Considering buying Miami Beach homes or any other home for that matter?  The government tax credit may be over but you still might want to think about making up your mind and deciding what you’d like to do, especially if you plan to seek FHA financing.  Pretty soon you might find yourself having to shell out more each month if you don’t.

New buyers purchasing Miami Beach homes or those who are seeking an FHA loan for any kind of home face the possibility of potentially having to pay higher monthly fees.  The FHA was recently given approval to hike up its fees in order to stabilize its finances after weathering the effects of foreclosures.  To illustrate, a buyer with a $170,000 mortgage would have to pay a little more than $40 additional dollars each month with the new FHA premium hikes.  While this would generate over $1 billion for the FHA, it would obviously cause more financial strain on the homeowner.

The only real solution to this situation is to buy whatever Miami Beach homes you’re going to buy soon before this new premium hike goes into effect.  How do you feel about these new changes?  Are they a necessary measure to keep the FHA afloat or another way of making things tougher for homeowners on a strict budget?

Here’s something a little more lighthearted and amusing to kick off your Father’s Day weekend.  Whoever heard of leaving multimillion dollar Miami Beach homes to your pets as an inheritance?  That’s exactly what one woman did and the lawsuits are already gearing up by family members to try and snag a piece of this inheritance.

To be more specific, a woman named Gail Posner gave $3 million dollars and her Miami Beach mansion to her three dogs, a decision her son is none too happy about .  Perhaps even more surprisingly, a whopping $25 million was also given to her staff members to be used to care for her Chihuahua and keep her decked out in the finest designer dog gear and refreshed with regular spa outings.  As for the residence itself, it definitely falls under the category of luxury Miami Beach homes as it’s currently worth $7 million.

Ms. Posner in Miami Beach is certainly unusual but this isn’t the first time someone has left their wealth to their pets.  Perhaps most famously, late billionaire real estate investor Leona Helmsley initially left a staggering $12 million dollar trust fund to her Maltese named Trouble before the sum was reduced to $2 million.  Perhaps dogs really are man’s best friend.

If you know the basic rules about short sales then you know there’s always an uncomfortable worry.  A worry of whether or not a lender will choose to go after that unpaid balance a borrower is trying to rid him or herself of by selling their Miami Beach homes via a short sale.  While each lender has its owns reasons for choosing to or not choosing to pursue these unpaid balances, Bank of America is looking to ease these worries and reach a compromise.

In a proposed set of new rules, the bank would actually waive their right to seek deficiency judgments (those unpaid balances) during a closing if borrowers can legitimately prove that they cannot afford to pay the mortgages for their Miami Beach homes and no assets are available.  If it’s determined that borrowers can actually make those payments, a certain fee will be negotiated that homeowners would need to pay back.  If a borrower chooses not to share their financial information, they still face the risk of the bank pursuing those unpaid balances.

Overall these new rules seem like a step in the right direction and do give borrowers some peace of mind as well as a better idea as to whether selling their Miami Beach homes through a short sale is the right way to go.  What do you think?

Even as the market has continued to show slow but steady improvements, the major “elephant in the room” continues to be foreclosure and its effect on properties like Miami Beach homes.  Thankfully, last month was something of a change of pace, a change of pace that may or may not continue throughout the rest of 2010 but is certainly a bit of refreshing news.

During the month of May, foreclosure actions throughout the South Florida region nosedived by 49 percent when compared to May of 2009.  In Miami-Dade County alone, foreclosure filings plummeted by fifty percent, a reliable sign that more people are hanging onto their Miami Beach homes and lenders are doing at least something worthwhile with mortgage modifications and short sales.

It’s still important to keep in mind that while foreclosures may have dropped on a year to year basis, they’re still a problem.  Miami Beach homes, Coral Gables homes, some of these properties accounted for the 23 percent of default notices in Miami-Dade County during the month of May.  However the fact that numbers are going down may be a sign of good things to come.

We’re seven days into the month of June, which means it’s time to report the activity of pending home sales during May.  Did markets like Miami Beach homes see a huge surge as the tax credit deadline came and went or did the largely encouraging signs seen throughout the year finally come to an end?  Let’s find out.

The month of May was in fact another month of solid gains for pending home sales, skyrocketing by a whopping 54 percent in Miami-Dade County alone.  To put that number in more detailed terms, pending sales for condos and properties such as single family Miami Beach homes increased to 10,456 last month.  Sure enough, this consecutive month of gains was a result of the federal tax credit which is now officially over.

The future may not be as rosy as one would like, at least not if analysts are to be believed.  Because the tax credits are no more, sales for Miami Beach homes and such are actually expected to plunge.  However, there may end up being a “gentle recovery” once that happens so there’s still some degree of good news to look forward to.

There’s no question that Miami Beach homes maintain a strong appeal for their affluence but if you explore to the north beyond Bal Harbour, you’ll find that they’re rivaled by the residences of Golden Beach.  This small oceanfront enclave has been one of South Florida’s best kept secrets but a lack of sidewalks and storm sewers that constantly backed up (among other things) were dampening its high end appeal.  That is no longer the case.

Golden Beach recently underwent a massive $25 million facelift, a meticulous makeover that saw everything from new pipes to new sidewalks, trees, fountains, parks, power lines and more either replaced or newly installed in and around the residences that rival Miami Beach homes.  The makeover was extensive enough that it took three years to complete and now the neighborhood has obtained its own PR agency to get the word out.

Some of the new highlights at Golden Beach include much better privacy and perhaps most importantly, pathways that allow walking along Golden Beach Boulevard where you can admire some of the residences that are a perfect complement to Miami Beach homes found a short distance down south.