South Florida On The Market

Many of us dream of the day we're entirely debt-free and paying off the mortgage can be at the top of the list. Saving for retirement, planning for children's college education, and maintaining a cash cushion for emergencies are just a few items competing for your hard-earned dollars. If you're thinking of paying off your mortgage, understanding recent changes in the tax law, specifically the changes to the "standard deduction," can be a key deciding factor. It's important to understand whether it makes more sense to prepay your mortgage or invest the extra money elsewhere. For example, take a home with a $300,000 balance and 20 years remaining on a 30-year mortgage at 6.25 percent. Let's assume you begin paying an additional $400 per month toward your mortgage. In the end, you'd have saved yourself $62,000 in interest and have the loan paid off six years earlier. This may sound like a great plan initially, but you won't really know until you...

Getting away for a summer vacation can be fun and relaxing, but there’s no need to leave home to have fun and relax. Check out these three easy DIY projects to turn your backyard into the ultimate staycation location. 1. Cinder Block Fire Pit Start by creating a flat, fireproof base using large bricks, then build a square pit by placing a layer of cinder blocks beside each other on the brick base with the open ends facing up. Fill the holes in the cinder blocks with dirt, sand, or rocks to help solidify the wall. Add a second layer of cinder blocks, centering them over the meeting place of the first layer, and fill them like the first layer. Add your firewood, gather some friends, and enjoy! 2. Patio Lighting Nothing can transform your backyard or patio quite like patio lights. Grab some solar-powered string lights from your local hardware store and get creative! Hang them from trees, create a perimeter around your yard, and circle the posts on your deck, then enjoy ...

Miami-based Adler Group has released an updated version of its plan to transform a prime piece of  downtown riverfront real estate into a mixed-use, multi-building development.  Slated to replace the city-owned administrative building known as Miami Riverside Complex, the project at at 444 SW Second Avenue calls for three to four towers sporting a mix of residential, office, retail, and hotel uses. Adler presented its  initial renderings  for the site—then called Nexus Riverside Central—in early 2016.  The latest version of the project, designed by architect Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates, makes a more deliberate effort to embrace the site’s river frontage with wider views of the water and a larger and more accessible public riverwalk component, reports  Miami Today . The new plan also trades the monolithic, squared-off look of the previous design for more curved, organic lines.  Although the plan gained the approval of the Miami...

The White House's move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum come on top of a nationwide labor shortage and previous tariffs levied on Canadian lumber. As a result, the combination is ramping up costs for South Florida home builders – and homebuyers and renters may eventually feel the effect as well. Sergio Pino, founder of the Century Homebuilders Group, said his suppliers anticipate that the cost of materials will increase by 5 percent in the coming months. His subcontractors are already upping price estimates on drywall installation – a key element in local homes and rentals – as the costs for steel partitions rise. "It's definitely going to hurt the industry," says Pino, whose firm has 200 condos and single-family homes under construction in South Florida. "I know our homes are going up $20,000 to $30,000." For many companies, especially bigger ones, current projects aren't affected, but those price guarantees don't apply to future ...

Although Miami Beach is famous for its Art Deco buildings, Miami and its environs boast a wide range of architectural styles, from Mediterranean to Spanish Colonial to bold, modern angularity. Happily, some of the most notable examples are open to the public. We’ve selected five of the city’s top venues where you can enjoy art, science, history, music, and more—once you’ve taken in the soaring spaces and thrilling sightlines, of course. — by Drew Limsky 1.  VIZCAYA MUSEUM & GARDENS VIZCAYA MUSEUM AND GARDENS; PHOTO: BILL SUMNER Now a National Historic Landmark, the former estate of industrialist and conservationist James Deering is the perfect example of a successful marriage of the formal European aesthetic and the sultry subtropical environment. Under the guidance of design director Paul Chalfin, the vast villa and grounds emerged a century ago as a Mediterranean Revival stunner set on the water in Coconut Grove. The site offers tours and serves as an event spac...

Factors ranging from rising lumber prices to a shortage of skilled workers are slowing down the construction of new homes. While that may be bad news for the housing industry, it’s good news for home-improvement chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s. As the production of new homes slows down and prices go up, homeowners start seeing their current residences more like investments, making them more inclined to take on renovations like a new bathroom or a backyard patio, according to Bloomberg. There are currently 123 million occupied homes in the country — a far greater number than the roughly 1 million housing starts expected in 2018 — and the inventory is likely to only get tighter as millennials start settling down with children and families.  The amount of young adults living at home hit a high of 32 percent in 2016 but has since started to decline. - the real deal