[Cain]

My sister and her family bought a house on Merritt Island. Seen some pics and it looks nice, just curious how it is in that area and how do hurricanes affect it?

[MrTudo]

Where on Merritt? North or South?

I have an attorney friend whose house is on South Merritt. His house has a front AND rear view of the intracoastal waterway and river.

My Brother lives on Merritt also, although not anywhere near my lawyer friend

We're going next week to look around. Stay tuned.

[grannynancy]

I pretty much grew up on Merritt Island and my parents lived there after I grew up. So from 1963 to 1973 for me and to 2007 for them - some hurricanes - nothing really major in terms of devestation. That particular area really seems not to get hit very hard by them but the insurance companies don't think so.

I can't comment much on the Island as it has changed SOOO much. When I lived there there was nothing but scrub and orange groves north of the barge canal to the space center and they got rid of the humpback bridge [wooden bridge over Sykes Creek] when I was in HS.

The way the housing goes on Central MI along East side Courtenay is low dollar homes are closes to the junior high school and property "values" increase as you head north to barge canal. Most of these homes were built in the late 50s through 60s. When I was there the South part of the island had expensive homes as did Tropical Trail and homes across Courtenay from the HS were real low dollar.

[Love2LiveNCities]

i love that area. you kinda can drive through a whole lot of nothing for a very long time in some places, but its a nice area. 2010 though alot of Islanders will be moving elsewhere or jobless with the discontinuation of the space shuttle launches for at least 5 years. brevard in general will take a big hit. But id live there if i could find a job. I also love cocoa beach. its just a very nice area. Brevard in general wins my vote. its so laid back, not crazy, good schools, less crime, and good areas with plentiful water with the 2 big rivers and the beach....saaaaaweet area.

[Airchauffeur]

I noticed while staying on Cocoa Beach that it had a very busy 'party type' atmosphere. Lots of cops pulling people over every mile or so. Merritt Island, across the bridge seemed much nicer without as many bars and tee shirt stores. If I'm wrong, please correct me as we'd like to move down from Ga. to a condo on the Indian River, Thanks!