The average rate on 30 year, fixed rate mortgages dropped to 6.14 percent, down from 6.18 percent a week ago and 6.26 percent a year earlier. The 30 year fixed rate is the lowest it has been since Jan. 26 of this year, according to Freddie Mac.

The 15-year, fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.87 percent, down from 5.91 percent last week but up slightly from 5.81 percent a year ago. The rate is the lowest for 15 year fixed mortgages since Feb. 2, 2006.

The average five year adjustable rate mortgage rate was 5.95 percent, down from last weeks 5.99 percent but up from 5.76 percent a year earlier. The average one year ARM rate was 5.46 percent, compared with 5.49 percent a week ago and 5.16 percent last year.

Mortgage rates drifted lower this week, bringing long-term rates to levels below those of this time last year, says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. Mortgage applications for home purchases in November have remained healthy, largely because of the drop in mortgage rates and a softening in home prices in some areas.
Lower rates should help keep to stimulate a sluggish Miami real estate market.

Sunny Isles is now the new Millionaires Row of Miami. The following is a list of the five most expensive Sunny Isles Condos available today. There are many other Sunny Isles condos that are available on the market today. If you would like more information on these or any other properties, please contact us today.

1. Acqualina PH # 1 List Price $10,000,000

2. Acqualina PH # 4606 List Price $9,800,000

3. Acqualina PH # 4506 List Price $7,500,000

4. Turnberry Ocean Colony TS # 2-3 $6,900,000

5. Ocean Three # 3701 $6,550,000

Chase, a leading residential housing lender, and Turnberry Ltd., one of the countrys foremost developers of luxury condominium and condominium-hotel developments, have formed a strategic partnership making Chase the preferred mortgage lender for all of Turnberrys U.S.-based properties.

We are very pleased to formalize and expand our relationship with an industry leader like Turnberry, said Desmond Smith, Chase Business Development executive. Our focused, in-depth knowledge of the high-end condominium and condominium-hotel markets has allowed us to create a number of innovative mortgage programs that deliver the superior financing options and priority services Turnberrys sophisticated buyers desire.

Chase currently is working closely with Turnberry and its clients to provide mortgage support at The Residences at MGM Grand and Turnberry Towers in Las Vegas, Turnberry Village in Aventura, Fla., and Turnberry Ocean Colony in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. Throughout 2007, Chase also will support Turnberry projects under construction, including Turnberry Tower in Arlington, Va., and Fontainebleau III Ocean Club in Miami Beach, Fla.

We are excited about this new alliance with Chase as it will allow us to continue enhancing our signature buying experience and providing our future residents with the ultimate in personalized service and attention to detail, said Bruce Weiner, Turnberrys president and chief operating officer.

Chases product portfolio, which will be available to Turnberry homebuyers, has helped Chase more than double its builder volume since the beginning of 2005. The Chase Premier Builder Program for Condominium Developers, for example, is one of the most comprehensive multi-family lending platforms in the industry, offering a variety of innovative mortgage products to consumers and reducing paperwork for developers. RISMEDIA, November 28, 2006

Turnberry continues to raise the bar on luxury living. For more information on any of the Turnberry projects, please contact Paul Hansen today. 786-586-4778

Hansen Homes has just reduced the price for unit 1031 at the Towers of Oceanview in Hallandale to $414,000. This unit was appraised one month ago for $460,000 and is currently priced under the market value. Dont miss this opportunity to buy for a great price! Unit 1031 offers a wrap around balcony, new kitchen and bathrooms, built in closets and tile and wood floors all in the largest floor plan in the building. Please call today for details.

Aventura Marina Phase II is having its closeout sale on their last waterfront townhome. It is a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom of 2,259 square feet priced at $850,000. This is one of the best values for waterfront townhome living in Aventura. Phase II is nearly complete and is looking great! There are a limited number of waterfront townhomes in Aventura, so please do not wait too long. Please call today for details.

Only 28 percent of home buyers say what they read and hear from the media has any impact at all on their decisions to buy or not to buy a new home, according to a survey commissioned by the National Association of Home Builders.
"While the majority of the households we polled indicated that they found the media a reliable source of information on the housing market, what they read in the newspaper, saw on television or heard on the radio was no substitute for actually going out and shopping the market," says Thomas Riehle, a partner in RT Strategies, which conducted the research for NAHB.

Factors that did have an impact on the home-buying decision were:

* Price of home: 80 percent
* Potential for the new home to appreciate in value: 71 percent
* Likelihood of selling their former home at a fair price: 70 percent
* Mortgage interest rates: 69 percent
* Life changes like a new job or family member: 60 percent

Experts predict a mini refinancing boom, as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has hit a 10-month low of 6.15 percent.
The Mortgage Bankers Association says refinancing accounted for about half of all home-loan applications last week, and the number could rise if mortgage rates decrease further.
JP Morgan Chase economist James Glassman, for instance, speculates the 30-year mortgage rate could fall as low as 5.75 percent in the coming months. While many borrowers are refinancing out of adjustable-rate, payment-option and interest-only loans, Amy Crews Cutts, Freddie Mac deputy chief economist, says some are refinancing to extract equity.

The number of homes available for sale in 18 U.S. major metropolitan areas declined an average of 1.2 percent in October.

The largest declines in home inventories in October were in the metro areas of Sacramento, Calif., where they fell 5.4 percent; San Diego, 5.6 percent; and San Francisco, 6.4 percent.

Inventories climbed 2.4 percent in Seattle and 3.7 percent in Miami.

Interest rates were down slightly and mortgage applications were up almost even with last year, despite a week shortened by the Veterans Day holiday, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 647.5, an increase of 4.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 620.9 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index was down 0.1 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 48 percent of total applications from 46.3 percent the previous week. The refinance share is at its highest level since February 2005.
The average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.15 percent from 6.24 percent. The average rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.85 percent from 5.96 percent. And the interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.87 percent from 5.89.

The following is a list of the ten highest priced condominiums available for sale in Miami-Dade county as of 11-17-2006. If you would like more information regarding any of these condos, please contact Paul Hansen 786-586-4778.

1. The Setai Unit # PH B Priced at $29,000,000

2. Il Villaggio Unit # PH 6 & 7 Priced at $18,500,000

3. Bristol Tower Unit # 4000 Priced at $16,900,000

4. Icon South Beach Unit # PH 1 Priced at $15,900,000

5. Fisher Island Unit # 7612 Priced at $15,000,000

6. One Bal Harbour Unit # 2602 Priced at $13,500,000

7. Bellini Condo Unit # 2301 Priced at $13,500,000

8. Ocean Tower One Condo Unit # PH 1 Priced at $11,900,000

9. One Bal Harbour Unit # PH 1 Priced at $11,900,000

10. The Bath Club Unit # Villa 6 Priced at $ 10.990.000

This is a list of the ten most expensive closed sales the the Miami condo market for 2006. If you would like more information on these sales or information regarding the Miami condo market, please feel free to give us a call or send an email. We have an extensive knowledge of the condo market in MIami and we can help you make an informed decision.

1. Icon South Beach Unit # PH 1 Closed Price $12,140,000

2. Fisher Island Oceanside Unit # 7764 Closed Price $8,500,000

3. Bellini Bal Harbour Unit # PH 1-S Closed Price $5,700,000

4. Il Villaggio South Beach Unit # 1605 Closed Price $5,000,000

5. Grand Bay Tower II Unit # PH 1AN Closed Price $5,000,000

6. Ocean Tower One Condo Unit # 501 Closed Price $4.800,000

7. The Gables Condo Unit # 15K Closed Price $4,760,000

8. Club Tower II Key Biscayne Unit # PH 3 Closed Price $4,500,000

9. Continuum South Beach Unit # 3203 Closed Price $4,250,000

10. The Bath Club Unit # PH 19E Closed Price $4,250,000

To obtain additional information on these listings, please contact Paul Hansen 786-586-4778.

*All information above is from the South East Florida Regional MLS*

American Express recently announced it would begin accepting condominium down payments to its cardholders. This could end up being one of the most significant new wrinkles added to the real estate industry in years. This program was brought about by the success American Express had in accepting recurring payments in the luxury rental market in New York starting in 2003. If this program takes hold and goes nation wide it will simplify how consumers of real estate put their deposits in escrow. Imagine the rewards you could earn by charging large deposits on you American Express cards. That is very appealing to consumers these days with just about everyone looking to maximize their money. Hopefully in the very near future, you will be able to put a down payment for a Sunny Isles condo on your American Express card.

The St Regis Resort & Residences Bal Harbour now has final building approvals from the Village of Bal Harbour. It has recently been decided that the existing Sheraton Hotel will be closed at the end of February 2007 to make way for the St Regis Resort & Residences. Completion for the St Regis is planned for late 2009. The St Regis Bal Harbour will bring an new level of service never before seen in Bal Harbour. Starwood and the Related Group are quickly moving forward with this unique development that will soon become the most exclusive property in all of Miami. This is exactly what the Bal Harbour real estate market needs is an exclusive hotel / condo hotel that will deliver the highest level of service imaginable.

There are some great deals to be had out there for buyers in the Aventura real estate market, if you know where to look. Condos like Aventura Marina and Turnberry Village are ripe for the savvy buyer. Both of these condos have a high level of inventory and buyers really have the leverage they need to get a great deal.

Studies of the psychology of finance indicate that emotions play a huge role in decisions people make about money.
There's a whole emotional processing system that goes on in the brain that's largely beyond our control, says Kevin McCabe, a professor of economics, law, and neuroscience at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The general view is that our emotions control us, and not vice versa.
The study of neuroeconomics has illuminated a few key concepts: Many people will pass up sure profits for illusory ones. Some will turn down profits if they believe someone else is unfairly profiting more. Some will even refuse to sell if they believe they may come to regret it, because fear of future regret can be as powerful a motivator as money in the pocket today.
While little of this has been applied scientifically to real estate, it is easy to make the leap.
For instance, much research has been done on the concept of loss aversion, which shows that people tend to deny reality when something they own, such as a house, declines in value. Sellers maintain the asking price even at a level that makes no sense, economists say. Similarly, home sellers become attached to the prices their neighbors received at the top of the market rather than current prices, and they become reluctant to sell unless they get that higher price.
There seems to be a psychological resistance to taking losses on the sale of a house, says David Laibson, who teaches psychology and economics at Harvard University. People think they'll make money on it.... That logic worked for a long time, and now anyone who bet on that logic is being burned.

There is another company/person who we would like to thank in the continue success of Hansenhomesaventura.com and that is Allison from http://www.intersectiononline.com/. Allison is one of the greatest Graphic Artist/Web designers we ever had the pleasure to work with. We would like to thank Allison and her web design skills for helping make our visions a reality.

Just like in life, it is the people who you surround yourself with that makes the difference and business is no different. We are very fortunate to have such a great team of people who we work with. We hope you will feel the same way about us.

Have a great weekend from the HansenhomesAventura team.

We would like to thank the kind people at Applied Innovations for their great customer support and going above and beyond the call of duty for us.

We had to find a new hosting company when we started to build out our MLS technology. We put a lot of research in trying to find the best ASP.net host and choose Applied innovations. Obviously our research payed off since we couldn't be happier.

If you are looking for shared or dedicated hosting packages we would highly recommend them not only for their great prices but also for their outstanding customer service.

Thank you to all the great people at Applied Innovations

We have been real busy here at HansenHomesAventura trying to make our website the best resource on South Florida real estate, just for you. Not only are we adding new properties to the website daily, creating our own MLS technology, but we are also adding video.

In the near future we will be starting to add videos of South Florida condos. If there is a property you are interested in us putting up on the site drop us a line using our Miami Real Estate Contact Form or leave us a comment below.

We hope you enjoyed this quick video clip. We promise they will get better and better over time ;) Like the old saying goes They didn't build Trump Towers Sunny Isles in a day or something like that :)

We have recently started to build out or own IDX listing technology for www.hansenhomesaventura.com. Every month we will be adding more and more features to our technology to make it easier to find that perfect property.

We would like to thanks the great programmers at DiYi Technology. If you are interested in any type of website programming, Animation,Architectural Visualization, and Virtual reality, give these guys a call.

We would love to hear what kind of features you would like to see. Please leave us a comment on this post on features that you would like incorporated into our technology. Here are some of the properties with the first phase of our new technology.

Acqualina
Les Pelicans Sunny Isles
Winston Towers
Sands Pointe Sunny Isles

We are looking forward to reading your comments. To add a comment click on the orange link that says comments at the bottom of the entry.

Thanks again and we hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween.