Watching Jupiter condo prices over the past few months has been a bit like watching paint dry. Not too exciting. Back on May 15th the median sales price of a condo in the Jupiter area was $223,000, today it is $222,750. Over the past 30 days, the median price has dropped a total of $250.

The good news is, season is coming, and once we get into January real estate sales pick up. Condo sales usually lead the charge and the absolute best time to sell a condo in Jupiter, and the rest of the Northern Palm Beaches, is the period between February and May. That four month period is as good as it gets for condo sellers. If you are looking to snap up a good value on a Jupiter condo then you should be shopping right now.

Median Jupiter area condo prices are up 6% from year ago levels but still lag the all time highs set back in 2005 and 2006 by over 20%. There is room for prices to go higher and if demand is strong this season the lack of quality inventory can be a recipe for higher prices ahead. Watch the stock market, as if it remains strong, the odds are so will Jupiter condo prices. Watch interest rates, as with our national debt spiraling out of control, they are the key to the future. For now, the average overnight rate on a 30 year conforming mortgage remains firmly below 4%. If we spike much from those levels, which is possible, the odds are it will have a detrimental effect on Jupiter condo prices.
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Each property is different and one must understand the metrics that drives its value. Whenever doing anything real estate, interview at least three brokers and get informed. Mistakes in real estate can be expensive and usually they can be avoided. If I can ever be of help just let me know.


Fins up….




#jupitercondoprices

Living in paradise has it’s challenges, but it also has it’s privileges. Running a boutique real estate brokerage also has it’s challenges, but also it’s privileges. We meet a lot of people, we are out…..a lot. Luckily I like food….a lot.

To me, eating out is a privilege, and here in paradise we have many options. I am a fan of the Dutch scientist, Louise Fresco who, among other things writes books. One of her books is titled, Hamburgers in Paradise. One of her quotes that I love is;

“Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something holy. It’s not about nutrients and calories. It’s about sharing. It’s about honesty. It’s about identity”

Indeed Louise, indeed it is. When I think food, identity, honesty, sharing and Palm Beach Gardens there is a name that always rises to the top, Tim Lipman. Tim attended the Florida Culinary Institute and had worked for a couple popular, local seafood restaurants before opening Coolinary Cafe. It’s been over 5 1/2 years since this gem opened up in Donald Ross Village and I cannot even tell you how many times we have dined there, but it’s never enough. I am a Facebook junkie and my posts about Coolinary Cafe often times questions why don’t I eat there every day. In many ways I wish I could, but then it wouldn’t be so holy.

I go there because Tim and his team are culinary masters. I feel good when I eat there. It’s not about the nutrients and calories, its about the experience. It just so happens that their food is usually very nutritious. It is always memorable. Today at lunch, we all devoured a bowl of the special soup, Curried Vegetable. It was so utterly, amazingly, delicious that two bowls came home with us. It’s that sharing thing that Louise Fresco was speaking about.

One of my favorite shares, when it came to Coolinary’s menu, is their Flourless Chocolate Intensity. My dear mom, who passed away earlier this year, spent the last 2 1/2 years of her life with us. She wasn’t in great shape, didn’t get out much, but we did take her to Tim’s restaurant and one taste of Intensity was all it took. She had a sweet tooth and LOVED this stuff. It made her happy. The last year or so, she couldn’t get out, but we were sure to take a piece of Intensity to go whenever we visited and immediately delivered it to her. She lit up like a Christmas tree when she saw what gifts we brought. Yes, food is about sharing. It’s about love.

Everything at Coolinary Cafe is prepared with passion and love. Most days, they will post their daily specials on their Facebook page. When I see something that has my name on it, I am there. Lickety split. Not many times I have left even slightly disappointed. It is the tradition, the identity, the honesty, the love. Eating here is a holy experience and even though I just ate there today I will be back soon.
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Thank you Tim, thank you Jenny, thanks to your entire team. You rock, and we LOVE you. Please don’t change. Keep that passion burning and don’t ever let it die!


Fins up…..




#bestrestaurantinpalmbeachgardens

The real estate market, and the industry itself, is constantly changing. Both buyers, and sellers, need to be teamed with a professional broker in order to make the best decisions. With the median sale price of a Jupiter single family home sitting at $470,000 so far this year, a little mistake can cost you big money. Don’t be afraid about asking tor a life preserver, insist upon it.

We are marching towards the best months for Jupiter real estate sales, and those throughout the Northern Palm Beaches. The “real” buying typically starts off in about 8 weeks. Everything between now and then is setting the foundation for the game ahead. For the month ending November 15th, pending home sales are up after dropping sharply over the previous 6 months. Sounds like great news, but when you peel back the layers you see they have actually fallen almost 4% since November 1st. Pending home sales in the Jupiter area are down over 10% from where we were one year ago.

Inventory remains a critical issue with few quality homes hitting the market. When a well priced property in good condition, hits the market, buyers swarm like a colony of honeybees. Highly competitive is the word for quality median priced homes in this market. Over the past 30 days, the number of homes actively on the market in the Northern Palm Beaches is up over 6%. Good news indeed, but still not a great deal of “turnkey” properties hitting the market. Buyers need a winning game plan and be prepared to act quickly when good homes matching their needs are listed. They need to be the first in the door or they are going to get beat out. Their broker needs to be able to make that happen. In a competition, the winner needs to know how the game is played and the numbers effecting each property. It’s why Paradise Sharks spends so much time researching the market. We want our clients to understand it when making decisions. It is critical.

Median prices for condominiums in the Jupiter area remain in a consolidating pattern while there has been downward pressure on the median single family home price. With a shortage of quality homes, many buyers have to settle. Interest rates remain fantastic and there is good stuff hitting the market, you just need to be patient and well prepared with a game plan that allows you to win the game. Don’t settle.
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If you need a life preserver in today’s challenging market please feel free to contact Paradise Sharks anytime. We are easy to reach at tom@paradisesharks.com or 561.308.0175. We have been playing this game for decades and know how it’s played. We want you to win.


Fins up……






#jupiterrealestate

So far, all the talk of the Fed starting to dump their $4.5 trillion dollars of United States debt into the open market is all smoke and mirrors. For the second straight week, the interest rate on a conforming 30 year fixed loan has dropped and this week it was a substantial one, down 11 basis points to 3.73%.

If you are watching the total national debt of the United States of America, you have to be shaking your head. If you aren’t paying attention, you should be. It was just about a week ago that Donald Trump nominated Jerome Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Not a job I would want. You see the odds are very, very, very high that the national debt issue is going to blow up during his term. And that explosion is going to painful for almost all Americans.

Paradise Sharks has said for years that interest rates cannot move much higher. If they did, we couldn’t pay our bills. You see we can’t pay our bills now and after a doubling of the debt under the Obama administration it is now starting to spiral even further out of control, if that is possible. Trump’s recent tax cut plan has a little problem. No make that a big problem. It is going to add an additional $1.5 trillion to our national debt. We are within days of hitting $20.5 trillion.

You see, mortgage rates are closely tied, or at least historically they are, to the 10 year Treasury. Interest rates on a 10 year Treasury note fell to 1.46% in July of 2016. Trump’s election had investors feeling his administration would help create jobs and boost the economy and rates climbed all the way up to 2.6%. Last year the 10 year Treasury averaged 1.84% and our government paid out $497 billion in interest. In reality they just created more debt.

Rates on the 10 year Treasury have come down from the lofty post elections highs and today sit at 2.32%. If rates were to jump, say a point and a half, to 3.6% which is where they were in 2008 the annual amount that would need to be paid to service our debt would be over $1 trillion a year. We don’t have the money and investors aren’t lining up these days to buy our debt. That is why the Fed has had to purchase $4.5 trillion dollars of our debt.

The stock market is booming because other worldwide economies are in worse condition and international investors are flocking to the “safety” of the United States. That “safety” one day isn’t going to be safe. Not sure how safe it is right now but the game of manipulation continues and not sure those running the game really understand where we are going. Neither do I. But I do know one thing. Interest rates cannot go much higher or the game will be over.
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There are other games I would rather be playing……..

​Whenever doing anything real estate, interview at least three brokers and ask a whole bunch of questions. This week, Paradise Sharks represented a cash client and made an offer on a condo in a development where nothing was under contract and inventory, based on 12 month sales volume, is at 16 months. This listing has been on the market almost 200 days. Yes, since April.

We made a very, very clean, solid cash offer with closing in two weeks and a short inspection period. The offer was within $10,000 of list price and in line with market pricing. My client would have come up if needed.

We submitted the offer, left messages for the agent who is with a large, well known brokerage. Evidently, they were too busy to be bothered and told us to deal with their assistant who left me messages that made no sense. I left rather straight to the point feedback and received a message from the listing agent we would have an answer the next day by noon.

The answer never came. I asked my client if he wanted me to push the issue as I know the managing broker and owner of this office and was happy to lay it on both of their desks. He said no, let's just go out and find something better. So we did and are already under contract on another property.

If you just assume your Realtor with a "team" of assistants and a big name brokerage is taking care of your listing be very careful. This one just cost his client, who has been waiting since April, a sale.

Always interview, ask lots of questions and make informed real estate decisions and if Paradise Sharks can ever of help please feel free to contact me directly at tom@paradisesharks.com or 561.308.0175.

Fins up......




#jupiterhomesforsale

October is a month where we typically see little home buying activity in the Northern Palm Beaches. We are used to pending home sales dropping over the summer and fall months. It almost always happens. We say almost always, as October is a month where we usually see pending home sales drop. Last year they were down 16%. They were also down in 2015, 2014, 2013…..well you get the drift. They almost always drop. Almost.

But this year October brought us a pleasant surprise as pending home sales reversed course and were actually up 4.2%. Like we said, pending home sales almost always drop in October. But not this year. It really is an amazing turnaround for a market that had been floundering a bit.

Is this a precursor to a market that is picking up strength as we head into the 2017-2018 season? After all, pending home sales in the Jupiter area had dropped to some of the lowest numbers we had seen in years. On October 1st, the number of homes under contract in the area were down almost 20% from where they were last year. But remember last year during October pending home sales dropped 16% and this year they went up. Add it all up, and just like that, pending home sales in the Jupiter area are actually higher than they were last year. It really is an amazing turnaround.

Better selection helped, as inventory levels jumped to the highest levels we have seen since June. Inventory still isn’t great, and as of November 1st buyers of homes in the Jupiter area have 6% fewer options than buyers did last year. In all honesty, there are plenty of properties out there, but many are not in what I would call in great condition. Buyers love homes that are updated and well cared for and there just isn’t many of them out there.

There are also many sellers who are listing at prices above market value. That is easy to see as almost 7% of single family home sellers in Jupiter have lowered their list prices over the past week or so. When the market is booming with prices heading higher we see more price increases, not reductions.

Prices bear watching. The median price of a single family home in the Northern Palm Beaches dropped during October for the 2nd straight month but still remains 5.7% higher than year ago numbers. The number of closings has not been solid and for the weeks directly ahead watch for the median price of single family homes in the Jupiter area to pull back further.
The condominium market is a bit different. Only about 1% of sellers have reduced prices over the past week and there are far fewer new listings hitting the market when compared to the single family market. Sales volume has also been slow, with median prices dropping over the past couple months. But with condos, prices have been stabilizing and watch for median prices here push higher in the weeks ahead.
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The market is constantly changing and can turn on a dime. Last months amazing turnaround in pending home sales is a perfect example. Every property is different and needs to be fully analyzed on its own merits. Falling prices in the single family market while condo prices are rising is a perfect example of that. Whenever doing anything real estate please seek knowledge. Interview brokers, ask questions. Mistakes is real estate can be very expensive and we would love to help you avoid them. If Paradise Sharks can ever be of assistance in any way, please feel free to reach us at 561.308.0175 or tom@paradisesharks.com.


Fins up…..




#jupiterpendinghomesales