Why are there so many houses for sale here? (St. Augustine: relocate, foreclosure)

[ShellyR]

I just returned from a visit to the Julington Creek/210 area and couldn't help to wonder why so may homes are for sale. Please be honest. We had an appointment to see one house and when we arrived 3 out of the 5 houses on the cul-de-sac had for sale signs on the lawns. What gives?

I still love the area just curious.

ShellyR

[kikiFL]

We just bought a house in St. Augustine a few weeks ago & have followed the market for a few years. The reason is because the investors came to "flip" houses. They wrote contracts on them & by the time they were finished, they were worth 50k more than they bought it for. This continued for many years. They would never plan to live in it, just to resell. That caused a false market & eventually it got tapped out.

When the housing market took a turn, they pulled out of their contracts (because the house was no longer worth what they paid) and lost their down payments. This left a ton of houses in inventory for the builders. There are also a lot of houses that investors didn't pull out from & are now stuck.

We bought a house that was listed for about $415K for 310. The builders are willing to negotiate & can (way more than the homeowners)

[backtofla]

just my opinion, but if they were not homes initially bought by investors, perhaps it is ppl that are moving to northern ga, the carolina's, tn...

[hennipenni]

Florida is a right-to work state -- wages are low (no unions here) and many employers do not offer benefits. Insurance companies are not renewing policies on homes, and on business properties as well. Our insurance bill was $237.00 a year in 2002 -- now it is $1,300 a year, with less coverage. We could only get the government issue insurance (Citizen's) because we live in a county that has Atlantic Ocean coastline. We are inland 35 miles (no chance for storm surge getting us) and had no claims after the 2004 triple hurricane hits. The small company that I work for had to get property insurance through Lloyd's of London -- no other insruance company would write a policy. People are fleeing the state because they can't afford to live here any longer. There is also a budget crisis in many of the school systems and the counties, so we are bracing for less county services (like police & fire protection, some libraries are closing) and fewer teacher aides in the schools, and more students per teacher than before.

[DanBev]

Originally Posted by ShellyR

I just returned from a visit to the Julington Creek/210 area and couldn't help to wonder why so may homes are for sale. Please be honest. We had an appointment to see one house and when we arrived 3 out of the 5 houses on the cul-de-sac had for sale signs on the lawns. What gives?

I still love the area just curious.

ShellyR

Jax's is also U.S. epic center of foreclosure's!

[HIF]

Duval doesn't have a great number moving north. we do have a lot of out of state investors that are just now coming to jesus, however.

Originally Posted by backtofla

just my opinion, but if they were not homes initially bought by investors, perhaps it is ppl that are moving to northern ga, the carolina's, tn...

[dudeman135]

I think it's investors offloading inventory and the fact that it's summer, when many families choose to move between school years. I know of two families that live on 210 and recently moved from one community to another. But I agree, the bulk is probably investors pulling out, which has caused the prices there to come back down a bit.

[wacahootaman]

Supply and demand.

The supply or number of listings in the greater Jax area has more than tripled since 2005 and the number of sales has remained the same.

I am just down the road from Julington Creek in Switzerland and there are fewer houses for sale there but a lot more than 2 years ago.

I just put my place up for sale and it is a real find for the right person. Large private waterfront house with big trees and an older partially upgraded house. It has only been on the market for two weeks and I am getting a lot of interest but noone has gotten serious about it yet. I inherited it so I am letting it go below appraisal and below comparible listings so it should be interesting to see what jells.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by kikiFL

We just bought a house in St. Augustine a few weeks ago & have followed the market for a few years. The reason is because the investors came to "flip" houses. They wrote contracts on them & by the time they were finished, they were worth 50k more than they bought it for. This continued for many years. They would never plan to live in it, just to resell. That caused a false market & eventually it got tapped out.

When the housing market took a turn, they pulled out of their contracts (because the house was no longer worth what they paid) and lost their down payments. This left a ton of houses in inventory for the builders. There are also a lot of houses that investors didn't pull out from & are now stuck.

We bought a house that was listed for about $415K for 310. The builders are willing to negotiate & can (way more than the homeowners)

The OP is posing a question about St. John's County (not Duval), and yes, as Kiki outlined so well, this is exactly what is going on in Northern St. Johns County .

Proceed with caution, OP. Be sure you plan to stay in the home for at least a few years so things have a chance to settle out again...Northern St. Johns County has not hit bottom on this issue yet, there is still a lot of investor inventory on the market.

[kort677]

FLA is a very transient state, many of the issues mentioned are valid ones one that was not mentioned was job xfers.
many companies will buy the house from someone they've relocated and then just pump the house out, cost of doing business