Jacksonville Real Estate Blog

 

Cars for Our Troops Event - Tinseltown Jacksonville FL

By: Donny Mak

If you are a car nut like me you might want to check out this weekend's (Saturday) Car show "Cars For Our Troops," which is a fundraiser event to benefit Homes For Our Troops, a national non-profit organization that builds adapted homes for severely injured soldiers returning from war since 9/11.  The event is held at Wild Wings Cafe on Southside Blvd at Tinseltown, and will run from 10am to 1pm.

The show is FREE to the public so no excuses here!

 

 

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Pug Rescue at Anthropologie Town Center   Across the country, upscale retailer Anthropologie has partnered with animal welfare organizations by holding pet adoption events and supply drives in many of its stores — including the store at St. Johns Town Center on September 24th.     What better setting to attract sympathetic dog-lovers that the stores where these customers shop.  Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue, (MAPR) Inc.is an all-volunteer group, determined that the welfare of these beautiful animals comes first.   MAPR’s requirements for membership are simple: a desire to help homeless pugs, promote education about the breed, and promote animal population control.   They strongly encourage participation in other groups, rescues, and shelters, as the best way to strengthen the…
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Jacksonville Owner Financing

By: Alan Aptheker

It’s time for buyers with poor credit to rethink about shrinking from their credit issues. Buyers slink slowly away from the home buying process, without asking the most basic question of the seller, or approaching the listing realtor with the proposition, “would the seller consider owner financing?”  Here’s the ironic part – many potential homebuyers can afford to pay for a home, but their credit score is the high barrier to realizing their goal.  More after the break...

I know a guy who did a short sale back in 2007 when he lost his $120,000-a-year position with a major bank. He did a lot of freelance writing, got his real estate license, and make it through the following 18 month subsisting pretty well as he doggedly pursued…
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Beatles in Jacksonville 1964

By: Alan Aptheker

Jacksonville is one of the few cities on the Eastern coast that have been largely spared from the wrath of major hurricanes. However, in 1964 the big one hit. Hurricane Dora caused severe damage, and no part of the city was spared.   But, the very next day, on September 11, 1964, over 20,000 fans packed the Gator Bowl (now Everbank Field),  to see the Beatles. The lads from Liverpool did not disappoint.  They endured harsh winds, but they were undeterred, and so were the screaming fans.  (It is rumored that the winds were blowing so hard that Ringo Starr's drum set had to be nailed down to the stage).

 

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Advance Fee Loan Scams

By: Alan Aptheker

In 2008, just as the banks were reeling from the first sucker punch that is now “the bubble,” the FDIC issued a warning for financial institutions and consumers about advance-fee loan scams, which were becoming more prevalent as the banks sought to bind their initial wounds incurred from the financial fallout. It bears repeating now, when banks are opening up a little more, as some financial experts feel we’ve hit bottom, and the U.S. debt-mageddon crisis is over (sort of)...

As recently as late 2010, the FDIC is still finding this kind of nefarious behavior, not by legitimate lenders who won’t a demand the upfront fee, but predators taking advantage of home buyers who see the 3% and 4% interest rates as their entree into the

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Jacksonville Fl

By: Alan Aptheker

It wasn’t the town’s first name.  Settled by the English who drifted down from Georgia, they set up shop around a shallow ford across the St. Johns River, calling the place “Cowford.”  When Florida was ceded to the U.S. in 1819, Andrew Jackson became the first provisional governor, hence, Jacksonville.

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Refinancing refresher By: Alan Aptheker   It’s been a while since the Federal Reserve unveiled its mortgage refinancing website, “A Consumer’s Guide to Mortgage Refinancing.”  It hasn’t advertised it lately.  Not pointing fingers here, but there’s probably no great clamor from the banks (i.e., the FDIC’s customers) to remind borrowers just how much lower the rates have fallen since 2008. It’s a great resource that has answers to frequently asked questions about the refinancing process. You can determine when refinancing makes sense, what a refinancing will cost, and whether to switch into a different type of mortgage: federalreserve.gov/pubs/refinancings/default.htm
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First Watch Mandarin Jacksonville

By: Alan Aptheker

When I’m in Orlando for more than a day, there are two places I must go to eat: First Watch and Toojay’s, (more about Toojay’s later. I’m heavily lobbying for one in Jax but have had no success). We have a burning need for decent breakfast places in San Jose and Mandarin. The only First Watch I’d ever encountered was in Orlando, and I could swear it was locally owned and operated. It had that familiar, welcoming feel from the waitstaff. The quality of breakfast and brunch food could give the Metro Diner a run for it’s money -- it’s that good. And even though folks from far and near (including me) will still frequent the Metro in San Marco,  it’s great to have the bar for quality breakfast food raised in Mandarin. I wish I’d known

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  Yes, Jacksonville is at the low end with respect to best performing housing markets. Here’s the lemonade: Because Jacksonville’s rank is low, we’re ranked #8 on the top 10 list of cities in the US where it’s cheaper to buy than rent.   Trulia reports it’s cheaper to buy than rent in 74 percent of 50 major U.S. cities, including Jacksonville. Trulia’s price-to-rent ratio uses the median listing price divided by annualized median rent. Ratios 15 and under mean that it’s less expensive to buy than rent. Jacksonville’s  buy/rent ratio: 8. Ratios that are 20 or higher means that renting is a bargain in that city.    Top Ten Places in the US where it’s cheaper to buy than rent, in order of low to high buy/rent ratio: Las Vegas (6) , Detroit…
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Jacksonville on Top Ten lists

We saw the housing report. We beat out Detroit as the worst housing market now, but there’s good reason to believe we’ll find the bottom soon. But if you’re going to talk about being the worst, we should talk about what we do best. Here’s where we showed up in the some formidable top ten lists:  view list after the break...

  • Jacksonville was named the nation’s third least expensive city to launch a corporate headquarters (BizCosts.com - 2011) 
  • Florida’s public school system ranks among the top 5 in the nation (Education Week – 2011)
  • Jacksonville ranked No. 3 on the list of “Best Cities to Work” (Careerbliss.com - 2011)
  • Jacksonville ranked ninth best U.S. Shopping City (Forbes – 2010)
  • Jacksonville is ranked No. 1 on
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