Jeep Beach invades Daytona International Speedway with 'Main Event'
DAYTONA BEACH — Despite threatening clouds and the lingering chance of rain, a procession of thousands of Jeeps still rolled on Friday morning at the opening day of the annual Jeep Beach “Main Event” on the infield at Daytona International Speedway. The Speedway gathering, one of the popular fixtures of the weeklong Jeep Beach, showcased a midway packed with vendors hawking every imaginable brand-specific part or accessory, items that ranged from custom wheels to conversion kits to transform vehicles into rolling homes-away-from-home. The two-day “Main Event” will continue on Saturday at the Speedway with a new wrinkle: a closing concert by pop singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, followed by a fireworks display. More Jeep Beach fun: Jeep Beach party returns to Daytona's Hard Rock Hotel On Sunday, the weeklong Jeep Beach officially concludes with an early-morning Jeep Beach parade on Daytona Beach that includes a “Jeep Beach Sweep” to clean litter off the sand. Staging for that that event will start at 5:45 a.m. at all open beach ramps between International Speedway Boulevard and Dunlawton Avenue. The parade is slated to start at sunrise, at 6:43 a.m. A beach pass is not required for the parade. At 'Main Event,' obstacle course tests Jeeps and their drivers At the Speedway on Friday, meanwhile, the main attraction was watching Jeeps of all shapes and sizes tackle the event’s formidable obstacle course. Jeepers kicked up dirt and debris as they pushed their off-road vehicles against the course littered with cracked remains of massive concrete water pipes, highway barriers and other objects that most drivers would avoid. In the nearby grandstand, onlookers marveled at the power of engines and suspensions that snarked and groaned against the rough terrain. “This is awesome,” said Eddie Walters, 50, who traveled from Silver Springs with his wife, Heidi, for the couple’s first Jeep Beach. They traveled by Jeep, of course, the fifth one that they have owned. “We’re not taking it on the obstacle course,” he said. Jeep Beach means big opportunity for brand-specific vendors For vendors, Jeep Beach is an opportunity to showcase products and services for a gathering that is now in its 20th year and attracted more than 225,000 visitors and 25,000 Jeeps to Daytona Beach in 2022. “We’ve been coming since the beginning,” said Ricky Artes, owner of Orlando-based JeepersDen, a company that has sold a wide array of Jeep accessories since 1997. The company travels to roughly 17 Jeep events annually in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, “but this is the largest event we do,” Artes said. “Coming to Daytona, to the Speedway, people just love it. It’s a very, very busy show and it gets busier every year.” This year, the event expects to top those totals in pursuit of a goal of raising $1 million for an array of more than 70 area charities in Volusia and Flagler counties, according to organizers. For first-time attendee Eddie Walters, it’s the camaraderie of Jeep Beach that he has most enjoyed. “We’ve been to all the events,” he said. “It’s kind of like a big family.”
Buying a Fixer-Upper? The 203(k) Program Can Help
Buying a Fixer-Upper? The 203(k) Program Can Help A tight listing market pushes buyers to look at potential more than curb appeal, and HUD’s 203(k) program helps them include upgrade costs in their first mortgage. WASHINGTON – For more than four months, Amina Thompson-Wright and her husband, Dannelle Wright, tried to buy a home in Southwest Philadelphia, where they had rented for a decade. But sellers kept rejecting their offers. So they switched their strategy. They started considering homes that needed work. “When you see something new and shiny, that’s what you gravitate towards,” said Thompson-Wright, a 44-year-old social worker for the city. “But those were the homes we could never seem to get.” Through an estate sale, they closed in July on a vacant home that hadn’t been updated since it was built in 1965. It had a crack on the side that stretched from the foundation to the third floor. “You could literally see inside the house from outside,” Thompson-Wright said. The new homeowners didn’t have to come up with more money for the extensive repair or take out a second loan. They financed both the purchase and renovations with a single home loan through the 203(k) program offered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a program that can allow the average home buyer to rehabilitate a property. It’s a key part of a federal plan to preserve the nation’s aging housing stock. Some local real estate professionals said more homebuyers are considering fixer-uppers because the supply of homes for sale is so low. Mortgages that combine money to buy a home with money to fix it up, including loans offered through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are one option for these buyers, depending on the property, extent of work needed, and buyers’ financials. Ed Fallon, a Chester County-based mortgage consultant at Prosperity Home Mortgage, gives presentations about 203(k) loans at the invitation of real estate firms and said, “I probably did more in the first few months of this year than I did all of last year.” These types of loans still make up only a fraction of mortgages, and more interested borrowers and agents doesn’t necessarily mean more renovation loans. In the first three months of 2023, 26 Pennsylvania property buyers used 203(k) loans in the five-county region, compared with 61 in the first three months of 2022, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Increasing the supply of affordable homes The department is trying to get more people to use its program and has been collecting feedback from lenders and consumers. In its call for public comment, HUD called the program “an important tool for community and neighborhood revitalization and the expansion of home ownership opportunities.” Some reasons these loans are attractive: They can make renovations affordable for buyers who struggled with their down payment and closing costs and don’t have more money to spend. They present an option when sellers don’t want to make repairs. They make a purchase possible when lenders won’t originate a standard mortgage because of the poor condition of a home. They add guidance and protections for buyers and can make the renovation process easier. They can give buyers immediate equity in their homes. Some reasons these loans aren’t more widely used: They require buyers and sellers who are willing to risk waiting a couple extra months to close a deal. Buyers have to be willing to pay higher interest rates and deal with the added stress of renovations. Lenders have to be willing to take on added risk. The success of the process depends on the availability and reliability of contractors. Removing barriers to programs such as 203(k), according to HUD, “can help support HUD’s goal of increasing the available supply of affordable housing in underserved communities.” In the competitive housing market of the last few years, buyers who wanted to use these types of loans had a hard time getting their offers accepted, said Art Verbit, Delaware County-based vice president of mortgage lending and a renovation specialist at Guaranteed Rate. “As the market has started to cool a little bit over the last six months or so, you’re seeing more interest,” he said. “And sellers and Realtors that are more willing.” The loans work best when homes need major work, and ideal properties are those owned by banks or sold through estate sales, Verbit said. “I tell people about 203(k)s all the time,” said Stacey Middleton, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, Realtors based in Delaware County, “because it gives them an opportunity, like so many other products, that they don’t know about.” But Thompson-Wright was her first client to say yes. In March, contractors finished her home’s major renovations, including a new kitchen and main bathroom and new flooring, ceilings, and lighting. There’s added support for home buyers using renovation loans Thompson-Wright’s favorite part of the 203(k) program was the consultant who came with it and advised her throughout the renovation process, starting with an initial report laying out the work needed and estimated costs. These consultants, who report to loan officers, also can recommend trusted contractors to bid on projects. Thompson-Wright’s consultant reviewed her contractors’ work and released funds periodically as work was completed to her satisfaction. As someone who had no construction background, Thompson-Wright said, she felt protected against scams. “To have that added support, that security, it was like a comfort,” she said. Catherine Hall, executive director of the National Association of FHA Consultants and a 203(k) consultant based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said buyers often make the mistake of contacting consultants too late, which delays closing. She recommends buyers find one as soon as they decide to purchase a home that looks like it needs work. Consultants have been dropping out of the industry, and for the last three years, Hall has been trying to grow their numbers. She is in talks with HUD to get them raises, which she said they haven’t had since the 1970s. Hall said now is a great time for homebuyers to look at these rehabilitation loans, since homes in general are less affordable to the average buyer, and “the less expensive the home, the more it needs repairs.” Besides the crack running up Thompson-Wright’s home, contractors found cracks in the plumbing when they opened the ceilings to install lighting. Now that repairs and upgrades are finished, Thompson-Wright is glad she went with a fixer-upper. “I have more house for less money than less house that’s newly renovated that’s overpriced,” she said. © 2023 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Forecast Suggests Below-Average Hurricane Season
Forecast Suggests Below-Average Hurricane Season By Alex Harris Early reports often change, but Colorado forecasters say an El Niño development in the Pacific Ocean suggests fewer hurricanes, with 13 named storms predicted. MIAMI – After back-to-back years of grueling and devastating hurricane seasons, early forecasts suggest that 2023 may offer a bit of a break – at last. The pre-season forecast from Colorado State University, released Thursday, calls for a below-average hurricane season, thanks to the development of an atmospheric phenomenon called El Niño that dampens storm activity in the Atlantic. CSU predicts this season will include 13 named storms, six of which will become hurricanes and two will become major hurricanes, which is category 3 or higher. An average season includes 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. Hurricane season in the Atlantic runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, with a peak in August to September. But predicting what the season will hold gets dicey this early. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes its official prediction for the season – the gold standard – in late May. But academic outlets and for-profit weather companies often make early season predictions, and CSU’s is one of the highest regarded. Its latest prediction falls closely in line with several others, including the well-known European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, or Euro. “Hurricane seasons are not random. There are clues in the atmosphere that can tip us off,” said Phil Klotzbach, CSU meteorologist and lead author of the forecast. “Those clues really seem to appear this time of the year.” However, Klotzbach warned, predictions get more accurate the closer to the peak of the season. “There’s a lot that can change between April and August when the season really ramps up,” he said. El Niño – or nothing? Several early season forecasts call for normal or below-normal storm activity this hurricane season, and that prediction hinges largely on whether or not an El Niño will happen this year. El Niño is the name for an atmospheric phenomenon that reaches across the globe, warming waters in the Pacific Ocean and shifting the upper-level winds in the Atlantic. That usually makes it harder for tropical storms to form and brings a colder, wetter winter to the East Coast. “That wind shear has somewhat of a protective effect on Florida,” said Ryan Truchelut, the chief meteorologist of private weather service Weather Tiger, which also predicts a normal or below-normal season ahead. For the last three years, the Atlantic has seen the weather pattern at the opposite end of the spectrum, a La Niña. Unlike El Niños, La Niñas are usually associated with more storm activity in the Atlantic and less in the Pacific. These weather patterns make a big difference for the number of storms that form. Truchelut said that since 1900, La Niña seasons include an average of 0.8 land-falling hurricanes a year in Florida, compared with 0.4 land-falling storms a year for El Niño seasons. This year, meteorologists are split on whether an El Niño will form (and when) or if the season will remain right in the middle of the two extremes, known as ENSO neutral. The latest official prediction from NOAA says there’s an 82% likelihood one will form by August to October. “Both of those paths forward are possible. It’s also possible that we don’t get an El Niño at all,” said Truchelut. “In the spring, you always have to take El Niño and La Niña predictions with a big grain of salt.” And even if an El Niño forms, it’s not a guarantee of a quiet season for Florida, as much as the storm-slapped state needs it. In 2018, an El Niño formed toward the end of the season, dampening all storm activity. But not before a small window of perfect storm conditions opened, just big enough for Category 5 Hurricane Michael to swell and crash into the Panhandle. “I don’t want people to take away from this that they don’t need to be prepared for hurricane season. Even in an El Niño year, there’s a significant chance of Florida seeing a landfalling storm,” Truchelut said. “It lowers the odds, but we live in the most hurricane-prone part of the US and it’s just a fact of life. That risk is always going to be with us.” © 2023 dpa GmbH. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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