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

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

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

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.

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.