Hundreds of families lost their homes in the tornado that tore through Selma last year. If housing was an issue before, it became an urgent need following Jan. 12, 2023.
As a result, leaders in Selma are now rethinking how they can build smooth paths to homeownership for their neighbors. This comes in the way of restoring over 100 homes to a healthy, livable condition through the housing authority, educating residents on how to get a mortgages and even giving away the occasional home for free.
The last came to fruition on April 21.
Members of several organizations gathered in front of a house off of Broad Street that day to announce that one Selma family would receive the new-build home free of charge. With 3-bedrooms, 2-bathrooms, a front porch and wind-resistant architecture, the home was valued around $169,500.
“The City of Selma is grateful to partner with NACA, the Selma Housing Authority and the Black Belt Community Foundation to provide this extraordinary opportunity,” Selma Mayor James Perkins said in a statement. “We cannot wait to share our excitement with the winner.”
Meet the winning family
Drawn in a random lottery that Sunday, the winner is Tamicka Newberry, a 44-year-old Selma native and mother of three. The 2023 tornado displaced Newberry, her husband and her kids, and since then, they have been living in a North Selma apartment complex.
“We lost everything and then had to adjust,” Newberry said. “We just truly thank God because God made all this possible for us. We’re just truly blessed.”
In the last few weeks, the good news came in threes: Newberry got a new job, her daughter got married and they won the new home.
“It’s a brand new start,” she said.
Since the BBCF and the Selma Housing Authority are fully furnishing the place for Newberry, it’s not quite move-in ready yet, but the family is planning to move as soon as they can. Newberry is also taking a financial management class so that she can maximize the benefits of her new, free house.
“Unfortunately, systemic racism has left us with a biased way of attaining wealth in our communities, and so by having Ms. Newberry to own a home, right off the block, she has equity,” BBCF President Felecia Lucky said. “That’s how you begin to build wealth and communities, so that’s the goal.”
Other houses coming soon
Newberry’s home is one of 100 new, affordable homes that NACA is constructing in Selma. Four other homes are completed too, though their new owners will take on affordable mortgages through a partnership with NACA and Bank of America.
The rest of the houses will be doled out to Selma locals through a NACA housing lottery where selected buyers will pay an adjusted mortgage that is approximately 30% of their gross income with no down payments, closing costs or additional fees.
Selma Housing Authority CEO Kennard Randolph said his organization has provided 27 plots of land to NACA for the project, and it has purchased about 73 more to rehabilitate alone.
“This is unprecedented for housing authorities. Housing authorities typically don’t do community revitalization,” Randolph said. “We are becoming private landlords. We were already in the multifamily, but now, we are buying houses throughout the community, and the Black Belt Community Foundation is helping with those initiatives.”
Randolph also sits on the board for the BBCF, so when the foundation decided to get support post-tornado housing initiatives, he was the resident expert. After some discussions, the board committed about $700,000 to support the affordable housing efforts in Selma.
“We know that housing has forever been an issue here in the Black Belt region,” Lucky. “if you want to do good and leave a legacy for the work that you’re doing, this is a place to do it.”
Lucky asked that anyone who wants to help continue BBCF initiatives donate to the foundation online.
How to apply for a NACA home
While the first NACA home in Selma has already been given away, about 99 more will be coming available for purchase through the housing lottery.
In order to be eligible to purchase a home through NACA, potential buyers must first attend a workshop on homeownership. They are offered both in person and online. To find the most convenient workshop for you, visit NACA.com and sign up.
With more questions or concerns, potential buyers can contact NACA at services@naca.com or 425-602-6222.
Hadley Hitson covers children’s health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work,subscribe to the Advertiser.
McLOUD — A popular camp for people with special needs was displaced from its longtime home at St. Gregory’s University, then shuttered through long stretches of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, the beloved monk and Catholic priest who started the program never lost hope, and now his Camp Benedictine is experiencing a rebirth of sorts in its new, spacious home.
“We prayed to God, and I’m just thrilled,” the Rev. Paul Zahler said.
Despite the litany of setbacks, Zahler, 89, is watching the camp come to life again on a former church campground in McLoud. His determination, along with the work of a small but resilient staff, numerous volunteers and generous donors, helped get the program moved to a place where it can thrive.
Oklahoma businessman and philanthropist Gene Rainbolt is one of the people who jumped in to help. He said he learned about Zahler’s programs for people with special needs when he lived in Shawnee for more than two decades, beginning in 1966.
“Father Paul had an equine program and a swimming program on St. Gregory’s campus so I knew about this all these years,” said Rainbolt, who currently lives in Oklahoma City. “They do remarkable work with children that really need help.”
Amit Gumman, a Camp Benedictine board member, said it has been wonderful to welcome back longtime campers while introducing the program to newcomers.
“You hear a lot of laughter here and there’s a lot of joy,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of struggles and challenges, but we made it. It’s kind of divine intervention.”
‘It’s just been a blessing’
Zahler, a Minnesota native, moved to Shawnee in 1950 to attend (now defunct) St. Gregory’s High School. Shawnee’s St. Gregory’s Abbey and St. Gregory’s University, were both founded by Benedictine monks, and Zahler knew he had arrived at a place where he could play high school and collegiate sports while also pursuing his priestly vocation. He became a Benedictine monk at St. Gregory’s Abbey in 1956, and he remains a part of the monastic community. He was ordained as a priest in 1962.
Zahler founded the nonprofit National Institute on Developmental Delays (NIDD) at St. Gregory’s in the 1960s, and Camp Benedictine was started in 1972.
He said he was swimming in the university pool when he realized that it would be a good place to work with people with developmental delays. He started working with children at the university’s child development center, which opened in 1976, and with the inception of Camp Benedictine, he expanded his holistic approach to helping people from ages 8 to 80 with special needs. Zahler said the camp became a year-round camp offered one weekend a month in the 1990s. The nonprofit Home Integration eventually became an umbrella organization for Zahler’s programming.
When St. Gregory’s closed in 2017, Zahler and the camp’s loyal staff and volunteers packed up and moved items used for the child development program and Camp Benedictine.
Virginia Reeves serves as the program’s longtime administrative director and camp co-director with her daughter, Marcy Reeves. She said they found office space in Shawnee, and were able to relocate from St. Gregory’s to a Christian children’s camp in Pink, which served as a much-needed temporary location for some programming. But everyone involved with Camp Benedictine knew that its specific needs and special clientele meant a more permanent home had to be found.
They found what they were looking for in the 40-acre former church campground in McLoud. Reeves and other Camp Benedictine leaders said the location is large enough to host retreats for campers with special needs, and there is plenty of room for Zahler’s vision of a swimming pool, basketball court and volleyball court. She said the camp’s leaders also hope to eventually use a horse barn at the back of the property to restart the popular equine program, all when more funds are raised.
Reeves said a building that once housed a camp concession stand was transformed into a nurse’s station for the camp nurse. Two newly constructed buildings include a Camp Benedictine retreat center for campers and a multipurpose building for meals and other indoor activities.
Camp Benedictine is listed in the Oklahoma Rehabilitation Services’ Disability Resource Guide, a comprehensive listing of more than 2,500 disability and social services programs, said Jody Harlan, a department spokeswoman. Reeves said parents and caregivers of people with special needs have been calling on a regular basis to ask when the year-round camp weekends would be starting again, and it’s been exciting to tell them that the program has returned.
“It’s just been a blessing,” Reeves said at the recent spring camp. “We have 32 (campers) here today, and we’ve been trying to get the word out now that we’ve started again.”
Jose Muprappallil and Mohan Chandran are also longtime leaders and supporters of Home Integration and Camp Benedictine. Muprappallil said the nonprofit was grateful to Garcia Construction and the city of McLoud for their graciousness toward the camp organization. Chandran said it’s important to note that the nonprofit launched by Zahler provides recreation for campers but ultimately helps teach them skills to help enhance their lives and, for some, gain employment.
‘Father Paul’s kids’
Activities during the recent camp weekend included St. Patrick’s Day arts and crafts, a take-home planter box project, outdoor games and whimsical “leprechaun hunt.” The group also made cards for a camper who missed the weekend event due to illness.
Zahler spoke to campers and volunteers as he walked around the multipurpose building before lunch was served. He beamed with pride as several campers hugged him and talked to him about their crafts and camp activities. Zahler said about 40,000 people have participated in Camp Benedictine over the years.
“They’re my family,” he said.
Longtime Camp Benedictine volunteer Kathi Yeager spread cheer, talking with several campers whom she called out by name. She said many of them had been part of the program for many years, spanning from childhood to adulthood.
One of them was Russell M. who started coming to the camp weekend retreats when he was about 8 years old. Yeager said he is currently in his 40s.
“They light up like Santa Claus is here when he comes into the room,” she said of Zahler.
She said she started volunteering for the camp while she was a child psychology major at St. Gregory’s in the late 1980s and she took one of Zahler’s classes.
Yeager said the camp is great because campers love it and parent and caregivers may go and have a time of respite and they don’t worry because their loved ones are in good hands.
“It’s kind of mind-boggling that this little camp that started in a corner of the gym at St. Greg’s is still going on,” she said.
“It’s all because of Father Paul, the power of his vision, prayer and the passion of the people who are here today.”
To learn more
The next Camp Benedictine weekend is April 19-21. For information about Camp Benedictine and the National Institute on Developmental Delays, go to https://nidd.us/programs/camp.
Through the first two-and-a-half months of 2024, Volusia County has already seen the sale of at least 41 luxury homes for $1 million or more.
That number already exceeds the 38 million-dollar-plus homes sold during the first three months of last year.
Most, although not all, high-end homes in Volusia County are purchased in cash, according to Realtors. A few deals involve financing, but not as much as for homes sold for less than a million dollars. That’s why luxury home sales are not as affected by high interest rates as properties listed in lower price ranges.
Here’s a look at the top luxury home sales in Volusia County so far this year.
1. 1316 N. Peninsula Ave., New Smyrna Beach
SALE PRICE: $7.4 million
DATE SALE CLOSED: Feb. 7, 2024
DESCRIPTION: Built in 2005, this 3-story riverfront home has 5 bedrooms, 7 baths and 7,439 square feet of living space on a 0.41-acre lot. The open-concept floor plan includes floor-to-ceiling windows in the grand living area and panoramic views of the Indian River and surrounding landscape. The home includes a gourmet kitchen and a separate combination kitchen/family room. Outside, it offers an expansive terrace along with a pool, spa, covered patio and a dock and boat house with a boat lift. The property also includes an attached 2-car garage.
WHO HANDLED THE DEAL: The listing agent was Loretta Burn of Haven Waterfront Real Estate in Edgewater. The buyers were represented by G. Scott Yurchison of Collado Real Estate in New Smyrna Beach.
2. $5.18 million: 700 N. Peninsula Ave., New Smyrna Beach
SALE PRICE: $5.185 million
DATE SALE CLOSED: March 1
DESCRIPTION: Built in 2009, this 5-bedroom, 6-bath house along the Intracoastal Waterway offers 5,120-square-feet of living space and a 3.5-car garage. It sits on a half-acre lot with 57 feet of frontage along the river as well as a dock. The backyard includes a covered lanai and an outdoor kitchen as well as an infinity pool and spa and a view of the Ponce Inlet lighthouse located just a mile to the north.
WHO HANDLED THE DEAL: The listing agent was Realtor Terri Jackson of The Keyes Company in New Smyrna Beach. The buyers’ agent was Pat Collado, the broker/owner of Collado Real Estate in New Smyrna Beach.
More:Ormond mansion of Hawaiian Tropic’s Ron Rice finally sells for $3.6M
3. $3.6 million: 175 Ocean Shore Blvd., Ormond Beach
SALE PRICE: $3.6 milllion
DATE SALE CLOSED: March 15
DESCRIPTION: Built in 1987, this 4-bedroom, 5-bath oceanfront home was the longtime home of the late Hawaiian Tropic founder Ron Rice, who died in May 2022 at the age of 81. The massive three-story house offers 12,400 square feet of living space and sits on a full acre that includes 200 feet along the beach.
The home includes a room that Rice used as a discotheque modeled after the famous Studio 54 in New York City. The mansion’s crowning glory is its huge indoor pool adorned with statues of winged fairy nymphs that connects to one of the property’s two outdoor pools.
WHO HANDLED THE DEAL: The listing agent was Bill Navarra, the broker/owner of Realty Pros Assured in Ormond Beach. Navarra wound up representing both the Ron Rice Estate as well as the buyers, a couple from the Carolinas whose son plans to relocate from South Florida to live in the house.
4. $3.4 million: 357 N. Beach St., Ormond Beach
SALE PRICE: $3.4 million
DATE SALE CLOSED: March 4
DESCRIPTION: Built in 2012, this 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath riverfront home offers 6,813 square feet of living space. It sits on a 0.67-acre lot that includes 150 feet along the Halifax River as well as a refurbished dock. The backyard includes a pool and spa. The view from the house includes the river as well as the Granada Bridge.
WHO HANDLED THE DEAL: The listing agent was also the property’s seller, Janelle Mertins, a Realtor and former owner of Pegasus Realty & Associates in Ocala. Mertins bought the home two years ago as a vacation getaway. The buyers’ agents were Matthew Renshaw and Ann Alexander, both with Realty Pros Assured in Ormond Beach.
5. $3 million: 1000 Sudbury Lane, Ormond Beach
SALE PRICE: $3 million
DATE SALE CLOSED: March 15
DESCRIPTION: Built in 2021, this 5-bedroom, 6.5-bath custom home in Ormond Beach’s Plantation Bay community offers 5,835 square feet of living space and includes a four-car garage. It overlooks a golf course. The 1.03-acre property includes a pool, an outdoor kitchen, and a full bath. The house includes an additional apartment suite.
WHO HANDLED THE DEAL: Realtor Debbie Spelman of Venture Development Realty (based at Plantation Bay) represented the sellers. Her colleague at Venture Development Realtor, Realtor Carol Paquette, represented the buyers.
Good news for Southwest Florida home owners.
New research has revealed which states properties are most likely to be sold and rented this year. Florida is No. 2 on the list.
The research, pulled together by online self-storage finder Storage.com analyzed nationwide and regional Google searches for keywords related to real-estate sites such as Zillow and Trulia, to identify which states have the biggest interest in moving.
More:Top 10: February’s most expensive house sold for whopping $26M in Collier County
More:Top 10: February’s most expensive house sold for whopping $7.25M in Lee County
These searches were then compared against local populations to identify where reported the highest desire.
According to the research, “a huge 476,050,700 Google searches were made for property and rental sites last year across the US.”
Florida came in with 13,985 searches per 100,000 people – 18% above the national average.
Colorado topped the list as the state where properties and rentals are most in demand. The state averaged 14,414 searches per 100,000 residents, which is a fifth (21%) higher than the national average of 11,869 searches per 100,000 residents.
What state is at the bottom of the most searches list, or homes least likely to be sold or rented? Alaska sellers and landlords are least likely to receive interest, with only 6,025 searches per 100,000 people, which is 49% lower than the national average.
What is the best time of year to sell or rent a home?
As well as naming the states where properties and rentals will receive the highest and lowest levels of interest, the study also revealed the time of year that is best to list them.
Searches around real-estate websites peaked in March last year, with a total of 44,698,660 − 13% more than the monthly average of 39,670,892, so owners may have already missed the prime time to list unless they are ready to advertise their properties now.
If Cape Coral, one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S, has been a financial reach for people shopping for a new home, a new study from researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University indicates the gap could be closing.
According to the study, housing premiums in many markets in the country are starting to decline, suggesting many areas across the country are moving toward stabilization.
A premium is measured by the degree of overpricing in terms of a percentage difference between actual and statistically modeled home prices.
What about rent prices?:Rent shock: Study reveals Cape Coral costlier than Tampa, Orlando, Seattle, other big cities
Cape Coral, the second most overvalued market in the study, had a 62-basis point decline. The data is from the Top 100 U.S Housing Markets.
“This is good news as it signals these markets could be getting to where prices should be, slowly but surely, creating less risk for catastrophic loss in average home value,” said Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D., real estate economist in FAU’s College of Business. “Ideally, we want to find our way back to the long-term trend for each metro area with as little pain as possible.”
What about housing prices in other cities?
The study showed In eight out of the 10 most overvalued housing markets, housing price premiums have started to edge back down toward their long-term pricing trends.
- Atlanta, the most overvalued market in the country, posted a 12-basis point decline in its housing premium over the past month.
- Florida cities like Tampa, the fourth most overvalued, had a 17-basis point decline and Palm Bay, fifth most overvalued, a 31-basis point decline.
- Knoxville, the sixth most overvalued, had a 13-basis point decline.
- Lakeland, the eight most overvalued had a 23-basis point decline.
- Orlando, number nine, saw a six-basis point decline.
- Charlotte, the tenth most overvalued, saw a 14-basis point decline.
More housing price trends highlighted in the analysis
The Top 100 U.S. Housing Markets, a monthly index in FAU’s Real Estate Initiative, measures housing premiums and discounts in the 100 most populated metropolitan areas in the country by looking at the difference in actual average home price in a city and comparing it to the long-term home pricing trend for the same city to calculate how overvalued or undervalued housing markets are using publicly available data from Zillow.
Several Florida metros also signaled that prices are stabilizing as eight out of the nine measured metros saw small declines in premiums. Examples include North Port with a 75-basis point drop in its housing premium between end of December 2023 and the end of January; Deltona with a 39-basis point drop; and Jacksonville with a 16-basis point drop.
“Equity gains remain strong for current homeowners and prospective homebuyers can get a little breather knowing that prices are slightly more stable. All in all, these are good signs for the housing market,” said Eli Beracha, Ph.D., director of FIU’s Hollo School of Real Estate.
South Florida remains an area of concern for researchers as it was the only measured metro in the state where housing premiums did not decrease, instead going up by 23 basis points.
“As prices are on the upswing still in Miami and premiums aren’t showing signs of heading back to the area’s long-term pricing trend, it might be better, in terms of wealth creation, to rent and reinvest monies that would have otherwise been put into homeownership,” Johnson said.
DAYTONA BEACH − A new national ranking lists Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach as the ninth-slowest metro area in the country to sell a house.
The ranking by CreditNews.com comes as a surprise to P.W. Mabry, president of the Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors.
“We’re selling properties like crazy right now,” said Mabry, an agent with Re/Max Signature in Ormond Beach. “Our numbers (volume of homes sold) are going up.”
How did they come up with the ranking?
New York-based CreditNews.com based its ranking of the nation’s 10 fastest and 10 slowest metro areas to sell a house on data from real estate website Zillow.com, which found that it took a median of 39 days for a listing to be put under contract to be sold in the “Deltona” metro area in January.
“When referring to ‘Deltona,’ we meant the entire metro area, encompassing Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach,” confirmed Dan Runkevicius, chief editor for CreditNow.com in an email. “The data was sourced from Zillow’s ‘for-sale inventory’ data set.’ Housing inventory was then adjusted to account for the size of the metro population.”
Florida Realtors Association data showed the “median time to contract” for existing single-family homes in Volusia County in January was actually 41 days, according to a copy of the report provided to The Daytona Beach News-Journal by the West Volusia Association of Realtors.
The Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors reported that the median time to contract for properties listed by its members was 53 days.
The statewide median time to contract in January was 43 days, according to the Florida Realtors Association.
Nationally, the median time to contract for homes to be put under contract was 36 days in January, according to the National Association of Realtors.
It’s based on a ‘Zestimate’
Mabry said he takes data provided by Zillow with a grain of salt.
“(Real estate) brokers must click on a button that allows Zillow to get their information,” he said. “I know for a fact that not all brokers click on that button.”
“Zillow also has in small print on its reports that when they give you an appraisal value for a property that they call it a ‘Zestimate.’ That’s so they can’t be sued (if the information is incorrect),” said Mabry. “It’s their personal opinion.”
“We have people tell us all the time that ‘Zillow says my house should sell for a half-million dollars,’ but that’s not necessarily the case,” he added. “Their ‘Zestimates’ are only within 5% of the actual sale price of a home about half of the time.”
John Adams, president of Adams, Cameron & Co. Realtors in Daytona Beach, also expressed skepticism regarding Zillow’s latest ranking for the Deltona metro area.
“Zillow has a very good statistics team and generally produces good results, however, in this case, I can’t agree,” said Adams.
Adams, Cameron has 300 agents in eight offices in Volusia and Flagler counties, the most of any real estate brokerage in the combined two-county area.
Local market back to pre-pandemic levels?
Florida Realtors Association data for the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach area, which encompasses the combined Volusia County-Flagler County area, showed that the median time to contract for homes locally rose to 33 days in 2023, up from 13 days and 11 days in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Despite the increase, the median time to contract remained lower than in 2019 (41 days), the year before the COVID-19 pandemic-fueled real estate boom in Florida began.
“I like the (Florida Realtors) view over time, because it is more objective,” said Adams.
What CreditNews had to say about its rankings
The report by CreditNews.com stated that its study “reveals a major shift in best-selling markets since the onset of Covid. None of the top fastest-selling metros pre-COVID remain on the list today, and vice versa.
“Part of the reason behind this realignment is different inventory levels across the nation − which, we found, has a strong connection with how fast listings sell.”
What do the latest local housing numbers say?
According to countywide data provided by the West Volusia Association of Realtors, Realtors in Volusia County sold 509 homes in January, up 3% from 494 a year ago. The median sale price rose to $350,000, up 4.8% from $333,990 in January 2023. The inventory of active listings climbed 21.8% year-over-year to 2,384, compared with 1,957 a year ago.
Still, the month’s supply for Volusia, meaning how long in theory it would take to deplete the inventory if no new listings are added, remained tight at 3.3 months, compared with 2.5 a year ago.
The statewide month’s supply in January was 3.8, according to Florida Realtors.
According to the National Association of Realtors, that means the local real estate market remains tilted somewhat in favor of sellers. “Historically, six months of supply is associated with moderate price appreciation, and a lower level of month’s supply tends to push prices up more rapidly,” the NAR website states.
Who else made the fastest and slowest lists?
According to CreditNews.com, the 10 fastest metro areas to sell a house in January, along with the median days on market, were as follows: 1. Hartford, Connecticut (8 days); 2. tie between Rochester and Syracuse, New York, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (9 days); 5. tie between Richmond, Virginia, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and New Haven, Connecticut (11 days); 8. tie between Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and Columbus, Ohio (12 days).
Jacksonville was the other Florida metro area, along with Deltona to make the 10 slowest metro areas list: 1. Austin, Texas (66 days); 2. McAllen, Texas (53 days); 3. Poughkeepsie, New York (51 days); 4. San Antonio, Texas (49 days); 5. New Orleans, Louisiana (48 days); 6. Jacksonville, Florida (42 days); 7. tie between Cape Coral, Florida, and Colorado Springs, Colorado (41 days); 9. Deltona, Florida (39 days); 10. New York, New York (37 days).
Why do some homes take longer to sell?
While some homes locally sell within days of being listed, others can go months without receiving an offer, often resulting in a lowering of the asking price.
“When homes sit on the market, there can be a lot of reasons,” said Mabry. “In some cases, it could be a property that requires extensive repairs or updating. Being over-priced is almost always the No. 1 reason. You have sellers out there trying to get top dollar for their home, in some cases against the advice of their Realtor.”
If you’ve got a big budget and you’re scouring the housing market for a bargain, the price of a lavish Hyde Park estate has dipped just below the $20 million mark.
Ledgerock, a modernist masterpiece perched on a jagged ledge at the Hudson River’s edge, is currently listed by Douglas Elliman at $19,995,000, down from its previous price of $25 million.
If that’s above your price range, consider that the home built for real estate mogul Jacob Frydman and his wife Monica was originally listed at a record-high $45 million not quite three years ago.
“We feel that the pricing now is in line with the market,” said Stacey Pinkas, one of the listing agents. “I think that pre-COVID they had it at a certain price point and now when we took on the listing it’s more in line with the market trends. And they are motivated to let go of the property.”
The Frydmans purchased the Dutchess County property in 2005, demolished three existing buildings and hired New Orleans-based architect Lee Ledbetter to design Ledgerock.
The couple envisioned a “dream home” where they could entertain and showcase an art collection containing dozens of sculptures, including a 3,000-pound lava-stone carving they brought back from Indonesia.
The five-year project culminated in a limestone and glass, five-bedroom residence with windows offering 360-degree views, 18- to 28-foot ceilings, and wood, marble and stone sourced from Europe, Africa and South America.
The 14,800-square-foot home features an elevator, two-story library, billiards room, gym, theater and indoor pool.
The 10.7-acre estate boasts a two-bedroom guesthouse, sculpture garden, 18-car garage with a car wash, outdoor saltwater pool, beach, helipad, fire pit, spa, outdoor kitchen and 5,000 square feet of travertine terraces.
Along with its luxurious amenities, Ledgerock comes with an annual estimated real estate tax bill of $108,392, according to the listing.
“It’s such a stunning property and special place, to see it not being used as often as one would hope,” Pinkas said.
Ledgerock sits directly on the Hudson’s shore, which would not be permitted under current zoning and setback laws requiring new homes to be constructed at least 100 feet away from the riverbank.
It’s got its own private dock, so you can arrive by boat or seaplane. But rest assured: The gated estate is accessible by car.
Ledgerock has a cantilevered design to protect it from flooding by diverting water underneath the house, Pinkas said.
The Frydmans would be open to selling Ledgerock’s furnishings, many of which were custom designed and built, she added.
“They own multiple properties,” Pinkas said of the Frydmans. “They are a mature couple and they are just not spending as much time there as they were previously.”
Robert Brum is a freelance journalist who writes about the Hudson Valley. Contact him and read his work at robertbrum.com.
CHATHAM — A sprawling five-bedroom, 10-bathroom mansion at 558 Fox Hill Road perched along picturesque Crows Pond offers a prime example of a growing real estate trend that is unsettling Cape officials.
Pacaso, a three-year-old San Francisco start-up founded by former Zillow executives, bought the 11,000-square-foot house as its first Cape Cod listing on May 3, 2022 for $10.1 million, according to the assessor’s office. Its website now advertises one-eighth ownership shares for $1.59 million.
The most recent buyer hails from the South and has grandchildren who live locally on the East Coast, according to a Pacaso spokesperson.
The model is called “fractional home ownership,” and local officials, especially on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, are scrambling to regulate it.
Edgartown Planning Board Chairwoman Lucy Morrison said she found the concept intriguing but worried the Cape and Islands’ fragile housing market is not the right fit.
“Our housing stock is under just so much pressure from people that aren’t people,” said Morrison. “People are struggling to stay where they were born and getting priced out by corporations that can put down just ridiculous amounts of cash.”
The median sales price for a single-family home in Chatham for May 2022 was $1.49 million, according to data from the Cape Cod Commission. Warren Group data listed the median sale price for a single-family house for December 2023 as $1.27 million for Edgartown, $794,500 for Tisbury, and $2.36 million for Nantucket.
What is fractional ownership?
Fractional ownership companies like Pacaso and Colorado-based Lifestyle Asset Group buy expensive homes in resort destinations, like the Cape and Islands, sunny Los Cabos, or top ski destination Vail, and creates a limited liability company, or LLC, for each property.
The houses are sliced into fractional ownership shares and sold to multiple buyers for whom traditional second home ownership may be out of reach.
When the home has been fully sold, Pacaso does not retain any ownership and instead acts as a property manager.
Owners, often strangers, can stay overnight up to 44 days a year, but not longer than 14 days in a row, according to Pacaso’s website.
Each owner, during their stay, occupies the entire house.
What if an owner wants to sell their share?
The most significance difference between Lifestyle Asset Group and Pacaso is the exit strategy.
With Lifestyle Asset Group, the term of co-ownership is defined in the legal documents as between five to 10 years, according to the website. When the term ends, the home is sold, either on the market through a real estate agent or to one of the existing co-owners, and sale proceeds are distributed to the co-owners.
With homes where all ownership interests have been sold, Pacaso owners can sell their ownership interest at any time. If units are still pending, owners can sell their interest after a year of ownership.
Each owner has the independent control over the sale of their share, according to the website.
While co-ownership is not a new concept, the platforms boast that they streamline the process. Property managers are on hand to untangle maintenance issues and cleaning, and homes come fully furnished by a design team.
Pacaso argues it’s helping to blunt the housing crisis by reducing competition for middle-tier homes and steering buyers toward luxury homes. Most people who own second homes only use it four to six weeks each year, said Whitney Curry, Pacaso chief marketing officer.
“Whereas with Pacaso, homes are occupied nearly 90% of the year,” she said. “And that consistent occupancy supports the local economy and local jobs.” Pacaso serves almost like “carpooling, where we consolidate demand into fewer houses and make better use of our existing housing stock,” she said.
Central question: timeshares or co-ownership?
Robert Giese owns a Nantucket house on a quiet dead-end cul de sac near a sleek, six-bedroom house on Meadow Lane that Pacaso has dubbed “Cedar Isle.” The company bought the house on Sept. 12, 2022 for $8.25 million and has just one share left for $1.35 million, as of Tuesday morning.
“It’s not very residential, it’s a commercial use of the property basically,” said Giese. “I really don’t want a hotel by me.”
Shortly after Pacaso began advertising the property, Nantucket’s zoning enforcement officer sent a letter to chief executive officer Austin Allison saying that time-sharing amounted to a “transient residential facility,” which is banned in residential zoning districts.
Pacaso filed an appeal with the Zoning Board of Appeals, but later withdrew the request. The company insisted it is not selling timeshares and thus the bylaw does not apply.
“Pacaso is real estate property ownership. A timeshare, you don’t own real estate, you own a right to use time in a property,” said Curry. “At its core, that is the most fundamental difference.”
Municipalities take steps to restrict fractional ownership
Unconvinced, local officials are moving to amend zoning bylaws to specifically include language about fractional ownership, said state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro.
“What we’ve seen emerging is our municipalities moving to regulate or restrict commercial fractional ownership, and they’re doing so either by adding specific language that references fractional ownership or interval use into existing timeshare bylaws or adopting a combination of a timeshare, fractional ownership, interval use bylaw,” said Cyr.
Tisbury and Provincetown residents have passed amended zoning bylaws to limit fractional ownership to just business districts, while Edgartown and Nantucket will mull a similar change at spring town meeting this year.
Officials from those communities say they have few, if any, fractional ownership properties but hope to set restrictions on the trend before it accelerates.
“We said, ‘Look, if we can get a bylaw on the books now, we’re not going to end up dealing with the ones that are already out there and having to essentially grandfather them in or negotiate it away,'” said Tisbury Planning Board Chairman Ben Robinson.
The business model also means fractional ownership is not subject to the short-term rental tax, Cyr noted, because it’s not considered a rental of the property but co-ownership.
‘I’m interested in having neighbors’
On Sunday, Feb. 4, Pacaso listed a new “hot prospect” on Nantucket at 11 Fawn Lane, with one-eighth shares estimated at $552,000.
The model is based off buyer demand, said Curry, the Pacaso chief marketing officer. The company explores buying more properties if it sees an increase in requests for a certain area, and expand elsewhere if not.
“Our mission here at the company is to enrich lives by making second homeownership possible and enjoyable for more people,” said Curry. “We deliver by making the price point and barrier to entry through co-ownership less.”
Cyr, though, said the trend threatens to exacerbate a dire housing crisis and further escalate real estate costs that are already sky-high. More than half of the properties on the Cape and Islands are second homes and most real estate transactions are either second or third homes or for investment properties, he said.
“Locals just simply can’t compete,” said Cyr.
Giese, the home owner on Nantucket, said he worries how the practice could harm his neighborhood.
“I’m interested in having neighbors,” said Giese. “It takes away the community aspect of the street.”
Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on X @zanerazz.
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Family members, lower income bidders, tenants and community development corporations will have an easier time purchasing foreclosed homes after Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Friday that overhauls the sheriff’s sale process.
Under the Community Wealth Preservation Program (A5664/S4240), New Jersey homeowners experiencing foreclosure, their next of kin, or tenants living in a foreclosed property would have “the right of first refusal” — or first shot when the property goes up for auction — at the upset price, which is the minimum price a seller would accept. That typically includes the outstanding mortgage, interest, fees and other costs.
The law aims to give lower-income families a leg up against large investment companies buying and flipping single-family homes at a growing rate. It lets a foreclosed-upon family, their family members, or tenants of the property to put down 3.5% at the auction, as opposed to the 20% deposit usually required.
“Black and brown wealth is hemorrhaging through the loss of foreclosed property, and the people who live in the community often do not have deep enough pockets to even participate in the foreclosure process,” said state Sen. Britnee Timberlake, D-Essex, the lead sponsor of the bill.
More:Bill headed to Murphy would help low-income bidders buy foreclosed homes in NJ more easily
“This bill is a creative opportunity for families to save their wealth at the time of a foreclosure sale by using financing,” Timberlake said. “This legislation also levels the playing field for renters, affordable housing nonprofit developers and people who want to purchase an abandoned home to restore and live in or to create affordability. This is what equity in systems look like.”
In September 2022, Murphy conditionally vetoed a similar bill (A793/S1427), writing he “wholeheartedly” supported the overarching objectives of the bill, but that he had “serious reservations regarding the legality, practicality, and unintended consequences of several of the proposed mechanisms for achieving these goals.”
New bill after Murphy’s conditional veto
In the conditional veto, he asked lawmakers to rework language dealing with caps to auction prices, and properties that don’t sell at sheriff’s sales, among other things. He struck out a section of the bill that said the upset price — or minimum price accepted by a bank — must be capped at no higher than 50% of the outstanding mortgage, interest, fees or other costs owed.
Lawmakers reintroduced a new version of the bill, as opposed to voting to accept the language, or overriding the veto, and took out the 50% cap language.
More:Murphy conditionally vetoes bill to overhaul home foreclosure. What he wants changed
“That’s the key difference and that’s the reason our opposition was redrawn and we’re neutral on it,” said Michael Affuso, head of the New Jersey Bankers Association. “That was clearly problematic, that everyone could decide to default so they could get their principal reduced.
“When something like that could happen, government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could look and say, ‘Wait a second, every mortgage that we own in New Jersey is potentially worth significantly less than we think it’s worth, so we’re just not going to buy mortgages in New Jersey,'” Affuso said.
The bill Murphy signed on Friday also gave the right of first refusal to tenants of foreclosed-upon properties, which was not included in the previous bill, and required upset prices be made public at least four weeks before the sheriff’s sale, among other small changes.
How it works
For those who put down a 3.5% deposit at the auction, the rest would be owed within 90 days by cash, certified or cashier’s check, or wire transfer. They can pay with financing if they plan to use the home as their primary residence for at least seven years, and provide proof they have been pre-approved by a financial institution.
They must live in the home for at least seven years, though there are a handful of hardship exemptions for homeowners, like if the bidder or their spouse or child dies, the bidder becomes disabled or loses income.
A nonprofit community development corporation would have the second right of refusal if it agrees in writing to buy the property for the foreclosed upon family, their next of kin, or the tenant. The organization must negotiate an affordable lease for the family and give them the option to buy the property back from the organization.
“For too many, the dream of homeownership feels far out of reach,” Murphy said. “We are creating a new avenue to homeownership for individuals and families throughout New Jersey, giving many the opportunity to remain in the homes and communities they cherish while also protecting our neighborhoods from rapid investor-driven homebuying.”