What caused the PSL downfall? (sales, amusement parks, mortgage)

[JERSEY MAN]

Since the title of the thread is, "when did Psl go downhill". The answer is during the foreclosure crisis. When people overpaid and walked away. That bought us down here to buy as others ran. Bank owned condos selling anywheres from the 20s and up to 100k for single families all over town. We bought several. One was a waterfront condo at the Anchorage on the St. Lucie for 27k. PSL was ground zero. It has since come back pretty good.

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by GinaP

snip

I wasn't looking to live near the ocean. When I lived in Dade, I was nowhere near the ocean. I had to drive about the same distance I do here to get to it. If I was looking for ocean front, I wouldn't have moved here. I was just asking why our section of Hutchinson Island has not been developed. It seems strange for such a potential area to be left abandoned. When I first came down here, I wasn't even aware we had that section. I just assumed Hutchinson Island was only accessible through Jensen Beach and solely belonged to it. Then I realized you can access it through Fort Pierce as well, so our section is the only one missing. You would think it's a prime location for beaches, restaurants, shopping and condos, but it's a barren raccoon city instead.

snip

.

I mentioned the comparison with being CLOSER to the beach bridges (not BEACH FRONT). Your budget doesn't put you on the barrier island or even in a mobile home on the Intracoastal here for that. Because you said that it was a big deal that there's a stretch without a bridge. And about the no "development". yada yada. I assumed you had some interest in the BEACH if you were so disappointed about it.

I said: " less than 20 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean".

It's an economic fact.

Now that I know you're from Miami-Dade I understand.

You need to understand that we don't want Miami-Dade here.

And if it WERE, you couldn't have afforded it either.

I'm sorry you have buyer's remorse but I, for the life of me, can't understand what you guys were thinking - to up and RUSH into an entirely different county, obviously totally different than yours in Miami-Dade, after the huge crash, where EVERYPLACE in FL had problems, and chose to BUY.

Especially since you obviously had to be familiar with Florida's issues.

Then there's this:

Maybe at the end of life that is all people care about, but I'm only 45 not 95.

Even in my county with a greater percentage of people over 65 and an older median age, you can't go to Target without seeing the place crawling with kids and pregnant moms.

I assume you have equity in your house.

Sell it and rent.

BTW,

There are plenty of listings for houses, townhouses and condos UNDER 200K in Palm Beach County and Ft Lauderdale.

Theres even a condo for 119K right on Flagler.

New Singles w pool , townhouses on golf courses from high 100s to under $240 right at PB Gardens.

You can also buy in "downtown" WPB at City Place for under 200K. AND surrounding.

You can buy at your favorite mall for $169K

There's even a vintage 1938 but renovated single down there bet Belvedere and Southern for $169K

It took me 30 seconds to find it.

Gurl, the drama.

[GinaP]

I am not going to repeat once again why I sold my house in Dade during the housing crisis and ended up buying here. I already stated it twice and with much more detail than I wanted to provide. I don't want to expose my entire life’s history in a public forum just to get a simple answer to a pretty simple question.

I don't want to live in the “downtown” area of any city and I also don't want “Miami-Dade” to come here. The problems that I mentioned with this city, have nothing to do with it turning into Miami or any other major city, for that matter.

I mentioned some of the positives about this area, but I’m not going to gloss over its negatives. I want whoever is reading this post to know what they are getting into before moving here. I don't have any stake in people leaving or coming. I’m not a realtor that’s selling in the area nor an investor selling elsewhere. I’m just calling it how I see it and anyone with eyes can see what I’m seeing. I can post photos to prove it, if anyone thinks I’m wrong. Everything I described above, is true.

Again, I have no interest in the beach and I am not looking for a realtor at the moment, but thanks for the listings. I wanted to know why our section of Hutchinson Island wasn't developed, not because I want to live in it, but because you would expect it to be developed since even Fort Pierce is taking advantage of their section. My question is just out of pure curiosity not because I intend to live there.

I asked a simple question and it wasn't suppose to be about me or why ended up here, but about the city itself. I wanted someone with knowledge of the cities history to explain why it is not up to par with surrounding cities, like Stuart or Jupiter, considering that this city seems to be in a location that has everything going for it. Someone already provided the answer. If you still don't understand the initial question and haven’t yet realized it’s been answered, then I can’t provide anymore information except to suggest that you should read the comments first before you continue replying.

[GinaP]

Originally Posted by JERSEY MAN

Since the title of the thread is, "when did Psl go downhill". The answer is during the foreclosure crisis. When people overpaid and walked away. That bought us down here to buy as others ran. Bank owned condos selling anywheres from the 20s and up to 100k for single families all over town. We bought several. One was a waterfront condo at the Anchorage on the St. Lucie for 27k. PSL was ground zero. It has since come back pretty good.

That’s understandable. I did read about how badly the condos and townhomes in this area were hit.

That same crisis actually helped us. I got my house over here for next to nothing from a builder that was short selling their inventory homes. I’m glad I did not over pay for the area. I think what I paid was reasonable considering the location. This helped me avoid getting a loan. In that sense, I have no regrets. I can’t imagine how bad it must have been for those that were left upside down.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by GinaP

Me and my husband talk about this all of the time. We moved here six years ago and honestly I wasn’t expecting it to be quite like this. Because of financial reasons we really can’t upgrade somewhere else at the moment but I’m curious to know what happened to this place?

To me it seems to have an ideal location, right between Miami and Orlando and not far at all from Palm Beach. Yet I don’t see businesses like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s coming this way. It doesn’t have a nice mall or even an upgraded movie theater. There’s no bridge to Hutchinson island and our ocean front was never developed. There’s no lighting, sidewalks, landscaping or good roads. There’s nothing nice along the river either.

What happened? It has so much potential but nothing came of it. Is it the local government? And why did the area become blue collar? Nearby areas have a higher income level but this place dropped like a black hole. Anyone with some knowledge of its history will be greatly appreciated.

Unless there has been a significant change from when I lived there, PSL does not have beaches to develop, Building bridge to Hutchinson Island is pretty much out of the question with the proximity of the power plant. The Corps of Engineers stopped granting permits for Bridges over the Intracoastal, decades ago.

As for the city, itself, it has always been somewhat of a orphan.

It looks like, at least to some degree, PSL has recovered from the Property bubble popping in 2005-2006.

[MGTOWGhost]

Originally Posted by GinaP

I mentioned some of the positives about this area, but I’m not going to gloss over its negatives. I want whoever is reading this post to know what they are getting into before moving here. .

The real estate 'lady' and runs with are the resident trolls here. Don't you dare say anything bad about PSL or they will jump down your throat. I was so happy to get out of PSL and people like them are among the reasons. PSL is doomed to forever have a weirdness about it it seems. If you research the name, you'll probably find like I did that it's not named after a saint at all, more like a devil as in Lucifer. There is no Saint Lucie; and there is no port either.

[newred5]

runswithscissors lives in Vero Beach

[FlaLadyB]

I am not and never have been a troll in this forum.

YOU just joined and don't even live here so I guess that makes YOU a troll.

[kmarc]

I dunno, sounds like a great place to me.

[LarsMac]

I actually liked living there. The only down side was the hour drive to PBI when flying for Business.
Though the upside there was that there were several airports within a couple hours drive and I could always find a decent flight for a good fare, if I was willing to shop around, and not afraid to drive a bit.

I loved Dauphin Sandwiches at the Thirsty Turtle. Plenty of good fishin to be found, and beaches were not that far away.

I'd had enough of Miami and Ft Liquordale, and Palm Beach.
Sebastian and Stuart, or Hobe Sound and Jupiter close enough.

We had to move for work, and we sold our house the day before the market deflated. In fact we were road the day we closed, and a friend called to tell that the bubble popped. If we'd closed the next day we would have lost 30K or more.

We were lucky. That friend was not so lucky. A builder, he ended up holding the bag on a dozen houses.