Any federal/state/local programs going on that anyone can share details on? I'm going to be researching this myself but figured I'd get some input here before I dive in.

State money for 1st time home buyers is usually allocated to and doled out by the county on a first come first serve basis... check out your county's housing and economic development page

be careful
market may be peaked

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

I doubt the market is peaked in Brevard

The First Rule overrides all other considerations, , , ,; Location, Location, Location.

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Dora Hates You

I don't know but it may be getting close.
I just had my house evaluated and the number was almost as high as just before the last crash. Not as bad a bubble nor a much correction coming, but maybe soon.
If increased rates suppress demand, we could see a 10-20% or so pull back.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

If you can scratch up 20%, get a conventional loan. FHA required mortgage insurance is expensive.

Northrop Grumman in Melbourne currently has 74 openings for new grads, and 234 for experienced professionals. Many of those will be transfers from high-dollar locales like SoCal and Chicago. Some will need houses, if you know what I mean.

The job growth in the area for the next several years is what I was thinking of as well. As far as affordability goes, our areas close to the beach are super cheap compared to most of the rest of Florida. I would be more worried about Palm Bay than satellite beach.

My real estate buddy from "down south" (West Palm'ish) says that Brevard is still undervalued.

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Dora Hates You

7 of Trulia's "Top 10" hottest realestate markets are in Florida.

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Dora Hates You

Things certainly do feel a lot like they did before the bubble burst last time.

Back then, I remember people saying they weren't worried because there is a finite amount of space on the barrier island and they thought that insulated them from any potential dips in the housing market. They were wrong.

Talking to a friend who is well known realtor in the area, makes me feel like the market is pretty volatile and the current prices of real estate are inflated. People are listing their houses for higher than they ever thought they could and they are selling them, so then everyone else starts bumping up their prices. Many people are moving in from outside of the area, so they don't know any better. People are getting into bidding wars over property. People are buying property sight unseen. Beachside sellers are selling in around a week on average.

I don't know. This isn't what I do for a living but it sure looks like it has all the signs of a market correction of some sort coming in the near future to me. We have some flippers in the market but not near what we had last time around.

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"The government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul," - George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f—k things up.” - Barack Obama

“End of quote. Repeat the line.” - wise words from Joe Biden

Quite a few of the flippers are selling to real life home buyers.

The pricing of real estate (here/there/wherever) is almost an intangible.

IF South Patrick Shores was in Southern California, , , , those old, run down, 1950's houses would be going for 7 figures.

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Dora Hates You

There was a bigger issue in this area than just the housing market when the bubble burst. The timing of that and the shuttle program was a bit of a double whammy to the area. You had people buying multiple investment properties with sub prime loans, mortgage brokers convincing actual home buyers to get shitty loan because of their broker incentive programs, flippers selling to flipper, people buying property without the means to pay for it, etc.

The situation now is vastly different at least locally. You have an area with a large amount of job growth in good paying jobs combined with absolutely nowhere to build in close proximity to the beach save for a couple of areas in satellite beach. The end result is home prices going up beach side, as well they should ....as well as new construction taking off again inland. All you have to do is follow the market on the beach and take a drive through viera to see that.

Regarding Patrick Shores and Satellite Beach ....all of those homes within a couple of blocks of the beach would easily be 2-3x the price pretty much anywhere else in Florida. Even vastly more in the higher end places in Florida. For example, If you were to take my remodeled and updated home a block from the beach and drop it into, say Naples ....it would easily be 1.5 million or so. Granted that is an extreme, but to say a house I paid (with the remodel and pool) 300k for is over priced a block from the beach, in Florida ...and in an area with booming job growth is silly imo.

My son had his Sat Bch 1950s house for sale for the last 9 months. He put what he thought was a high price on it. Got a contract 2 weeks ago with a full appraisal

If you are buying a house to be your home, then its most likely not priced too high. If you are buying to flip and speculate, your timing may be off.

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So if you are a surfer I wish you the prosperity that allows you more time to pursue the salt water dream, and the true happiness that comes from warm water, clean waves and the companionship of your fellow surfers. If you are an internet troll just spewing bs then f off.

And the salaries would be much bigger too.
People can't afford 7 figure homes on what works pays around here.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

JD it is funny you mention that.

We slow flipped a property before moving back beach side because my wife was thinking about moving from remodeling peoples' homes for them into flipping. When I say slow flip, we lived in the home while it was being remodeled and waited a year to get a small break on the capital gains ie. 28% for <1yr vs 15% for 1-2yrs . We did reasonably well, clearing roughly 40k profit after capital gains. The kicker is, if we had just stayed in the house we sold ...we would have made nearly the same amount selling it now without all the hassle. Heh.

In the 14 months to slow flip combined with the 6 months we rented while looking for a flip property, person we sold our home resold it a couple of weeks ago for 37k more than we sold it to him for. (minus whatever commissions he paid out)

I don't think we are in fro a big drop right away, but I don't see much more double digit annual growth for a while either.
But in another decade or so, as the reality of what's happening to South Floridas flood water situation starts to sit in, we may see another boom as people look for dry ground.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Flipping is mostly dead. Thank god. I cannot tell you how many homes we have fixed after "flippers" basically destroyed them. Be very careful if you buy a newly renovated home without permit history and a paper trail. Don't think a home inspector will catch the flaws either. Most just note cosmetic defects.

 

Over priced homes are sitting. But quality properties are moving quick with fairly hefty price tags.

Good advice Sparky.

My house was partially done when the wife and I bought it. To be honest, it would have been better if they didn't touch any of it, heh. Believe it or not though, Whitehouse Inspections caught nearly everything my wife found was wrong... so they seem to do a good job. Anyways, the panel wasn't to code, the house was replumbed but not done right... didn't even strap the pipes to secure them, the roof was new but not done to hurricane code properly in some spots, garage door installed wrong, ac outside was directly wired, the ac inside was using a box that's is known for causing fires, etc.

Glad the wife knows what she's doing and has her own people to fix things right. House is awesome now and won't catch on fire

Big difference I see is during the Bubble to Burst..... Banks were giving loans out like crazy, No Doc loans, "Gold Member" Lines of Credit (HLOC) that were more than the actual equity in your home, $0.00 down loans.  It was crazy....I had firends getting no Doc loans and trying to flip properties (which rarely came to completion) and they would just wlak away.  I "think" it has gotten much more normal for applying and recv loans....I do like to HARP program, used it a while back to get a better rate.

Everything goes up and down in value. Don't see any major down for us in the near future, however. We have more money coming to NASA, and Blue Origin and Space X starting to ramp up. Then there are all the new and expanding high tech/defense companies. Finally, this is a very desirable place to live that has been "discovered." As dingpatch said, my house would be 7 figures if in California and at least double the current worth if in most other parts of Florida. If you are buying something to live in for a number of years you would be fine.

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I :heart; Q

This area is well above the state average on income. We have a lot of well paying technical jobs here. Not sure what you are talking about tbh.

The point being, higher than average salaries for Florida and much much cheaper properties in close beach proximity than most of the rest of Florida. There are some places in the state where the people that work there can't afford to live there, we aren't even close to that yet.

I agree that this area pays pretty well (for FL) , because of all of the government spending that flows in, but good tech people can make far more in CA, and the difference makes up for some of the housing cost differential.
Brevard does have a pretty decent salary to COL ratio for techies that want to make stuff for the DOD, its non DOD tech industry is not so hot.

I make what is a pretty good salary for here, but I certainly can't afford a 7 figure home.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Edited: 03/30/2017 at 05:03 AM by WG

Comparable tech positions probably pay about 30-35% more on average in California compared to here, more than for some positions, less for other. Of course you have to factor in the state tax too.

It still doesn't even come close to making up for the house cost difference. There is a reason why housing affordability is a massive issue in California.

Certainly true in some parts of CA, especially near the water, if you want to buy and not rent.
The primary reason why I am here, and not there

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Same for me. That and the traffic sucks ass.

As I reported in another thread, , , , The local management types at DRS were pretty upset with trying to communicate with the Boeing division they bought in Anaheim in 2001; most key personnel worked 4am to 1pm California time in order to "beat the traffic"! One guy that was going to transfer to Florida told the Melbourne realtor that he'd like to try to live within 35 miles of the plant because of his California based sense of traffic and travel times!!!

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Dora Hates You

Orlando is seeming to become a lot like that now.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

Orlando traffic sucks, but not even remotely close to San Diego through LA.

Our local traffic in Brevard is nothing. So spoiled that I curse if I sit through a light change more than once at 4pm

There are plenty of houses in South Patrick Shores and south of Ocean Ave in Melbourne Beach that would be prime targets for tear-downs but not at the current prices. The location of both are nice but it tough to justify paying $200-300k for a junk house that you intend on tearing down and rebuilding on the land.

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"The government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul," - George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f—k things up.” - Barack Obama

“End of quote. Repeat the line.” - wise words from Joe Biden

If you can get one for <200k without major problems (like foundation/mold/etc) and reasonable square footage, then it would be a good buy imo if you have the money to remodel it.

I would say closer to 200k near the beach and less as you move away.