RealEstate Cortland Standard Listingscortlandstandard.net/images/Real Estate/01052018/REA...Here are...

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Multi Use PropertyMLS 312057

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On the St. LawrenceMLS 311547/S1079032

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Beautiful 68.38 AcresMLS s1080510*Shuryl MenapaceCell: 607-423-3842

Well MaintainedMLS 311806

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Large Village HomeMLS 310895


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Multi Level HomeMLS 311842/S1085891

**Amy CobbCell: 607-423-6766

Country CharmerMLS 311912


Ranch HomeMLS 311817


Recreational LandMLS 311065


Sweet Ranch HomeMLS 311458/S1077549


Wonderful PotentialMLS 310651/S1059267

*Richard “RJ” CalaleCell: 607-423-5233

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Business OpportunityMLS S1088688*Mary DeMunn

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**Joan PortzlineCell: 607-227-4219

4.1 Acres in VillageMLS 306588


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EstateCortland StandardReal

Friday, January 5, 2018

Featured Listings

l Howard Hanna Real Estatel Hage

Real Estatel Heritage

Realtyl Yaman

Real Estate

Featured HomeMULTI-PURPOSE COMMERCIAL BUILDING in the heart of downtown Cortland. On-site, paved free parking. Handicap access. New boiler system. Current use as multi-tenant health center. Floor plan and zoning allows for multiple uses; pos-sible B&B, shared offices, boarding house, single family, art center, café. The spacious, stately premises are immaculately well-kept. Columned portico gives entrance to a well-illuminated, high-ceiling foyer. A furnished bedroom is currently rent-ed on the third �oor and there is a working office in the basement. The possibilities are endless. MLS# 312057/S1091179. $265,000. Call Howard Hanna Real Estate Services at 607-257-0800. For more listings see our ad below.

– 55 Port Watson Street, Cortland

2A — Cortland Standard, Friday, January 5, 2018 Real Estate

LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL IN 2018?

TO VIEW FULL PROPERTY LISTING DETAILS VISIT:

WWW.HOMETOHERITAGE.COM OFFICE HOURS: BY APPOINTMENT

PLEASE CALL: 607.428.0708

7 JAMES STREET HOMER, NY 13077

Corrie OustadAssoc. RE Broker

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Rosemary TaboneAssoc. RE Brkr., CBR (c) 607-423-1068

Dana DeckerPrincipal Broker, GRI(c) 607-423-4719

Diann Potter Assoc. RE Brkr., CBR (c) 607-745-1520

Sally Brown KurtzAssoc. RE Brkr., CBR, GRI(c) 607-345-5353

Marinda MeyersRE Salesperson

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Joanne M. SweeneyAssoc. RE Broker

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Carrie St.PeterRE Salesperson

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Michelle ReynoldsRE Salesperson

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Susan BriggsAssoc. RE Broker

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Kaitlin BerryRE Salesperson

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Tom CumminsAssoc. RE Broker

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Trevor SydneyRE Salesperson

(c) 607-597-9468

Real Estate CornerCortland CountyBoard of Realtors

The Cortland CountyBoard of Realtors® —

The Voice of Real Estate

November 2017

The facts of residential real estate have remained consistent in 2017. In yearover-year com-parisons, the number of homes for sale has been fewer in most locales, and homes have been selling in fewer days for higher prices. This hasn’t always been true, but it has been a common enough storyline to make it an overarching trend for the year.

New Listings were down 35.7 percent to 18. Pending Sales de-creased 62.5 percent to 9. Inven-tory shrank 4.1 percent to 186 units.

Prices moved higher as the Median Sales Price was up 2.8 percent to $115,000. Days on Market decreased 29.1 percent to 56 days. Months’ Supply of Inventory was up 9.5 percent to 6.9 months.

New tax legislation could have ramifications on housing. The White House believes that the tax reform bill will have a small impact on home prices, lowering them by less than 4 percent, and could conceivably boost home-ownership. The National Associ-ation of REALTORS® has stat-ed that eliminating the mortgage interest deduction could hurt housing, as the doubled standard deduction would reduce the de-sire to take out a mortgage and itemize the interest associated with it, thus reducing demand. This is a developing story.

Current as of December 10, 2017. All data from the Cortland County Multiple Listing Service. Provided by the New York State Association of REALTORS®. Report © 2017 ShowingTime.

Story of ’17 was fast sales, low supply

By PolyaNa Da CosTaBankrate.com (TNs)

Thinking about buying your first home? Before you can unlock the door to homeownership, you have to take some important first steps. From finding the perfect lo-cation to financing your purchase, shopping for your first home has challenges that go beyond curb appeal and interior features.

Some of the important steps to homeownership include:l Getting approved for a

mortgage.l Choosing the right real estate

agent.l Finding the right home that

fits your budget.Here are five common mistakes

first-time homebuyers should avoid.

1. More to it than mortgage payments

Many first-time homebuy-ers decide to buy when they feel ready for a mortgage. But just because they can afford the mort-gage payment doesn’t mean they can afford to own a home, says New York attorney Rafael Cas-tellanos, president of Expert Title Insurance.

“They have an idea of what their mortgage payment is go-ing to be, but they don’t realize there’s much more to it,” he says.

Know you can afford a house payment? Start shopping today for a mortgage.

Property insurance, taxes, homeowners association dues, maintenance, and higher electric and water bills are some of the costs that first-time homebuyers tend to overlook when shopping for a place.

“Keep in mind property taxes and insurance have a tendency of going up every year,” Castella-nos says. “Even if you can afford it now, ask yourself if you’ll be able to afford the increased costs later.”

2. Looking for a home first and a loan later

Homebuying doesn’t begin with home searching. It begins with a mortgage prequalification — unless you’re lucky to have enough money to pay cash for your first house.

Often, first-time homebuyers “are afraid to get prequalified,” says Steve Anderson, a broker and owner at Re/Max Bench-mark Realty in Las Vegas. They fear the lender may tell them they don’t qualify for a mortgage or they qualify for a loan smaller than expected. “So they pick a price range out of the sky and say, ‘Let’s go look for a house,’” An-derson says.

And that’s not how it should be done. Yes, it’s more fun to go look at houses than to sit in a lender’s office where you have to expose your financial situation. But that’s a backward approach, says Ed Conarchy, a mortgage planner and investment adviser at Cherry Creek Mortgage in Gurnee, Ill.

“You get preapproved, and then you find a home,” he says. “That way, you’ll make a finan-cial decision versus an emotional decision.”

3. Not getting professional help

New to the homebuying game? You’ll need a reputable real estate agent, a good loan officer or bro-ker, and perhaps a lawyer.

Venturing into this process alone, without professional help, is not a good idea. While every rule has its exception, generally, first-time homebuyers should not try to deal directly with the listing agent, Anderson says.

“If you are getting divorced, are you going to go to your husband’s attorney for help? Of course not,” he says. “Same here. If you go to a listing agent, they are only going to show you their listings. You must find a buyer’s agent to help you.”

If you hire an agent without a referral from friends or family, ask the agent to provide refer-ences from previous buyers. The same goes for loan officers or mortgage brokers.

“It’s very hard for first-time homebuyers because they don’t know who they are dealing with,” Anderson says.

It’s crucial to find a profes-sional who will give you “truly independent advice,” Conarchy says. Sometimes that means hir-ing a lawyer.

4. Using up savings on the down payment

Spending all or most of their savings on the down payment and closing costs is one of the biggest mistakes first-time homebuyers make, Conarchy says.

“Some people scrape all their money together to make the 20 percent down payment so they don’t have to pay for mortgage insurance, but they are picking the wrong poison because they are left with no savings at all,” he says.

Homebuyers who put 20 per-cent or more down don’t have to pay for mortgage insurance when getting a conventional mortgage. That’s usually translated into sub-stantial savings on the monthly mortgage payment. But it’s not worth the risk of living on the edge, Conarchy says.

“I’d take paying for mortgage insurance any day over not hav-ing money for rainy days,” he says. “Everyone — especially homeowners — needs to have a rainy-day fund.”

5. Getting new loans before the deal is closed

You have prequalified for a loan. You found the house you wanted. The contract is signed and the closing is in 30 days. Don’t celebrate by financing an-other big purchase.

Lenders pull credit reports be-fore the closing to make sure the borrower’s financial situation has not changed since the loan was approved. Any new loans on your credit report can jeopardize the closing.

Buyers, especially first-timers, often learn this lesson the hard way.

“They sign the contract and they want to go buy new furni-ture for the house or a new car,” Anderson says. “I remember one case where, just before closing, the buyer drove to the office and said, ‘Look at my brand-new car.’ I told them, ‘You’d better go back to that dealership.’”

Luckily, the dealership agreed to wait a couple of days to report the loan to the credit bureaus, he says. Otherwise, it could have killed the deal.

5 first-time homebuyer mistakes to avoid

Cortland Standard, Friday, January 5, 2018 — 3AReal Estate

Yaman Featured Property

5800 Potter Hill Rd., Taylor. WHAT A FANTASTIC PARCEL OF LAND AND HOME AWAITING YOU... a hunter’s paradise or a year-round residence w/nature at your feet! This newer home will come furnished if desired and features an open layout w/vaulted ceilings featuring natural beams, �replace, lower bedroom and more. The porch and deck allow for quiet relaxation...there is even a lighted “play area” w/a shooting range, horse shoes, games and even benches for spectators. All this and 42 acres of absolute beauty to enjoy hikes and hunting with nearby lakes, trails, state land, nearby for even more recreation fun & only 3 hrs. from the GW. The owner has many trails cut through for easy hiking access and numerous tree stands already in place. MLS# S1048768. $274,900. Call Tim Alger, Associate R.E. Broker, (607) 423-6174.

By Jack GuttentaGthe Mortgage Professor

This is a hot-button issue. Many aspiring first-time home-buyers find it difficult to save for a down payment, and millenni-als heavily burdened by student debt find it especially challeng-ing. There is widespread senti-ment that they ought to be given a helping hand.

State-Based First-Time Home Buyer Savings Account Laws: In response, a number of states have passed laws de-signed to encourage saving for a down payment. These programs eliminate state income taxes on interest paid on deposits earmarked for that purpose by first-time home buyers. Accord-ing to Jonathan Lawless writing in National Mortgage News of Nov. 17, such programs have arisen in Montana, Virginia, Colorado, Mississippi, Iowa and Minnesota, and are pend-ing in Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma, Maryland, Utah and Louisiana.

After taking a close look at the laws in several of these states, I have concluded that they lack a key requirement of a successful savings program: savings discipline. This article describes a different type of pro-gram that does provide savings discipline, and would therefore result in a much more powerful inducement to save for a down payment. In addition, it would be national in scope, and no tax-payer funds would be required.

The Importance of Savings

Discipline: Savings discipline is the imposition of a cost on those who fail to meet their sav-ings objective. Its role is to pro-tect savers against momentary weaknesses that can subvert their objective. The discipline can be provided in the terms of a savings program, or by the savers themselves.

The most striking illustration of self-imposed saving disci-pline is one I saw in Liberia some years ago, where wanna-bee homeowners used their sav-ings to purchase cinder blocks, which they piled up on their land until they had enough to start building their home. They lost the interest they could have earned if they had put their sav-ings in a bank, and their cinder blocks were subject to weather-based deterioration, but the pro-cess thwarted temptations to use their savings for something else.

Even in the US, a sizeable segment of the population finds it impossible to save without being subjected to savings dis-cipline. Large numbers of peo-ple deliberately over-withhold on their income taxes in order to get a refund at the end of the year. The practice is particularly widespread in the US military. Most over-withholders realize that they are giving an interest-free loan to the government, but they accept that as the price of savings discipline. Layaway plans offered by department stores, where a customer makes a partial payment for a product which is put aside for them, are

very similar.Proposal For a Privately-

Based First-Time Home Buyer Savings Account Program: The core player in this proposal is a depository institution offering a new type of account – call it a down payment account or DPA. A DPA would differ from all other accounts in that interest would accrue but not be paid except as part of a home pur-chase, where both principal and accrued interest could be used for the down payment and to meet settlement costs. Depos-its used for any other purpose could be withdrawn at any time but would receive no interest. Accrued interest would not be an expense to the depository un-til it was paid as part of a home purchase transaction. Govern-ment’s only possible role is in authorizing this new type of de-posit, should that be necessary.

Savings Discipline on the DPA: Those who fail get no in-terest while those who succeed earn enhanced interest. Because the failures receive no interest, the rate that will be offered on these accounts and enjoyed by successful savers will be higher than those on comparable stan-dard deposits. For example, if the bank anticipates that half the deposits will receive zero interest, then it will pay 2 per-cent on an account type that would otherwise be priced at 1 percent. Banks that are also mortgage lenders will be par-ticularly aggressive in pricing these deposits because of their

expectation that successful sav-er/home buyers may well take their mortgage from them.

Differences Between the DPA and the State Programs: The cost of failure on a DPA is loss of interest. In contrast, there is no cost of failure in the state programs because those who fail earn the same interest rate as those who succeed, and receive the tax benefit imme-diately. While they must repay the tax benefit at some point in the future, they are no worse off for having participated in the program.

The DPA would be available nationwide. In contrast, the state programs are limited to residents of the state purchas-ing properties in the state; those planning to purchase a home in a different state do not qualify.

The DPA would require no public funding. In contrast, the states will incur revenue loss, and will be faced with a for-midable administrative hassle. They will have to incur the expense of getting failed sav-ers, who may now live in other states, to repay the tax benefit.

———aBOut tHe WRIteR

Jack Guttentag is professor emeritus of finance at the Whar-ton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Comments and questions can be left at www.mtgprofessor.com.

———(c)2017 Jack GuttentagDistributed by Tribune Con-

tent Agency, LLC.

Encouraging first-time home buyers to save up for a down payment

Metrocreative

By Jack GuttentaGthe Mortgage ProfessorWhen I wrote about pur-

chasing a house with a HECM reverse mortgage earlier this year, a major issue faced by borrowers was whether to pay a penalty insurance pre-mium in order to maximize the cash draw on the HECM. A few months after the article was written, HUD eliminated the option of paying a low-er premium if the borrower drew less cash. The upfront mortgage insurance premium is now 2 percent of property value regardless of how much the borrower draws.

The advantage of buying a house with a HECM has not changed. It remains the case that the HECM does not impose a monthly payment burden on the borrower. The only disadvantage is that the reverse mortgage will cover only about 50-60 percent of the house price, depending on the borrower’s age, requir-ing the purchaser to find the remaining needed cash else-where. The most common source is asset liquidation.

Seniors who go this route have two decisions to make. First, they must decide wheth-er they want an adjustable rate or a fixed-rate HECM. Sec-ond, they have to select the lender offering the best terms. I will illustrate these decisions with the case of Charles, who is 72 and wants to purchase a $400,000 house on December 18, 2017.

Fixed Rate or adjustable Rate?

Most seniors will select the option that provides the larger cash draw. Among five lenders quoting a price to Charles on my website, the largest cash draw on an adjustable rate was $201,800 whereas the largest draw on a fixed-rate was $194,600. The adjustable provided $7,200 more, which could settle the matter.

Or perhaps not. If Charles is concerned with the size of his estate, he will also look at how large his future loan bal-ance would be. Looking ahead 10 years, for example, the bal-ance of the adjustable will be $389,356 compared to a bal-ance on the fixed of $406,386. He will owe $17,030 less on the adjustable.

This is not quite the slam-dunk it may appear, however. The future loan balances are calculated at the interest rates on December 18, which were 3.21 percent on the adjustable and 3.99 percent on the fixed. While the rate on the fixed will remain at 3.99 percent over its

life, the rate on the adjustable could rise as high as 8.21 per-cent if market rates increase. Were that to happen in the near future, the balance on the adjustable would quickly come to exceed the balance on the fixed. It is unlikely that the risk of future rate increases will dissuade Charles from selecting the adjustable, but it could.

Selecting the LenderThe reverse mortgage mar-

ket is extremely inefficient. Except for those seniors who make their way to my website, few try to shop. As a result, the prices of identical transactions can differ materially from one lender to another.

Even on my website, where participating lenders know that their price quotes will be compared to others, price differences are large. For ex-ample, on the day my hypo-thetical house purchaser was quoted an adjustable rate of 3.21 percent with a cash draw of $201,800, another lender on my site quoted a rate of 4.76 percent and a cash draw of $172,005, or $29,795 less. That was the worst quote among five lenders who lend in California. The quotes of the other three lenders were in-between the best and the worst.

Bottom LineSeniors who want to pur-

chase a house with a HECM and who have no concern re-garding the amount of home equity they leave to their heirs can easily shop lenders for the largest cash draw. They can shop multiple lenders with one visit to my site, or by contacting individual lenders one lender at a time. If they shop by contacting individual lenders, the process should be completed within a week ending on a Monday because HECM lenders reset their prices on Tuesday.

Purchasers who do have a concern for what their heirs will inherit will want to see not only cash draws but also projections of future loan bal-ances that are consistent from one lender to another. My site is the only place they will find that.

———aBOut tHe WRIteRJack Guttentag is profes-

sor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School of the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania. Com-ments and questions can be left at www.mtgprofessor.com.


tent Agency, LLC.

HECM updateThe rules have changed for buying a house with these reverse mortgages

If it’s happening in YOUR community

it’s in theCortlandStandard.

By GaRy M. SInGeRSun Sentinel

Q: In our condo association we don’t have enough people who want to serve on the board of directors to fill all of the seats necessary under our documents. What can we do? — Tom

a: Owner apathy is probably the most significant issue facing community associations. For your community to run prop-erly, enough of your neighbors will need to volunteer for the difficult and often thankless job of serving on the board. If enough people do not step up to fill the required seats, the law al-lows any owner in the commu-nity to apply to the court to have a receiver appointed to run the association until enough owners can be found to serve.

Unlike neighborhood volun-teers, a court-appointed receiver will be paid a salary by the as-sociation, and the costs of hav-ing the receiver appointed will be reimbursed to the owner who applied. Receivers can be expensive, so a special assess-ment will most likely be levied against all owners to cover these costs.

Since this is a drastic move, the owner making the applica-tion must notify the association at least 30 days before filing with the court and must post the notice conspicuously for other owners to see. The announce-ment tells the other owners that unless the vacancies are filled, the court will be asked to have a receiver appointed. Upon seeing this, your neighbors would be wise to find volunteers to serve their community.


Gary M. Singer is a Florida attorney and board-certified as an expert in real estate law by the Florida Bar. He practices real estate, business litigation and contract law from his office in Sunrise, Fla. He is the chair-man of the Real Estate Section of the Broward County Bar As-sociation and is a co-host of the weekly radio show Legal News and Review. He frequently con-sults on general real estate mat-ters and trends in Florida with various companies across the nation. Send him questions on-line at www.sunsentinel.com/askpro or follow him on Twitter.

With condo boards, apathy is expensive

4A — Cortland Standard — Real Estate, Friday, January 5, 2018

Thank You For A Super 2017!

(607) [email protected]

www.hagerealestate.com

4070 West Rd. (Rt. 281), Cortland, NY 13045

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Heritage Featured Property

1845 Route 13, Cortlandville. $149,900. Here is an opportunity to purchase either a turn key business (Double “J” Biker and Western Shop) with a track record of great success or just the building and land situated in a PRIME lo-cation. The sale includes the building, 1.91 acres of land, and the business with current inventory (Motorcycle apparel, footwear, and accessories, west-ern boots, hats, buckles, moccasins and more.) The road frontage of this property on Rt. 13 offers endless possibilities for expansion. The building has central air and a forced air furnace fueled by natural gas. it is equipped with monitored alarm system. The parking lot is paved and offers plenty of space. MLS# S1087094. Call Dana Decker, Principal Broker, GRI, 607-423-4719, at Heritage Realty. For this listing and more visit www.hometoheritage.com. Heritage Realty, 607-428-0708.

You’reInvited...to share your

WeddingPhotos

5 Years and Older,with our readersto Publish in our

2018Bridal Edition

(as news items)

January 25 th

Cortland Standard

Please submit with proper identification of people, dates and places of wedding (use form above) AND PRINT CLEARLY OR TYPE INFORMATION. Include address and phone number. Please enclose a self addressed stamped envelope or you may pick up your photo at our office after publication. Pictures will be used, space permitting and subject to quality.

Deadline for pictures: Monday, January 15th

Send to: Cortland Standard, 110 Main Street, Cortland, NY 13045Attention: Bridal Edition/Brian Bosch

or email to [email protected]

Bride’s Full Name:________________________________________Groom’s Full Name:________________________________________Date & Place of Ceremony:________________________________________________________________________________Current Address & Phone Number:________________________________________________________________________________Clergyman:________________________________________Pictured Left to Right:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Other Special Details:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By Jack GuttentaGthe Mortgage ProfessorMortgage borrowers have

some control over the amount of cash they must produce at the closing table. Minimizing the amount, however, may or may not be in their long-term interest.

Interest Rates and Lender Rebates

Borrowers can control the amount of cash they are required to produce at closing when they select the combination of inter-est rate and points from among those offered by their lender. For example, a borrower shop-ping a $300,000 30-year fixed-rate loan on my site on Dec. 8 was offered the following inter-est rate/point options: 3.25 per-cent and $9298, 3.50 percent and $4125, 3.75 percent and -$1160, 4 percent and -$4875, 4.25 percent and -$8625, 4.50 percent and -$11,625, 4.75 per-cent and -$14,625, and 5 per-cent and -$17,625.

Points are an upfront charge paid to the lender while nega-tive points are rebates credited to the borrower. Rebates can be used only to pay settlement costs.

Factors Bearing on the Decision

A major factor is the bor-rower’s expectation regarding how long the mortgage will be in force. Because a rebate mortgage carries a higher inter-est rate, the cost mounts over time. Borrowers with long time horizons will do better paying points in order to get a lower in-terest rate, provided they have the needed cash.

Borrowers with relatively short time horizons, say 7 years or less, will save more on up-front costs by taking a rebate than they will lose from the higher interest rate. The two approaches such a borrower can use are to seek either a “no-cost mortgage” or a “no-charge mortgage.” The difference is

that the latter uses a larger re-bate to cover charges that are not covered by the no-cost mortgage.

no-cost MortgagesThe term “no-cost” is some-

thing of a misnomer. The costs that the borrower does not pay are those that otherwise would be paid to the lender _ points and origination fees _ plus charges of third parties that benefit the lender, such as lend-ers’ title insurance or appraisal. Borrowers taking no-cost loans do pay per diem interest, tax and insurance escrows, hom-eowners insurance, owners title insurance if they want it, and transfer taxes if any. A more ac-curate designation would be a “no lender charges mortgage”.

Nonetheless, the no-cost mortgage has the great merit of allowing borrowers to fo-cus their shopping entirely on the interest rate, without fear of fee over-charges. None of the charges that a borrower remains responsible for when taking a no-cost mortgage pro-vide any profit opportunities for the lender. That’s why I am a fan of no-cost mortgages, though I would like to see them relabeled as “no lender charge mortgages”.

no-charge MortgagesThe no-charge mortgage is

for borrowers who don’t want to make any cash outlays at all at closing. If the rebate is large enough, it will cover all the items enumerated above that are not covered by a no-cost mort-gage. The only charge imposed on the borrower that cannot be covered by a lender rebate is the required down payment.

The danger on a no-charge mortgage is not that the rebate won’t be large enough but that it will be too large. A rebate in excess of cost is lost – the bor-rower cannot draw it in cash. Borrowers opting for a rebate need to know the charges that the rebate will cover so that

they won’t pay for a rebate they can’t use.

arranging a no-charge Mortgage

A borrower can’t shop for a no-charge mortgage because there is no way for a lender to know in advance the charges not covered by a no-cost mort-gage. The borrower has to se-lect the lender in some other way, and then arrange for a no-charge mortgage.

The easy way to do this is to select the lender recommended by a Realtor or another trust-worthy source, apply for the loan, and ask the lender what interest rate you will have to pay to obtain a no-charge deal. That invites the lender to over-charge you, but maybe he won’t.

The harder but safer way to do it is to select the lender based on rebate comparisons at an in-terest rate you specify. Submit an application to the lender you select, then use the GFE you receive to estimate your total charges. With your estimate in hand, inform the lender that you want to lock the price and to forward the complete set of pricing options. From the price sheet, you select the rate/rebate combination that will just cover your charges, erring on the side of insufficient rebate.

WarningBorrowers taking a no-charge

mortgage without a roadmap that will take them out of their mortgage within 7 years or so will pay a steep price for their shortsightedness.


Jack Guttentag is professor emeritus of finance at the Whar-ton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Comments and questions can be left at www.mtgprofessor.com.


tent Agency, LLC.

Minimizing upfront costs of a mortgage:What borrowers ought to know

DreamstimeAs rents rise, more adult renters are finding roommates.

By DaRceL ROckettchicago tribune

CHICAGO – Striking out on one’s own is a rite of pas-sage, but it would appear more adults are doing less solo liv-ing lately.

According to a recent anal-ysis by Zillow, as rents rise, more adult renters are finding roommates to cut costs — be they strangers, friends or rela-tives. The numbers are higher than ever before, said the real estate company, with 30 per-cent of unmarried adults ages 23 to 65 living together — up from 21 percent in 2005.

In the Chicago metro area, those numbers are slightly higher, with 32.4 percent of adults living together, up from 27.4 percent in 2000. The me-dian rent in Chicago is $1,651. According to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, millions of U.S. renters are spending more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent.

“When you look nationwide at the share of households that had roommates or lived with parents, it did start to increase in the years just before the housing bust,” said Aaron Ter-razas, senior economist with Zillow. “But it really took off during the financial crisis” that began in 2007, often referred to as the Great Recession.

Since 2005, the doubling up has increased at the same

rate among employed and unemployed adults, regard-less of age, Zillow found. The share of 20-somethings liv-ing in doubled-up households climbed faster than any other age bracket, but people in their 50s came in second.

The median individual in-come of an employed adult in a doubled-up household is $30,000, compared with the $45,000 earned by those living alone.

“I think there are both demo-graphic and economic forces driving this doubling up — liv-ing with parents or living with roommates,” Terrazas said. “In the near term, I don’t see those forces turning around.”

Jessica Lautz, managing di-rector of survey research and communications for the Na-tional Association of Realtors, agrees.

“We’re not seeing building where it should be to actually be able to meet the demands of potential homebuyers. As demand is strong, but building is still suppressed, it’s going to push up the cost of housing and that’s going to push people into rental units, which will push up rental prices as well,” she said.

“Housing inventory is tight and the interest rates are ex-pected to rise, so as they con-tinue to rise, that could push out consumers who are right on the edge of being able to af-

ford a home,” she added.But Lautz noted a potential

silver lining: If renters are dou-bling up to shave housing costs and save for a down payment, “that’s a great opportunity for them.”

And renters, if your landlord ups the price, don’t be so quick to move, Terrazas said. People who renew their leases tend to save a little bit more than those who relocate, he said. Rent in-creases for renewals tend to be less costly than if you were to go out in the rental market and find a new place, particularly in booming markets.

“Compare and do your re-search of what your renewal rate is versus what you’d find on the market,” he said. “You have to do that three weeks to a month in advance of when you expect your lease to be re-newed.”

Another tip from Terrazas: Look to buy a home sooner rather than later.

“Even with the housing mar-ket as it is right now, finan-cially it does make sense to buy as soon as you can,” he said. Along with other poten-tial benefits, you’d be building “equity at a time when interest rates are very low.”

———(c)2017 Chicago TribuneVisit the Chicago Tribune at

www.chicagotribune.comDistributed by Tribune Con-

tent Agency, LLC.

Analysis: More adults live together than ever

By Jack GuttentaGthe Mortgage Professor

Whenever home prices rise sharply, as they have in re-cent months in some markets, the housing bubble question is asked. It is an anxiety-laden question, since the housing bub-ble that emerged during 2000-2006 led to the collapse of the home mortgage market and the ensuing worldwide financial crisis. The crisis and its very costly aftermath have not been forgotten.

What is a housing bubble?A bubble is a marked price in-

crease fueled at least partly by an expectation that prices will continue to rise. What distin-guishes a bubble price rise from a non-bubble price rise is that in the bubble a significant part of the demand that pushes up pric-es originates from speculators, whose intent is to resell quickly at a higher price. It is specula-tion that converts the price in-crease into a bubble.

Also contributing to the bub-ble are what might be termed speculative buyers, who are induced to become homeown-ers, or to upgrade by the lure of future price increases and the availability of easy financing terms. Absent the price increas-es, they would have waited, per-haps indefinitely.

Fueling the housing bubble is easy financing as lenders come to share the belief that the rising home prices will continue indef-initely. So long as house prices are rising, it is very difficult to make a bad home mortgage loan. In the worst case where the borrower cannot pay, the lender gets fully repaid because the ap-preciated collateral covers the

cost of foreclosure and sale.When the expectation of price

increase that prompts specula-tion comes into serious question, speculative demand collapses and prices drop sharply. Recent home purchasers find that their homes are not worth what they paid for them, and lenders find their expected profits convert-ed into losses. The bubble has burst.

Houses are not the ideal spec-ulative commodity

Speculators prefer markets with the following features:l Product homogeneity, be-

cause it eliminates the risk that the price behavior of the pur-chased product won’t be typical of the class.l Low transactions costs, so

they get to retain the largest part of any speculative profit.

l Low carrying costs for the same reason.

Houses rank very low on all three requirements. Every house is different, the cost of buying and then selling a house is very high, and the costs of carrying the property until the sale are also high. The housing bubble of 2000-2006 emerged despite these contra-indications, which means there must have been some powerful forces at work that encouraged speculation. What were they, and do they ex-ist today?

Bubble financingThe major force at work

during 2000-20006 was easy financing at attractive terms, spearheaded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agencies

Are housing bubbles emerging again?

See HOuSInG, page 6a

6A — Cortland Standard, Friday, January 5, 2018 Real Estate

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By Rachel haRtmanBankrate.com

Money issues often stand in the way of home-ownership. A survey by rental service Apartment List found that 80 percent of millennial renters want to buy a home, but most say they can’t af-ford to.

What you may not realize is that many first-time homebuyer programs and grants offer fi-nancial help, and you may be eligible for various types of assistance.

Here are nine first-time homebuyer programs and grants designed to help you land a great mortgage and get a place of your own.l FHA loan: In an FHA loan, the Federal

Housing Administration insures the mortgage.The FHA’s backing offers lenders a layer of

protection, meaning that your lender won’t ex-perience a loss if you default on the mortgage.

FHA loans typically come with competitive interest rates, smaller down payments and lower closing costs than conventional loans.

If you have a credit score of 580 or higher, you could be eligible for a mortgage with a down payment as low as 3.5 percent of the purchase price. If your credit score is lower than 580, you still might qualify for an FHA mortgage, but the down payment would be at least 10 percent of the purchase amount.l USDA loan: The U.S. Department of Agri-

culture has a lesser known homebuyer assistance program.

While the program focuses on homes in cer-tain rural areas, you don’t need to buy or run a farm to be eligible.

The USDA guarantees the home loan. There may be no down payment required, and the loan payments are fixed.

Applicants with a credit score of 640 or high-er typically get streamlined processing. With a credit score below 640, you still can qualify for a USDA loan, but the lender will ask for extra documentation about your payment history.

Keep in mind that there are income limita-tions, which can vary by region.l VA loan: The U.S. Department of Veterans

Affairs helps active-duty military members, vet-erans and surviving spouses buy homes.

The VA guarantees part of the loan, making it possible for lenders to offer some special fea-tures. VA loans come with competitive interest rates and require no down payment. You aren’t required to pay for private mortgage insurance, and a minimum credit score isn’t needed for eligibility.

If it becomes difficult to make payments on the mortgage, the VA can negotiate with the lender on your behalf.l Good Neighbor Next Door: The Good

Neighbor Next Door program, sponsored by HUD, provides housing aid for law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical techni-cians and pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers.

Through this program, you can receive a dis-count of 50 percent on a home’s listed price in

regions known as “revitalization areas.”Using the program’s website, you can search

for properties available in your state. You must commit to living in the home for at least 36 months.l Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac: Fannie Mae and

Freddie Mac are government-sponsored entities. They work with local lenders to offer mortgage options that benefit low- and moderate-income families.

With the backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, lenders can offer competitive interest rates and accept down payments as low as 3 percent of the purchase price.

Fannie Mae also provides homeownership education for first-time homebuyers through its “HomePath Ready Buyer” program.l Energy-efficient mortgage: An energy-effi-

cient, or “green,” mortgage is designed to help you add improvements to your home to make it

more environmentally friendly. The federal gov-ernment supports EEM loans by insuring them through the FHA or VA programs.

The key advantage of this mortgage is that it lets you create an energy-efficient home without having to make a larger down payment. The ex-tra cost is rolled into your primary loan.

Some improvements you can make include in-stalling double-paned windows, new insulation or a modern heating-and-cooling system.l FHA Section 203(k): If you’ve run the num-

bers to see how much house you can afford and have determined a fixer-upper is best for your budget, the Section 203(k) rehabilitation pro-gram may be a good fit.

This type of loan, backed by the FHA, takes into consideration the value of the residence after improvements have been made. It then lets you borrow the funds you’ll need to carry out the project and includes them in your main mortgage.

The down payment for a 203(k) loan can be as low as 3 percent.l Native American Direct Loan: Since 1992,

the Native American Veteran Direct Loan pro-gram has helped Native American veterans and their spouses buy homes on federal trust lands. The VA serves as the lender.

If you’re eligible, you won’t be required to make a down payment or pay for private mort-gage insurance.

This first-time homebuyer loan also offers low closing costs and a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.l Local grants and programs: In addition to

the various programs provided by the federal government, many states and cities offer help to first-time homebuyers.

Before buying a home, check your state’s or community’s website for information on hous-ing grants and programs available in your area.

You also might consider contacting a real es-tate agent or local HUD-approved housing coun-seling agency to learn more about programs in your area that might apply to your situation.

———(c)2017 Bankrate.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Grants and programs to help you buy a first home

www.pexel.com

sought to meet congressional-ly mandated targets of loans to disadvantaged groups. The development of a private sec-ondary market in securities backed by subprime loans, which were blessed as invest-ment grade by credit-rating agencies, also played a major role. Those agencies shared the belief of lenders that house price increases would continue indefinitely.

In addition, speculative buy-ers had access to special types of mortgages designed to maxi-mize their buying power. The most radical of these was the option ARM, which allowed the borrower to make payments in the early years that did not cover the interest. Instead of amortization, where the balance is paid down, the option ARM allowed negative amortization where the balance increased.

Is there bubble financing today?

The housing finance sys-tem today differs in important ways from the system that fu-

eled the earlier housing bubble. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are no longer required to meet congressionally mandated tar-gets of loans to disadvantaged groups. The secondary mar-ket in subprime loans is gone, which means that there is no subprime market other than the FHA program, which was not caught up in the earlier bubble. And option ARMs are no lon-ger being written.

Also relevant is that people today remember the last bubble; it has only been 15 years or so. The bubble before that was in the 1920s, which by 2000 had been long forgotten.

While there are no indications that the current house price in-creases are a bubble, one could begin emerging at any time, which raises a question regard-ing recognition: What should we look for and where?

Fannie and Freddie should open their automated under-writing systems to public scru-tiny

My colleague Jack Pritchard believes that the next wave of house price bubble financing

will be initiated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through liber-alization of their underwriting requirements. Indeed, he argues that the process may already have begun. I can’t confirm or dispute this because only ap-proved lenders have access to the automated underwriting systems of the agencies. That could and should be fixed.

There is no defensible reason for not making the automated systems available to the pub-lic. It would be easy to provide a version that would allow a non-lender to find the agency’s requirements for hypothetical users and properties. With such access, curious users like me could chart changes in require-ments over time so that bubble financing, from that source at least, could not evolve unob-served.

———aBOUt the WRIteR

Jack Guttentag is professor emeritus of finance at the Whar-ton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Comments and questions can be left at http://www.mtgprofessor.com.

hOUSInGcontinued from page 5a

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By mIke ROSenBeRGthe Seattle times

SEATTLE — The Seattle-area housing- market surge has reached new heights, again: The region has now led the na-tion in home-price increases for 14 months in a row, tied for the longest streak for any metro area in the country since 2001.

Single-family-home prices grew 12.7 percent in October from a year ago across King, Snohomish and Pierce coun-ties, according to the monthly Case-Shiller home-price index, released in December.

Las Vegas was second again, and with an increase of 10.2 percent, is heating up quickly.

Portland, for the first time in years, dropped out of the top five hottest markets.

Home prices nationally rose 6.2 percent, three times the rate of inflation and the biggest in-crease in more than three years. Even so, Seattle home costs grew almost twice as fast as the U.S. average.

Compared to a month prior, home values actually dipped 0.1 percent in Seattle, though when adjusted for normal sea-sonal changes, prices grew 0.6 percent, about the same as the national average.

The 14 consecutive months as the nation’s hottest housing market is already a record for Seattle. Previously, Seattle had topped the nation a few times here and there for shorter pe-riods, mostly recently right be-fore the housing bubble popped in 2008.

But Seattle’s position as a national standout is even more unusual than that. It’s tied with

Phoenix, which also had the na-tion’s hottest housing market for 14 straight months, from 2005 to 2006, as the longest run since San Francisco topped the charts for 19 months from 1999 to 2001. (Those both ended with bubbles bursting.)

So when could the Seattle market slow down, and by how much? It might already be hap-pening, just slowly.

In prior decades, U.S. cities with skyrocketing prices often followed that up by crashing back down. Then earlier this decade, several housing mar-kets like Las Vegas, Miami and

Los Angeles saw housing pric-es surge way up before quickly coming back down to Earth, re-turning to a growth rate similar to the national average.

But that’s changed more recently as the hottest cities have begun to cool down only gradually.

Portland topped the nation for home- price increases for 10 months through mid-2016. During the streak, it averaged home-price increases of 12 per-cent from a year prior. For the 10 months after, home costs grew an average of 9.6 percent

Seattle extends its run as the nation’s hottest housing market

DreamstimeThe Seattle-area housing market has led home price increas-es for 14 months in a row.

See Seattle, page 8a


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By Marisa KendallThe Mercury news

SAN JOSE — In a sign that the Bay Area’s housing short-age has reached new heights, even having a boatload of cash now may not be enough to land your dream home.

Silicon Valley is experienc-ing a new shortage of high-end homes, according to a recent report, demonstrating that the availability crisis is finally af-fecting wealthy homebuyers who had, until now, largely been shielded from the ef-fects of a plunging inventory supply.

There are 42 percent fewer premium homes available in San Jose today than at this time last year — the biggest drop among U.S. cities studied, ac-cording to real estate website Trulia. Experts say the disap-pearance of those high-end homes means higher prices and tougher competition for all homebuyers, not just those in the market for Silicon Valley’s priciest mansions.

“Even homes that are very expensive are harder to find,” said Cheryl Young, senior economist at Trulia. “There’s sort of nothing out there, even if you have cash to burn.”

San Jose’s supply of premi-um homes has been shrinking slowly, but this year saw an exceptionally sudden drop-off. The supply fell by 11 percent in 2016, rose 6 percent in 2015, and dropped 4 percent in 2014, according to Trulia.

Trulia defines a “premium home” as one in the top one-third of the market — in San Jose, that means homes priced at $2.5 million or more.

The expensive home short-age isn’t isolated to San Jose — Oakland and San Francisco also were among the 10 cities experiencing the biggest dip. Oakland’s premium home in-ventory plunged 25 percent in the past year, and San Francis-co’s fell 23 percent, according to Trulia’s data. Nationwide, the housing market saw a 6 percent drop in premium home inventory — the biggest plunge in more than four years.

“The biggest single fac-tor that determines pricing or value of a home is supply and demand,” said Rick Smith, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Real-tors. “If inventory is tiny and there is a demand for proper-

ties to be purchased in any giv-en area, the demand will drive the prices up.”

And a low supply of top-tier homes drives up prices across the market — not just for the Bay Area’s elite, he said. Most people in the market for a premium home are shopping because they’re selling a less-expensive starter or trade-up home, Smith said. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they don’t sell their cheaper home — depriving the market of a more affordable house. To make matters worse, pre-mium homebuyers who can’t find a top-tier home also may “cannibalize” a cheaper home, thereby snatching it away from lower-income buyers who can’t afford to pay as much, said Young.

There are fewer homes avail-able on the lower end of the market, too. The supply of start-er homes in San Jose dropped 55 percent this year — in San Francisco, that supply dropped 48 percent, and in Oakland it fell 35 percent, according to Trulia. Homes that cost less than $500,000 are becoming an endangered species in the Bay Area — just 9 percent of Santa Clara County homes fell under that benchmark during the first nine months of 2017, down from 50 percent in 2009.

Homes are now the most un-affordable since Trulia started keeping track in 2012, accord-ing to the report. Nationwide, first-time homebuyers would have to pony up about 40 per-cent of their monthly income to afford a median-priced starter home — nearly a third more than the recommended amount.

The numbers are even worse in the Bay Area. First-time home-buyers would have to spend 95 percent of their monthly in-come to afford a home in San Jose, and 113 percent in San Francisco, according to Trulia. Things are only slightly better in Oakland, where a median-priced starter home costs about 73 percent of a first-time buy-er’s salary.

The lack of available homes contributes to those climbing prices.

There are 447 single-family homes for sale in Santa Clara County, down from 573 at around this time last year, Smith said. And more than a third of the homes on the mar-ket now are priced at $2 mil-lion or higher.

There’s some hope things will get better. A recent Trulia survey found homeowners are more interested in selling now than they’ve been since 2014 — 16 percent said they plan to sell a home in the next two years. But new homes will have to flood the market for buyers to see a substantial impact.

“Unless there’s a really large infusion of inventory, unless a lot of people sell their houses and don’t buy something else, or go into renting, or a lot of new construction happens,” Young said, “we’re not go-ing to see prices drop that precipitously.”

———(c)2017 The Mercury News

(San Jose, Calif.)Visit The Mercury News (San

Jose, Calif.) at www.mercu-rynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Con-tent Agency, LLC.

Bay Area house market reaches new extreme

Anthony Berenyi/Dreamstime/TNSEven having a boatload of cash now may not be enough to land your dream home in Silicon Valley, which is expe-riencing a new shortage of high-end homes, according to a recent report.

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By aManda dixonBankrate.com

Getting a mortgage today is much different than it was before the financial crisis.

Loans have to meet certain standards and there are many rules lenders and servicers have to fol-low. But after a shakeup in leadership at the Con-sumer Financial Protection Bureau, the future of some policies is uncertain.

Here’s why: The new acting director of the CFPB, budget director Mick Mulvaney, is expect-ed to review regulations that haven’t been final-ized, and he may try to alter rules that are already in place.

Here are three policies Mulvaney could change and what adjustments to them might mean for ho-meowners and homebuyers. The CFPB has already announced plans to reconsider certain rules.

Home Mortgage disclosure actWhen you apply for a mortgage, some infor-

mation – including your race, ethnicity and sex – could be released to the public.

For thousands of lenders, reporting mortgage information is mandatory under the Home Mort-gage Disclosure Act (HMDA). While the law has been around since 1975, the amount of data made publicly available is increasing, and not everyone is thrilled.

The mortgage industry believes that publishing so much data raises concerns about consumer pri-vacy. And there’s no way to opt out of having your information shared, notes Richard Andreano Jr., partner at the Ballard Spahr law firm.

“They expanded the data set so much that there was a concern that if it was all made public, at what point are borrowers able to be identified using HMDA data?” asks Alexander Monterru-bio, director of regulatory affairs at the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU).

Consumer advocates want more information released. Doing so, they argue, protects borrow-ers from discriminatory lending. It also holds lenders accountable for their actions, says Jaime Weisberg, senior campaign analyst at the Associa-tion for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD).

The latest HMDA requirements go into effect January 1, 2018, but the CFPB, the Federal De-posit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comp-troller of the Currency announced that lenders won’t be penalized for mistakes made while col-lecting data in 2018 or reporting it in 2019. They also won’t have to resubmit data unless errors are “material.”

The CFPB also said that it would revisit certain aspects of HMDA.

“HMDA could be made almost worthless,” says Peter Smith, a senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending. “We need a good body of rules to make sure lenders are playing a fair game with consumers.”

ability-to-repay and Qualified Mortgage Standards

Another rule that has been subject to debate is the qualified mortgage (or ability-to-repay) rule implemented in 2014. It requires most lenders to make a “good-faith effort” to determine whether someone can afford a mortgage and eventually pay it back.

Critics say the new standards have kept many people, including low-income individuals, from becoming homeowners.

The CFPB is obligated to review the ability-to-pay rule since the bureau is required to assess ex-isting regulations within five years.

With the CFPB’s change in leadership, there may be pressure to loosen lending requirements, says Barry Zigas, director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of America. There’s already a Senate bill aiming to give qualified mortgage

status to loans offered by many banks and credit unions without requiring the lender to meet every condition under the ability-to-repay rule.

The bill’s supporters say it would give more consumers access to mortgages. But Zigas calls it a “dangerous effort to undermine consumer pro-tections.” If it passes, a financial institution may legally avoid going through all of the steps lend-ers take to ensure borrowers can repay their loans, like considering their debt obligations, verifying income and employment history, and calculating their monthly debt-to-income ratio

Trid ruleIn 2015, the CFPB combined the mortgage dis-

closure obligations required by the Truth in Lend-ing Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act under the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule. One result of the TRID rule is that consumers preparing to close on a house have two documents explaining their closing costs and mortgage terms, rather than four.

While the new forms helped simplify the clos-ing process for homebuyers, the TRID rule cre-ated other problems. For one, it could prevent buyers from closing on their homes as quickly as they want to, says Brandy Bruyere, vice president of regulatory compliance at NAFCU.

For many items on the disclosures, there’s little or no tolerance for last-minute changes, and lend-ers have had to choose between rejecting borrow-ers’ requests and eating additional fees.

The CFPB has worked to fix the TRID rule and clear up confusion for lenders. But it hasn’t addressed every issue, leading members of Con-gress to create a bill that would make additional adjustments.

“The TRID disclosures are solid, and any sig-nificant change would add additional costs and un-certainty to the closing process,” says Smith from the CRL.

rules won’t change overnightThe CFPB’s final rules can’t be modified with-

out issuing a notice and asking the public for feedback. Take these steps to ensure your voice is heard, especially if you’re concerned about how rule changes could affect you.

Comment on any potential policy changes. When the opportunity arises, visit the CFPB’s website and comment on the rules the agency is proposing. “The CFPB doesn’t have to do what the comments say, but they have to provide a rea-son for not doing so to avoid the rule being struck down as arbitrary and capricious,” says Benjamin Olson, a former deputy assistant director for the Office of Regulations at the CFPB.

Contact your representative. Congressional leaders can review certain rules issued by the CFPB and potentially overturn them. That’s what happened with the CFPB’s arbitration rule. The policy would’ve made it easier for consumers to file class action lawsuits against banks, but law-makers used their powers under the Congressional Review Act to kill it before it could take effect. Legislators are now considering the CFPB’s final rule on payday lending and may seek to repeal it.

Use the complaint database. If you’ve had is-sues with your mortgage lender or servicer and you’re having trouble resolving them, file a com-plaint with the CFPB. Typically, you’ll receive a response within 15 days. You can use the same da-tabase if you’re having problems with other finan-cial entities, like the bank managing your check-ing or savings account.

If you’re looking at mortgage rates and prepar-ing to buy a home for the first time, read reviews and do your homework before choosing a lender.

———Visit Bankrate online at www.bankrate.com.

———(c)2017 Bankrate.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mortgage rules could soon get a face-lift

By Gary M. sinGersun sentinel

Q: We recently purchased our home in a new gated community that is still under construction. We just learned that the developer is only gating for cars, not the sidewalks. We are concerned pe-destrians and solicitors can freely enter our com-munity, defeating the security of being in a gated community. Can we make the developer fix this? – Michael

a: With the increase of planned developments, more communities are opting to be gated. Most new communities are advertised and sold this way. While some experts claim that gates make com-munities safer, others disagree. There are few sci-entific studies to back up either point of view.

Supporters argue that restricting access into a neighborhood will make it safer, while detractors call it “security theater” that gives the illusion of being safer and causes residents to let their guards down and fail to take common sense measures to secure their homes.

Regardless, many people want to live in gated communities, yourself included.

To determine the developer’s responsibility, you will need to review your sales contract and community governing documents. The documents should explicitly set forth what the developer is supposed to install. However, I would not get your

hopes up too high because in my experience your builder will have a lot of wiggle room. The law does not provide a precise definition of what a gated community is because each development is unique. Instead, the law provides that each party to a contract — meaning you and the developer — must live up to their promises.

If this is something that is important to you and your neighbors, I suggest that you speak to your developer. If enough of the residents demand this feature, it is likely that the pedestrian gates will happen. If not, once most of the homes are sold, your developer will turn over the community as-sociation to be managed by the homeowners. Your community will be free to make any changes you want, provided you and your neighbors are willing to pay for them.

———aBoUT THe WriTer

Gary M. Singer is a Florida attorney and board-certified as an expert in real estate law by the Florida Bar. He practices real estate, business liti-gation and contract law from his office in Sunrise, Fla. He is the chairman of the Real Estate Section of the Broward County Bar Association and is a co-host of the weekly radio show Legal News and Review. He frequently consults on general real estate matters and trends in Florida with various companies across the nation.

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