Aventura & Sunny Isles Beach Luxury Real Estate

Each and every year as the new school year approaches, we are reminded of how quickly summer has come and gone. Labor Day will be here soon enough, and then the lazy crazy days of summer will soon be a fleeting memory. Ah, if only that were true. No fleeting memories on this end. Each and every day since June 18th is etched in my brain. When a diagnosis of Cancer hits a family, there are no fleeting memories, no easy passing of time, and no going back to the way things were before the summer. For the average person, you look back and remember, reevaluate, and revisit the summer that has gone by. The activities that occupied your time during the summer months are thought about when the new work and school seasons commence. You look back and smile about that great vacation you took or all the things you accomplished when you stayed home and tackled many household chores. Seasons are not only the markings of the change in environment but ways to move from one period of time to the next. The end of summer tells us school is just around the corner and the fall holidays will begin soon enough. Our summer days of 2010 will stay with us for a very long time to come. We will carry them into the next season like baggage you cannot check. Too much has happened, too much to process and too much to plan for the future. Unlike Summer Camp, or a European vacation, or summer classes, our experiences this summer cannot be encapsulated in the summer of 2010. The experiences we have encountered and the struggles Noa Maya has endured will not be behind us when Labor Day Weekend arrives. Watching very carefully as children return to school, including our own two grandsons, we see the transition once again from summer to fall. Adjustments are made on all levels, as everyone does their very best to acclimate back into their comfortable routine they lived prior to the summer months. As human beings we need that and crave it. Consistency, predictability, and familiarity are all comfort areas for each and every one of us. We all need that added reassurance on some level in our lives. The calendar says we’ve moved on, but summer is not really behind us.
by
Susan koslovsky

For the past six weeks I have spent my time in New York City. Unfortunately as you know my granddaughter’s diagnosis of Neuroblastoma is what brought me there for this period of time. By the time you read this week’s ad, I will be safely home. Life can no longer be the same but with adjustments and proper attention I will get back up to speed and resume activities with a different perspective. Glad to be surrounded by all my absolutely most beautiful grandchildren once again (let’s keep the adjectives simple,) the old adage “there’s no place like home,” is more than true. Grateful for wonderful friends who did their above and beyond duties of making sure my spirits were up as much as possible, I faced every day with knowing I was not alone. That being said, most of my days began with a short walk a couple of blocks away to a quaint shop selling pastries and delicious coffee drinks. No it wasn’t that famous coffee chain that many of you frequent in Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach. Due to the very unusually hot summer weather that New York City was experiencing this particular year, morning coffee drinks were almost always iced. And yes, you can order an iced cappuccino with non fat milk and not be answered with “there’s no such thing, you mean a latte.” Florida doesn’t seem to know from cold frothed milk on top of an iced drink. Thank heavens for small things. Each and every time I came to the same corner I passed a woman dressed exactly the same way each and every day. She wore the same soiled white stretch pants, the same crumpled black jacket, and the same hat sat upon her head filled with long grey hair. She held onto a grocery cart, the kind you fold up and keep in your car, filled with bags, and bags of I cannot imagine what. The big sunglasses covered her eyes, and many days I noticed her face was covered with a white cream. I don’t know what time she began her vigil in the morning or until what time she remained in that exact spot, but whenever I was there so was she. The only words I ever heard her say to anyone was “Do you have the time?” or “What time do you have?” I never heard her ask for money, or food, or any other assistance. Hundreds of people passed her every single day. I have often wondered what each one of them has thought as they approached her and saw her standing there. I admit I am not in the habit of handing people on the street money, but on my last day in New York City I did. I was glad I could not see her eyes because that would have been more than I could deal with. Along with so many other random thoughts that will come in and out of my head in the days and weeks to come, I will always remember this particular woman on the corner and hope she finds the strength she needs to endure her life.
by
Susan Koslovsky

It’s been awhile since the talk about the real estate bubble. Now there is so much available and advertised pertaining to Short Sale and Foreclosure properties, that it is easy to forget how we got to this point. Markets can turn so fast. It seems like one day the real estate slogan was, “Buy now or be priced out forever!” and the next day it was, “How do I save my home from foreclosure?” Although some homeowners suffered massive losses, other homes lost a little value but were basically fine. What gives? The answer lies in an old fashioned slogan: “All real estate is local.” In fact, the real estate downturn wasn’t one massive collapse, but many. Let’s take a quick look at some major factors…so that if a curve ball like that comes around again, you’ll know how to hit it. First off there was Widespread Mortgage Fraud: In the early 2000s, some lenders offered mortgage loans to people who didn’t understand and couldn’t afford them. This whole dirty underbelly of the mortgage business is known as “sub-prime lending.” As those homeowners stopped paying their mortgages, we saw a wave of foreclosures. A Positive Action Step: Never take a mortgage you don’t understand. Then there was Rampant Speculation: Although it felt like bidding wars took place in a lot of different cities, there was something special about places like Las Vegas and Miami - the new condos just kept coming, and investors just kept paying more…until they didn’t. The last investors were left holding properties that they never intended to own long-term. The worst of this crisis (and half of all mortgage defaults) took place in what is commonly known as “the sand states”: like California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. A Positive Action Step: Don’t buy a home that you’re not willing to live in for at least five years. Then came the Increasing Unemployment: The real estate market is usually good in areas where there are lots of high-paying jobs, and the market goes down when workers get pink slipped. This is roughly what happened to Michigan, a state that is closely tied to the auto industry. The opposite is true, too: The real estate market held up pretty well in cities like Dallas, where unemployment has been lower than the national average. A Positive Action Step: Before you buy a home, make sure you have an emergency fund in case you lose your job. Understanding the pulse on the market and what is happening around you in your community regarding real estate can give you a better sense of what you might expect in the future.
by
Susan Koslovsky