Fla. Insurance Commissioner’s order prevents insurers from cancelling or issuing non-renewals of customers’ policies until Oct. 31 in areas affected by Hurricane Idalia.

Residents of the small, rural areas of the state’s “Nature Coast” fear the high costs of rebuilding will price them out and they’ll lose their “old Florida” way of life.

Feeling more optimistic about their personal finances, Floridians’ consumer sentiment inched up eight-tenths of a point in August to 67.6 from July’s revised 66.8.

Agents can help buyers and sellers see them as a local expert on YouTube by creating market and trend update videos, video walkthroughs of properties and more.

The median U.S. asking rent in July was $2,038, just $16 below the record high set in August 2022. But that asking rent was up just 0.3% from a year earlier in July.

Agents offer buyers and sellers their market expertise, but that expertise can quickly become stale in a fast-changing RE market without regular educational updates.

Survey: 12% of U.S. homeowners don’t have property insurance. About half of them have household incomes of $40K or less and say they can’t afford it.

Georgia Institute of Technology: A before/after study of new affordable housing found that it didn’t harm nearby home values – and in some cases, it raised them.

Two Fla. agencies will receive $425K each – one in C. Fla., one in the Palm Beaches – for fair housing testing and enforcement to eliminate discriminatory practices.

Pres. Biden declared seven Fla. counties disaster areas, but Gov. DeSantis thinks more will be added. A declaration opens up additional aid, including more fed funding.

The order includes Citrus, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Suwannee and Taylor counties and clears the way for federal funds to aid in their recovery.

While FEMA may still be given additional funding, these strategies can help Hurricane Idalia survivors get federal aid faster.

After hitting a 20-year high last week of 7.23%, the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage moved lower again. A year ago, the FRM averaged 5.66%.

But these Realtors aren’t just “good” – they’re great. Fort Lauderdale’s Kasia Maslanka and Palm Coast’s Sandra Shank are 2023 NAR “Good Neighbor” finalists.

New laws impacting insurance lawsuits may be helping. State-run Citizens says it received 200 fewer monthly lawsuits Jan. to June than it did last year.

Some words are hard to spell, but others are just prone to typos in an era of social media speed-typing. A common business mix-up? Relator instead of Realtor. 

An initial growth estimate of 2.4% was downgraded, though it’s still an acceleration from the 2% growth rate logged in the first quarter.

Investors face the same problems as first-time buyers: low inventory and high mortgage rates. Dollar volume was down 42%, as investing in Jacksonville dropped 65%.

Accusations suggest some Fla. insurers shortchanged policyholders last year, but a new 2023 law tightens how insurers handle claims and increases penalties if they fail to do so.

Florida Realtors’ members, brokers and local association staff impacted by Hurricane Idalia can apply for financial help through the association’s Disaster Relief Fund.