A potential sale of Shaquille O'Neal's local lakefront home is no more.

A sale no longer is pending for the Windermere estate of the retired NBA star, according to Realtor.com. The house, listed four times since 2018 without landing a buyer, had a sale pending since Jan. 25, but now is listed as off the market.

It is unknown why the potential deal for the mansion, listed at $16.5 million, fell through. Tiffany Pantozzi of Side Real Estate, who represented the seller, and Jason Fulmer of Folio Real Estate, who represented the potential buyer, both declined to comment. 

However, the sprawling 31,000-square-foot property has proved to be a tough sale. The list price in November was cut by $3 million as Pantozzi held discussions with multiple interested buyers. 

The house is priced far above Orlando’s average luxury sales price of $1.38 million, according to the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. In fact, the house would be Central Florida’s most expensive active listing if it was on the market, according to data from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
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Plus, the 30-year-old home needs some renovations, Pantozzi previously told OBJ. 

The home at 9927 Giffin Court, inside the Isleworth Golf & Country Club, combines classic luxury features with amenities specific to a basketball pro. The 12-bedroom, 11.5-bathroom home contains an indoor basketball court, a cigar bar with walk-in humidor and a showroom-style garage capable of holding 17 vehicles. That’s in addition to the home theater, private boat dock and 95-foot swimming pool with rock waterfall. 

The Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program could see another set of changes if provisions from the House-passed Covid-19 relief bill become law.

The PPP loan changes, part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 passed by the House on Saturday, would still need to be considered in the Senate version of the legislation and passed by Congress before heading to President Joe Biden for his signature. And parts of the legislation might already be in jeopardy, with Democrats dealing with a setback on a $15-per-hour minimum wage that will likely prevent its inclusion in the Senate version.

The provisions in the House bill include waiving the size cap for nonprofits, which were previously capped at 500 employees, in favor of a cap of 500 employees per physical location. The change was sought by advocacy groups who said nonprofits employ large numbers of part-time employees and have also shouldered a larger burden providing services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The legislation also opens up the PPP to nonprofits not previously eligible, as long as they do not spend more than 15% of their funds on lobbying efforts or receive more than 15% of their revenue from lobbying activities, among other qualifiers. And it waives affiliation rules, allowing interconnected nonprofits to access the program.
It also means these newly eligible PPP loan recipients could take out a second-draw PPP loan as long as they suffered a 25% revenue loss and employ 300 employees or fewer.

"We are glad that this bill would expand Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility to some nonprofits with more than 500 employees and repeal the ‘affiliation rule,’" the National Council of Nonprofits said in a press release after the bill's House passage. "Both of those limitations cut off many charitable organizations from economic relief over the past year. Newly eligible nonprofits will need time to apply for these funds, so an extension of the program beyond March 31 is essential."

The legislation also allows for digital-only news organizations to be eligible for the PPP as long as the business has 500 employees or less per physical location. Digital-only news organizations must certify that the loan will support locally focused or emergency information.

Changes to the PPP passed by Congress in December expanded the eligibility of newspaper publishers and television stations specifically, but left out digital-only outlets.

The legislation also waives the prohibition against publicly traded companies in this particular instance, allowing publicly traded internet-only news publishers to apply for PPP loans. Lawmakers had been pushing since the early days of the PPP to include digital-only publications in the program, with some lawmakers signing a letter in May that the structure of digital-only outlets precluded their participation in the program.

The bill also provides an additional $7.25 billion for the PPP, increasing the total program authorization to $813.7 billion.

Across both the first round of the PPP over the summer and the second round that opened in January, the SBA has approved more than 7 million loans for more than $662 billion. The SBA has forgiven about 1.7 million of those so far, with less than 242,000 under review as of Feb. 25, according to SBA data.

The legislation that passed the House also includes tens of billions of dollars in grant programs for small businesses, including an additional $15 billion for the Small Business Administration's Targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance program, $25 billion for restaurants and $1.5 billion for venues.

Meanwhile the Biden administration's decision in February to tweak the PPP could mean more money for some small businesses and gig workers. And the December legislation that authorized the second round of PPP loans for 2021 also included tax relief, which we have detailed here, as well as simplified PPP loan forgiveness applications for loans of $150,000 or less. The program also now covers personal protective equipment and other Covid-19 expenses, which allows small businesses to receive full forgiveness for any spending related to those measures.

Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 2.97 percent.
“Optimism continues as the economy slowly regains its footing, thus affecting mortgage rates,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist. “Though rates continue to rise, they remain near historic lows. However, when combined with demand-fueled rising home prices and low inventory, these rising rates limit how competitive a potential homebuyer can be and how much house they are able to purchase.”

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.97 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending February 25, 2021, up from last week when it averaged 2.81 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.45 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.34 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.21 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.95 percent.
• 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.99 percent with an average 0.1 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.77 percent. A year ago at this time, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.20 percent.

More people are renting houses. In fact, single-family occupancy is up 3.6% year over year, says Wonus, a Property Manager in Lake Mary. Meanwhile, apartment occupancy is unchanged compared to last year. 

“People are staying in homes and renting more quickly,” Wonus said. “There are certain properties that have issues, but on the single-family side, delinquencies were not off from where they were before [the pandemic]."

That is part of a national trend. Single-family rentals averaged a 95.3% occupancy rate across the U.S. in third-quarter 2020, the most recent data from real estate financier Arbor Realty showed. That’s the highest rate for single-family rentals since 1994. 

US long-term mortgage rates rose this week in an indication that the long period of record-low rates could soon be over.
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Home loan rates touched new record lows last week, as the year opened against the continuing backdrop of damage from the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. and global economies — which suppressed rates through most of 2020.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate home loan jumped to 2.79% from 2.65% last week. By contrast, the rate stood at 3.65% a year ago.
The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate loans, popular among homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages, increased to 2.23% from 2.16%.

Long-term bond yields, which can influence interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, are climbing this month amid expectations of higher U.S. government spending on pandemic relief and an economic recovery as more people get vaccinated for COVID-19.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly hit 1.18% earlier this week. That’s up from less than 0.90% at the start of the year and the highest since last March. Yields rise when bond prices fall.

Economists forecast modest increases in mortgage rates this year. While that’s unlikely to derail the red-hot housing market, it could make it tougher for would-be homebuyers.

Source: US NEWS

After a three-month slump, Orlando’s residential real estate sector enjoyed its best month of the year for new construction. 

New residential construction exploded in July, with $711 million of new construction starts in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties last month, according to Hamilton, New Jersey-based Dodge Data & Analytics. Residential starts were up 22% from July 2019. 

It’s a continued reversal of fortune for homebuilders, as June was the first month since the start of the pandemic that new housing construction did not decrease year over year. That’s not true for new nonresidential construction, which was down 45% from last July. 

It’s also a sign that the construction industry is trying to keep up with skyrocketing home demand in Central Florida. Local home sales jumped more than 18% from June to July, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. 
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What’s more, the outlook remains bright for homebuilders, Greater Orlando Builders Association CEO Chassity Vega previously told Orlando Business Journal. That’s because Orange County government took a number of actions in July that will help the industry. Those measures include a temporary fix to the county’s school capacity enhancement agreement issue that kept 18 housing developments from getting approved, as well as Orange County's decision to pause some building permit fees for six months and defer some impact fee payments. 

Among the factors driving home demand for Orlando homes are low interest rates and a migration of buyers from the Northeast and South Florida to the Orlando area. At the same time, Orlando’s rental market is tight, with an average 8.3% vacancy rate, according to CoStar Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP) research. 

New home construction is important locally because it creates jobs and subcontractor opportunities. The industry is even more important in Central Florida given the toll the pandemic has taken on the tourism sector, Vega said. “It is construction that’s going to pull us out of these hard economic times.” 
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Plus, every home sale in the state has an estimated local economic impact of $77,858, according to a 2018 study by the National Association of Realtors. Further, the housing market often is considered a reflection of the overall health of the local economy. 

High demand caused Orlando home sales to surge in July as the housing supply dwindled. There were 3,679 homes sold in the region last month, up 1.4% from the 3,628 homes sold in July 2019 and an 18.6% spike from the 3,103 sold in June, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

Prices were also on the rise. The median home sales price was $270,000, up 9.2% from the July 2019 median price of $247,250 and up 1.9% from $265,000 in June. Home demand in the region far exceeds the number of available properties, said Reese Stewart, the president of the Realtor association’s board of directors.

Growth in list prices is down 3 percentage points since the end of August, but pending sales were still up 30%.Key housing market takeaways for 434 U.S. metro areas during the 4-week period ending September 27:

• The median home sale price increased 14% year over year to $319,769—the highest on record. The 14% jump was the largest since August 2013. Since the four-week period ending July 5, home prices have increased 6.5%. Over that same period in 2018 and 2019, prices declined an average of 4.2%.
• The median asking price of new listings was up 12.8% from a year earlier. This growth rate has been declining since the four-week period ending August 30, when it peaked at 15.7%.
• Pending home sales climbed 30% year over year.
• New listings of homes for sale were up 5% from a year earlier. Year-over-year growth in new listings have been above 5% since the four-week period ending August 16.
• Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 28% from 2019 to a new all-time low. The rate of year-over-year supply declines has remained consistent at this level for the past few months.
• 45.8% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market. This has also held relatively steady for the last 17 weeks.
• The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, rose to 99.4%—an all-time high and 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
• For the week ending September 27, the seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index was up 34.8% from pre-pandemic levels in January and February.
• Mortgage applications decreased 2% week over week during the week ending September 25. For the week ending October 1, 30-year mortgage rates fell to 2.88%. Rates have been below 3% since late July.

“The question on everyone’s mind is ‘how fast can prices keep rising?’,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Although the housing market is still red-hot, there are some early signs we may be nearing peak price growth. Sellers’ asking prices are still up significantly from last year, but by a lower rate than they were growing during the summer. Mortgage applications are also beginning to wane, and more new listings are coming onto the market. This is likely to be as good as it gets for home sellers, who definitely have had it very good for a very long time.”
Lack of strong growth in new listings is likely a direct result of the ongoing pandemic. In a recent survey of over 1,400 homebuyers and sellers, 20% of respondents said that now is a bad time to sell a home, up from just 9% in the first quarter of the year. In the same survey 38% of home sellers said that they have health or safety concerns due to the coronavirus pandemic, compared to just 8% of homebuyers who cited coronavirus as a concern.

Small business owners who have been waiting to have their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiven can breathe a sigh of relief.

The U.S. Department of Treasury said Tuesday (Sept. 29) it would soon begin forgiving loans granted under the PPP after borrowers and lenders complained that the Small Business Administration (SBA), the program’s manager, and Treasury employees have failed to respond to forgiveness requests, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The newspaper reported a Treasury spokesperson said it expects to approve forgiveness requests by late this week or early next. Most loans are expected to be approved quickly, while those in excess of $2 million will get added scrutiny, Treasury said.

“The ultimate success of the program will depend on forgiveness, so small business owners are eager to learn of [Treasury officials’] decisions,” said Kevin Kuhlman, senior director of government relations for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the Nashville, Tennessee-based small business trade association.
On Sunday (Sept. 27), Politico reported not a single loan had been forgiven under the massive federal program, as employers feared they could be on the hook for the money.

Under the measure, small businesses were promised loan forgiveness as long as the 60 percent of the money used toward payroll and 40 percent to other allowable expenses. Banks blamed the SBA and Treasury for a lack of communication on how to proceed.

William Manger, SBA’s chief of staff and associate administrator, told House lawmakers last week that it has received 96,000 forgiveness applications, about 2 percent of the total loans, but none have been approved or denied. The applications represent about 2 percent of the more than 5 million loans, worth $525 billion, issued under the program.

Since the PPP expired in August, $130 billion has yet to be distributed, the WSJ reported. Congress has not determined how the remaining funds should be allocated.
Lawmakers have introduced legislation to ease forgiveness for PPP loans of less than $150,000, the WSJ reported.

“It is actually more complicated than any of us even thought,” said Jack Murphy, president of business banking at Citizens Financial Group, at a conference Tuesday of the Consumer Bankers Association. “It’s taking us two weeks to process an application. Four to six contacts between small business owners … and the folks that are trying to process the forgiveness applications.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin encouraged business owners to request forgiveness if they have used the funds.
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A recent survey by the NFIB revealed one in five small businesses said they would have to shut down by March if economic conditions don’t improve. The poll of PPP borrowers said 84 percent have used the entirety of loans they received earlier while 44 percent said they would apply or reapply for a second PPP loan if one becomes available.