Selling off unused taxpayer-owned land is one way Palm Beach County commissioners are considering chipping away at recurring budget shortfalls.

Unloading some of the more than 2,000 properties the county owns could reduce maintenance costs as well as put property back into private hands and onto tax rolls.

Eighty acres once planned for a park in Palm Beach Gardens and an empty five-story office building near Palm Beach International Airport are examples of valuable, but unused, county properties.

The County Commission on Tuesday agreed to field proposals from real estate groups interested in finding buyers or tenants for the properties.

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The county says almost 90 properties are no longer necessary for public use.

"I really want to see what some of these properties can be used for," said Commissioner Priscilla Taylor, who supports potentially finding private buyers.

Real estate agents have long argued that there is a potential treasure trove of county-owned properties that should be offered for public purchase.

Aside from hindering potential development opportunities, holding onto unused land deprives the county, school district, cities and other local government agencies of the property tax revenue the land could generate in private hands, according to the Realtors Commercial Alliance.

"This is costing the county money," said Robert Goldstein of the alliance.

While county officials intend to keep much of the property for long-term purposes — such as future parks, fire stations and other public facilities — they are "open" to talking to brokers about finding takers for unused tracts, said Ross Hering, county real estate director.

But not all currently unused public lands should end up with a "For Sale" sign, according to the growth watchdog group 1000 Friends of Florida. Land intended for parks or kept as open space should not be considered surplus, especially if it's in pristine condition, saiu group representative Joanne Davis.

"You have to be very careful," Davis said. "If it's a natural area, they shouldn't even consider it for one second."

County officials disclosed Tuesday they are already in talks to try to unload one of their most high-profile vacant properties, the nearly 2,000-acre Mecca Farms parcel west of Palm Beach Gardens.

The county in 2004 bought Mecca Farms and invested more than $100 million of taxpayer money in a failed bid to turn it into a home for The Scripps Research Institute and high-tech spinoff businesses.

Now the South Florida Water Management District proposes acquiring the former citrus groves. The district would use the property to create a "flow way" to deliver more water to the Loxahatchee River.

The proposal, still early in negotiations, could involve land swaps between the district and the county, and potentially some cash. .

Aside from Mecca Farms, much of the land on the county's surplus list includes abandoned neighborhood lakes, once-private roads, slivers of properties nobody wanted and tax-delinquent land that ended up getting turned over to the county's possession.

Eighty acres the county acquired in Palm Beach Gardens for $4.5 million was supposed to become soccer fields and other sports facilities, to be built in collaboration with the city. But 10 years later, budget strains have stalled the park project.

"It has dragged on too long," County Commissioner Burt Aaronson said. Palm Beach Gardens needs to "move forward, or let's reconsider," he said.

The Realtors Commercial Alliance this week suggested the county lease out its vacant Airport Center office building.

In 2009, budget cuts stalled planned renovations and prompted the county to close the building off Australian Avenue. The county eventually plans to move the Tourism Development Council and related agencies into the building, but can't yet afford the $11 million in renovations.

The Realtors group called for the county to allow it to find a potential tenant that could lease the building for up to seven years. That could help pay for future renovations.

After years of ongoing budget cuts, county commissioners have decided they are at least willing to consider testing the real estate market.

"We should see what proposals would be out there," Commissioner Steven Abrams said.

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews

U.S. sales of new homes rose 3.3% in April

WASHINGTON (AP) – May 23, 2012 – Sales of new homes in the U.S. rose solidly last month, adding to evidence of gradual improvement in the housing market.

The Commerce Department says sales increased 3.3 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000. That followed a 7.3 percent decline in March.

A pickup in hiring and cheaper mortgages, combined with lower home prices in most markets, has made home buying more attractive. Builder confidence has increased steadily in the past several months, a sign that some expect the market to improve later this year.

Still, sales of new homes are well below the 700,000 annual sales that economists equate with healthy markets.

In April, sales rose in all regions except the South. The median price rose to $235,700, up slightly from Marc

US home prices by city, at a glance

MIAMI – April 16, 2012 – After steady declines, U.S. home prices rose slightly in February and March in some major metro areas, according to CoreLogic and Trulia, two real estate data firms. Price gains have occurred in many hard-hit areas, such as Miami and Phoenix, while losses have been reported in cities ranging from Las Vegas to Seattle to Wilmington, Del.

Here’s a look at some of the cities with the sharpest home price gains and losses over the past year, according to Trulia:

Best metro areas year-over-year change

Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.: 14.8%
Miami: 14.1%
Phoenix: 13.2%
Pittsburgh: 9.2%
Little Rock, Ark.: 6.7%
Orlando: 6.3%
North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla.: 6.2%
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla.: 6.1%
West Palm Beach, Fla.: 5.8%
Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich.: 5.6%

Worst metro areas year-over-year change

Tacoma, Wash.: -11.9%
Seattle: -9.1%
Sacramento, Calif.: -8.3%
Las Vegas: -7.7%
Wilmington, Del.: -7.7%
Columbia, S.C.: -7.3%
Cleveland: -6.9%
Fresno, Calif.: -6.8%
Milwaukee: -6.7%
Allentown, Pa.: -6.7%
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Related Topics: Research

U.S. home-buying season finally signaling a recovery

WASHINGTON – April 16, 2012 – Five years after the U.S. housing bust sent sales and prices plunging, the spring home-buying season is pointing to a long-awaited recovery.

Reduced prices, record-low mortgage rates, higher rents and an improving job market appear to be emboldening many would-be buyers. Open houses are drawing crowds. A wave of foreclosures is leading investors to grab bargain-priced homes.

And many people seem to have concluded that prices won’t drop much further. In some areas, prices have begun to tick up.

Interviews with more than two dozen potential buyers, sellers, brokers, Realtors and economists suggest that confidence is up and that sales will move slowly but steadily higher.

“The biggest challenge that we’ve had over the past four years is fear – fear that the economy is collapsing, that property values are collapsing, that the world is coming to an end,” says Mark Prather, a broker at ERA Buy America Real Estate in La Palma, Calif. “The fear factor is all but gone.”

Prather says the number of prospective buyers who contacted his company last month was about 35 percent more than a year ago.

The spring buying season got an early lift-off from an uncommonly warm January and February – a winter that was the best for sales of previously occupied homes in five years. Permits to build houses and apartments rose in February to their highest level since 2008.

“People feel much more confident,” said Steve Brown, co-owner of real estate company Irongate Inc. of Dayton, Ohio, who says sales jumped more than 16 percent for the first two months of 2012 over the same period last year. “There’s no question there’s a good feeling in the marketplace.”

Some analysts detected a slight uptick in prices for February and March. CoreLogic, a real estate data firm, says prices for homes not at risk of foreclosure – about two thirds of the market – rose 0.7 percent in February. It was the first increase in four years. Price gains occurred both in some hard-hit areas, such as Phoenix, and some still-thriving areas like New York and Washington.

In Miami, the average sales price has surged 14 percent in the past year, according to Trulia, a real estate data firm. In Phoenix, the average is up 13 percent, in Pittsburgh 9 percent.

Earnings reports Friday from two big banks suggested that more people are taking out mortgages. JPMorgan Chase issued 6 percent more mortgages from January through March than it did a year ago and got 33 percent more applications. Wells Fargo issued 54 percent more mortgages and received 84 percent more applications.

Still, few think the housing industry is nearing a return to full health. For that to happen, a robust job market would be needed. More hiring would give more people the money and job security to buy. That would help boost sales and prices.

Such areas as Atlanta, suburban Las Vegas and central California show few signs of recovery. And in some others – from Seattle to Cleveland – home prices have continued to slip. The average has dropped 9 percent in Seattle over the past 12 months and 7 percent in Cleveland.

But in many parts of the country, including thriving areas of Boston, Dallas and Seattle, confidence is rising along with prices. Among the reasons:

• Hiring has strengthened. Each month from January through March generated a solid average of 212,000 jobs. Unemployment has sunk from 9.1 percent in August to 8.2 percent. More job security tends to embolden more people to invest in a home. In Dayton, for example, the University of Dayton is hiring for a new engineering research center, General Electric is hiring hundreds of contractors and the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is expanding.

• Loans remain cheap. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.88 percent. That’s just above the 3.87 percent reached in February – the lowest since long-term mortgages were first offered in the 1950s.

• Homes are more affordable. Nationwide, home prices are down 34 percent since 2006.

• Americans are more confident. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s survey of consumer confidence rose in March for a seventh straight month to its highest level in 13 months.

Also fueling interest are signs that home values are finally stabilizing. One factor that had slowed purchases after the housing boom ended in late 2006 was fear that a home would lose value soon after its purchase.

But the price declines slowed toward the end of 2011, according to the Wells Fargo/Case-Shiller home price index. And CoreLogic says the average price nationally rose slightly in January and February.

“Unless prices went down, I don’t think we would have ever been able to afford a home,” said John Henschel, 37, an information technology consultant who will move with his family into a five-bedroom house in Wheaton, Ill., in May. “But we feel like prices aren’t going to go back down. We’re confident. So why not?”

When the landlord on their Chicago apartment told them he was selling it, Henschel and his wife decided it was time to buy. The home they bought for nearly $450,000 could have fetched more than $570,000 six years ago, according to housing website Zillow.com.

On a rainy Saturday this month in long-struggling Riverside, Calif., 12 families visited a three-bedroom house priced at $199,999. Ten others stopped by in the first hour of the next day’s open house. By the end of the weekend, two buyers had made offers.

“We’re seeing more buyer activity this spring than we’ve seen in probably four years,” said Liane Thomas, the broker who was showing the house.

Prices in the area could rise in coming months because the supply of homes for sale in Riverside is down – from nearly 19,000 last year to 13,000 in February.

Many potential buyers are hunting for deals in places that were especially hurt by the housing bust. In Sarasota, Fla., which boasts wide sugar-sand beaches, condos are selling for an average of $325,000, compared with more than $550,000 at the height of the boom, said Marc Rasmussen, a broker.

Homes nearing foreclosure account for nearly half of all properties on the market, according to the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse survey. That compares with 10 percent in healthy economies. Many are receiving multiple offers because their prices have plunged.

In Phoenix, a foreclosed home offered for $77,000 that had been vandalized received 21 offers last month at or near the asking price – roughly the price it sold for. The average time a home sits on the market in Phoenix has dropped from 114 days last year to 90 days, according to the Cromford Report, a data research group.

In suburban Washington, D.C., Rory Obletz and his wife have been saving to buy after renting for six years. Obletz, 27, failed in two previous bids for single-family homes. He’s hoping a third bid – about $10,000 above the asking price of $399,000 for a home in Silver Spring, Md. – will succeed this month.

“One home we went to, it was under contract by the time we walked out of the house,” Obletz said. “If you really want to get something, you don’t have a lot of time to think about it.”

It isn’t just bargain-hunting families seeking homes. Investors are increasingly buying single-family houses, fixing them up and re-selling them or converting them into rentals.

Investors are out-bidding many first-time buyers on cheaper homes in particular. Sales of homes between $100,000 and $250,000 have jumped nearly 19 percent over the past year. For homes between $250,000 and $500,000, sales are up 13 percent.

More expensive homes, from $500,000 to $750,000, whose sales tend to contribute the most to the U.S. economy, are up a smaller 6.7 percent.

For buyers seeking to move up to a bigger home or to relocate, the toughest challenge is often selling the home they’re in. According to CoreLogic, about 11 million homeowners are “underwater” – they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.

Yet for first-timers like Obletz, who have been saving and watching as homes have become more affordable, the time feels right.

“Rent is a little more expensive, and we have the money, so we might as well jump on it,” he says.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press, Derek Kravitz and Alex Veiga (AP Real Estate Writers). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Veiga reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press Writer Tamara Lush in Sarasota, Fla., contributed to this report.

Related Topics: Economy