Venice Bits

Welcome to all the snowbirds in town.  It's nice to see many past customers and familiar faces on Main street and at the beaches.

It certainly has been brisk weather in the mornings here in Venice.  Fortunately, the afternoons warm up to the high 70's, next week prediction is the low to mid 80's.  

Some activities in Venice this month are the following:

Holiday Parade in downtown Venice on November 30, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Bring you chairs and holiday spirit.

Holiday Boat Parade on the intracoastal December 6, starting at 6:00 p.m..  Bring your chairs and some hot cocoa.

At the Venice Community Center on December 5, The New Joey Dee & The Starliters and on December 19, have dinner with the The Dan McMillion Jazz Orchestra. 

Stores will be open late on Dec. 18th at downtown Venice.  Take a stroll and dine in town, shop the stores and view the colorful holiday decorations.

For Venice home sales statistics Oct. of 2008, had 88 sold properties with an average price of $216,856 compared to 2007  which had 96 sold properties  with an average price of $238,467.  Sales have dropped 9% and the home price average has dropped 10%.  Still a good time to buy. 

Millage rates used to assess our property taxes were released and its good and bad news.  Sarasota county the rates dropped from 12.6368 to 12.5588.  Those in the city limits of Venice they rose from 2.9390 to 2.9840.  

A customers  inquired how the portability of Save Our Homes (SOH) benefits homeowners who move from one homestead to another.  The SOH cap is the difference between the Market Value of the homestead  and its assessed value.  This cap  up to $500,000 can be transferred  when upsizing to reduce the assessed value of a new homestead property.  You can look up your SOH Cap on the Sarasota County Property Appraiser Website from the Property Record Search Page.  http://sarasotaproperty.net   When downsizing the entire cap cannot be used, but the same ratio of assessed value to market value of the relinquished homestead can be applied to the new homestead. 

Should any one else have a question, please feel free to e-mail me and I can post them on the blog.  alice.salaice@gulfcoastvenicehomes.com