A Few Top Things to do on Anna Maria Island

One of the best things to do while vising Anna Maria Island is riding your bike. There are bike lanes throughout most of the island and there are rarely any hills to have to go over. Using a bike is a great way of getting from place to place. You don’t have to bother with any of the traffic and you can easily lock your bike at any bike rack located at most of the businesses. Riding your bike to the beach is great too! You don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot! All you have to do is put your beach items in the basket, bike to the beach location you love, lock it up, and now you’re ready to enjoy the beach.

Anna Maria Island’s beach is stunning. Enjoy the warm Florida sunshine and slight island breeze while resting on the white, sugary sands. Much of the island’s real estate gives opportunity to gulf front and waterfront homes as well as beach access points. Take a bike ride up to the Historic Anna Maria City Pier. The walk to the restaurant on the gulf is beautiful with the view of the Skyway Bridge, local fishermen, and wildlife such as dolphins or manatee. You can sit inside or outside to enjoy the views of the gulf. The food is delicious! Local favorites are the Fish & Chips dish, Shrimp basket, Crab cake Croissant, and the Grouper Sandwich. Occasionally there is also a jewelry shop outside the restaurant’s doors; so, feel free to take a look and find you may find something you like.

While you’re at the north end of Anna Maria Island there are tons of little shops to visit as well as some great food to try. There are boutiques, souvenirs, and more! Two Scoops, a local favorite for ice cream is nestled in a little stretch of business just outside of the city pier. Two Scoops has tons of different flavors for ice cream that you can choose from. If you want that waffle cone bowl- go for it! They have that too! They also have snacks, drinks, and a couple things you can buy as souvenirs. The best part about Two Scoops is that you can enjoy your ice cream outside looking out at the magnificent turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Throughout Anna Maria Island there is a free trolley that you can hop on and see the sight of Holmes Beach, Bradenton Beach, and Coquina Beach. With so much to offer this little island is perfect for your home away from home.

Bayfest 2015!

Coming up around the corner is the 15^th annual Bayfest. Bayfest is a festival that is held on Anna Maria Island each year that brings in many people from the local area and beyond. The festival is a family friendly event that has activities for every one of all ages. Relax and enjoy the live music from local bands or burst into a cheerful dance. For those of a creative nature, there are arts and crafts vendors that have items from beautiful paintings to handmade jewelry and clothing. After dancing and shopping around you probably would feel hungry by then. Great news!! There are many food vendors throughout the festival. There is food from local restaurants that ranges from BBQ, pizza, and chicken to crab, fish tacos, and gyros. Bayfest also has the Island’s largest, classic car show! There is a wide variety of cars for everyone to enjoy from antique, to classic, to muscle, and even custom cars. Bayfest will be held on Pine Avenue on October 17, 2015 from 10am to 10pm. Come out and enjoy the festivities! 

Property Values are Increasing

A recent survey performed by the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office has shown that Anna Maria Island’s worth has gone up 16.8% more than last year. All three cities on Anna Maria has each gone up at different intervals and are still continuing to rise. Anna Maria’s market value has increased from 2014-2015 by 18.2%, Bradenton Beach has gone up to 9.6%, and Holmes Beach’s value has increased by 9.4%. Across Manatee County the market values increased by 12% from 2014 while the taxable values are up 8%. TRIM (Truth in Millage) notices are being sent out to property owners on the island notifying them of their taxable values and how to calculate how much property tax they will owe. It will also show them their market values based on the sales. The TRIM notices are usually estimated higher than the actual market value. The overall increase of all three cities on Anna Maria brings the total to $604 million since 2014.

For more information on properties for sale on Anna Maria Island go to: http://www.annamariaislandrealestateforsale.com/

Palmetto: Oceanfront Home for Sale

1760 Amberwynd Circle, Palmetto, FL 34221

This listing is perfect for relaxing and entertaining guests. The open floor plan expands throughout the home from the vast kitchen and gorgeous multi-tiered lanai to the heated saltwater pool with a cascading waterfall. Go out for a boating adventure anytime with your boat docked at the newly covered Trex deck with a 10,000 lb. lift. Enjoy family gatherings or events with the expansive backyard surrounded with lush vegetation.

Feel like you are on vacation everyday in this beautiful John Cannon style home. The style is a company called John Cannon Homes that is Southwest Florida's premier designer and builder of luxury custom homes. This home is located in the Snead Island West Amberwynd neighborhood and has a generous amount of space. The biggest appeal of this home is that you are living right on the water. You have an amazing view of the canals and are only minutes away from the Bradenton Beach Yacht Club and Emerson Point and Anna Maria Island Real Estate. It's unbelievable that the location that this house is in and the house itself is available for purchase instead of renting. Living on Snead Island is a unique experience that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and here it is!

      

 Click the Image above to go to the house listing

Property Details:

• 4 Bedrooms
• 3 Full Bathrooms
• 2,880 sq. feet
• Single Family Home
• 3 Car Garage
• Built in 2006
• Address: 1760 Amberwynd Circle, Palmetto, FL 34221
• Neighborhood: Snead Island Estates West Amberwynd

Interior Features:

• Kitchen: Walk-in Pantry, Built-in desk, and a Kitchen Island
• Bathrooms: Tub with separate shower stall, Dual sinks, and a Garden Bath in the Master Bathroom
• Bedroom: Walk-in Closet (Master Bedroom)
• Cathedral/ Vaulted Ceilings, Crown Moldings, Thermal Windows
• Washer/ Dryer Hookup
• Open Floor Plan
• Separate breakfast and formal dining room, Family room

Exterior/ Lot Features:

• Patio/Porch/ Screened in Deck
• Sliding doors
• Hot Tub/ Spa
• Balcony/ Sun Deck
• Gulf/ Ocean Access
• Intracoasta Waterway Access
• Heated Saltwater Pool with a Cascading Waterfall

View this house listing at: http://www.annamariaislandrealestateforsale.com/paradise-home-sale-palmetto-anna-maria-life-and-billi-gartman/

To schedule a tour, gathering further information on this property and to find similar listings, please contact Billi at 941-545-8877

Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to stay up to date with island life and Anna Maria Real Estate!

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Anna Maria Island Real Estate: Is now the time to Buy?

Time to Buy That Beach House?

 Whether you're an investor looking to add some property that you can sell for a profit down the road or just a buyer hoping to obtain a new home for your family, the decision to buy a house is huge. The whole market can seem like something completely alien to the average person. Is this a good time to look at buying a house on Anna Maria Island, Longboat key or the Bradenton area? And how can I even know if it is or isn't the right time to look at jumping in to real estate? Most of us don't understand all of the words and numbers being tossed around in news reports on home prices. Let's see if we can carve through all of that confusion and get to an answer.

 

If we want information about the state of the housing market, the National Association of Realtors seems like a good place to start. According to them, it's a great time to be looking at making a purchase. Interest rates are low and so are home prices. However, while prices are still lower than usual, how long they'll remain that way is difficult to know. In fact, the national average sales price for houses rose by ten percent in February and March compared to the same months just a year ago.

 There simply aren't as many homes available to purchase as we might normally see. A lot of homeowners are holding on to property until they see the market start reaching the sorts of numbers that we saw in 2006. That's when they made their purchase, and they aren't willing to eat a significant loss on a sale now. At the same time, construction of new houses is starting to get back on track, but it has a lot of bouncing back to do after years of minimal building.

 

On the other hand, there might be more potential buyers out there than would normally be expected. That same lack of available housing means that rent rates are increasing rapidly. If you could realistically purchase a house with a lower monthly mortgage payment than what you're paying now for rent, why wouldn't you be interested in owning your own home? And just like many sellers have been waiting to see what happens in the housing market, buyers have spent a few years parked on the side of the road to see if the traffic clears. Now that it has, and the price of the average home is down, they're putting the car in drive and getting back on to the highway.

So we have a glut of buyers hoping to land a property for cheaper than it might end up being worth, but also a lack of homes available for them to choose from. That doesn't sound like a market that will remain inexpensive for long. And it won't. Of course, as the prices go up, more of those hesitant sellers will begin to put their house on the market since it would now fetch a price more to their liking. So that side of it would seem to be fairly self-balancing, though certainly at a price level higher than what we're seeing now. That brings us to interest rates.

And interest rates remain the great unknown in all of this. Rates are currently low to try to spur the sort of increase in home purchases and new construction that we're beginning to see. How long rates will remain that low is the mystery. At what point will the recovery be declared secure enough that they're bumped up a notch or two? We simply don't know.

 Really, it comes down to what it always has come down to : Can you afford to make a buy in the current market? Maybe your credit was shattered like that of so many others, so it might make sense to spend a few years rebuilding that rating before diving back in. Or maybe you simply aren't in a position to make a big purchase right now. There's no shame in any of that. Just be honest about your own financial health and where it's likely to be in the near future, and decide for yourself if the time is right for you to be buying a house.

Great time to buy in Anna Maria Island

It was recently reported that property ownership in Anna Maria Island Florida is the second most affordable in the Atlantic. Property values are a bargin for the spectular stretch of 7 miles of paradise.

If you would like to visit and stay before you buy please visit a list of Anna Maria Florida vacation rentals companies by clicking here The when you are ready to purchase your beach home contact us Anna maria Island Real estate for sale.