Lighthouse Point

When I grew up, Saturday entailed us mowing and weeding.  Not quite my American dream, or that of my brothers as young teens, but we had a lush green lawn and it was every suburbanites dream. To some, a lawn is the crowning glory of their South Florida home. Yet to others it is a tremendous hit on their checkbook.

Everyone loves the appearance of an impeccable lawn.  Don’t you enjoy the smell of fresh cut grass and the feel of it under bare feet.  The cost to maintain it, mowing, edger’s, mowers, aerators, chemicals and fertilizers.  This is the bare minimum to achieve a beautiful lawn or hiring a lawn service.

Lawn service can be a tremendous hit on the checkbook. Studies show that well maintained landscaping can add 15% to the value of a home. 

Gardens are beautiful and butterflies seemingly bring the garden to “life” with fluttery movement from plant to plant. South Florida is a great area to have a butterfly garden. Butterfly gardens come in all shapes and sizes. It can begin in a single pot or a plot of land. It is possible to add a few plants to a couple of beds or a window box or transform an existing garden.

A garden full of butterflies requires a good mix of butterfly nectar and select plants so that butterflies will not only be attracted to your shrubbery for a drink, but they will also lay eggs. This provides a place for the entire butterfly life cycle to ensue.

The butterfly life cycle includes various stages: eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis and finally, butterflies. All the

When staging your Palm Beach County home for sale, your furniture placement will be adjusted to invite buyers into the property and allow them to walk freely in the room and then pass to the next.  It may not be the layout you prefer or use, but it is to facilitate the sale of your house.

 Ideally, a home stager can be your ace in the hole to sell quickly. The home stager will suggest to you what stays and goes, what to put away and what needs to be upgraded.  According to the National Association of Realtors, home stagers start with an “evaluation in which they’ll review your home from curbside to back fence offering a list of instructions and suggested enhancements, changes and upgrades for you to get done.”

The goal of staging is to showcase

One of the many reasons to reside in South Florida or live seasonally is the beauty and abundance of waterways.  Nothing is more serene than gazing out your backyard and see the sunshine glistening on the water behind the house knowing it is at your beck and call.

The climate in South Florida is almost always conducive to fishing, leisure boating, swimming or watersport activity.  To keep Palm Beach County waterways safe the Florida Wildlife Commission encourages boating safety courses. 

The U.S. Coast Guard's Boating Safety Division also supports this concept.  The Coast Guard's Boating Safety Division is dedicated to “reducing loss of life, injuries, and property damage that occur on U.S. waterways by improving the knowledge, skills, and

Image courtesy of Delray Affair.

The 55th Annual Delray Affair takes place this weekend, April 7 – 9, 2017, along the friendly streets of downtown Delray Beach.  Nicknamed the "Greatest Show under the Sun", the Delray Affair is one of the largest arts & craft festivals in the southern United States. It takes place along the palm tree lined streets of downtown Delray Beach and encompasses 12 tree lined blocks. Artists from all around the United States exhibit at the Delray Affair.

Long before the Delray Affair came to dominate East Atlantic Avenue with its displays of arts and crafts, the Gladiola Festival had an eight-year copious run as a feature attraction and even attracted some of the biggest movie stars of the day. It has morphed into what

Palm Beach County has lots of beautiful natural areas and preserves from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean. The Department of Environmental Resources Management (E.R.M.) manages” a range of environmental programs designed to protect, preserve, and enhance Palm Beach County’s natural resources, both on land and water. Fresh drinking water, unpolluted waterways, a large tree canopy, and controlling mosquito populations provide a welcoming outdoor tropical experience to snorkel and dive, visit sandy beaches, fresh or saltwater fish, kayak waterways, hike in the woods all while viewing wildlife in their natural habitat.”

To bring awareness to the community, the E.R.M. will host the annual family fun event known as the Natural Areas Festival.  Palm

Courtesy of Festival of the Arts BOCA

The Festival of the Arts BOCA is an astonishing, multi-day cultural arts event bringing exhilaration and innovative experiences to Boca Raton. The festival begins March 2, 2017 and concludes March 12, 2017. The Festival of Arts Boca has won numerous awards including:  the “Muse Award” from The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, “Best Festival” by Boca Magazine and “Best Cultural Festival of 2014” from Palm Beach Illustrated. The Eleventh Anniversary season will continue to feature the finest in classical music, jazz, dance, film and authors. Spectators will enjoy some of the most sought after jazz and classical performers as well as well recognized authors.  Boca Raton, and the Palm Beaches, are Florida's

Florida conjures up images of luxurious palatial homes, palm trees swaying in warm breezes, sparkling swimming pools, expansive stretches of sandy beaches, and seas of boats moored in harbors. It’s where luxury living has been elevated to its limits.  Thinking of moving to South Florida in 2017, consider the hot forecast for real estate in 2017.

Expect a hot year for home sales in 2017, per recent forecasts from the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers’ Association, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and more.

NAR is predicting “existing-home sales to reach 6 million in 2017, higher than its 5.8 million forecast for this year. But other entities are even more bullish. MBA is predicting home sales to eclipse 6.5 million next year,

Valentine's Day is a time of velvet hearts, chocolate sweets, romantic dinners, and love. It's not clear who the original Valentine was — there were several — but a saint's day with that name was established on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar as early 1,500 years ago. There are indications that Valentine's Day may have originally been adopted in part to replace of the ancient pagan fertility festival of Lupercalia, which fell on February 13 to 15. By the time of Chaucer in the Middle Ages, the Valentine's Day had become associated with romantic love.

Many couples dream to go to Paris on their honeymoon or on Valentine's Day because the city is so well-known for its romantic walks along the Seine River, sidewalk cafe dining and the sparkling

Now that the housing market has steadied after more than a decade of difficulties, this could be the perfect opportunity to invest in a home. It is said that South Florida is an earmarked real estate market and it’s driving the prices of real estate up. 

The Case-Shiller 20 City Index noted that home values rose 5.7%.  Leading economists think prices will continue to rise, at least in the interim. Nationally, Miami is considered one of the top 20 metropolitan cities with highest growth forecast.  Topping the list is another South Florida city, Tampa. 

The National Association of Realtors is forecasting a 4.4% increase in existing home prices and in 2017 an increase of 3.4%.  According to Miami Board of Realtors, “South Florida housing