD BUBIL: Right move, but wrong method
    Editor's note: While Harold Bubil takes some time off, we'll reprise some of his popular columns. This column originally ran on June 28, 2003.Planting a drought-tolerant landscape might not be top-of-mind for you right now after the recent deluge, but for one reader, it is painfully so.A longtime Palmer Ranch ... read more
    By Harold Bubil
  • Market snapshot: Town & Country Estates in Sarasota offers convenient location
    Sometimes you just can't beat the location. Town & Country Estates, occupying the southwest quadrant of the intersection of Beneva Road and Proctor Road, is close to just about everything - shopping, restaurants, schools, one of Sarasota's most beautiful nature preserves, the white-sand, Gulf beaches and downtown."I love the location," ... read more
    By By Chris Angermann, Correspondent
  • FLORIDA BUILDINGS I LOVE: No. 28: Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, 1941, Lakeland
    Editor's note: While Harold Bubil takes some time off, we'll reprise some of his popular columns. This column originally ran on June 17, 2017.One of the most curious signs along Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando is one in Lakeland that reads: "Florida Southern College. Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture."It's not ... read more
    By Harold Bubil