What Do You Like About Living In Brevard County Florida? (Melbourne: mobile home, purchase)

[wp169]

Originally Posted by Reddog53

Nypafl4u,

Enjoyed reading your post. My husband and I will be retired on November 30 and will be coming out to FL for two weeks at Christmas to look for a place. One child lives in West Melbourne and one in Indialantic. Since the housing prices are crazy right now, we will be looking at purchasing at mobile home in a 55+ park, so that we can take our time to look around. We are both retired from the aerospace industry, so will enjoy everything that the Space Coast has to offer.

My husband has his heart set on Merritt Island and having a boat and dock. I would like a pool and a grassy area for our two small dogs. We want to be half hour or less travel time from our girls. Recently, we have run into mostly negative comments about the heat and hurricanes. I have stayed many times, but never in the summer. I love the cool mornings and evenings and the breezes.

We are hoping to find some other areas that might fit our wants in addition to Merritt Island. One-story, 3+2, boat ramp, pool, and grassy area for the pups. Are there other areas that would fill those wants?

Thank you and see you soon...lol,
Reddog53

I used to live in Orlando and biting fire ants were in the grass and I never sat anyplace on grass with my sandals on. I don't know if every part of Florida has fire ants so be careful where you put your dogs.

[Nypafl4u]

More than half the people on our block in Merritt Island have dogs. I have not heard of fire ants being a problem here but I guess that is something to look out for. I think an occasional gator in a canal is more of a threat and most homes with dogs have fences to help. Florida is full of potential dangers from poisonous snacks, hungry gators and some nasty spiders, but the good Black Racer snakes, plenty of lizards and birds do help with controlling many of those issues.

[wp169]

Originally Posted by Nypafl4u

More than half the people on our block in Merritt Island have dogs. I have not heard of fire ants being a problem here but I guess that is something to look out for. I think an occasional gator in a canal is more of a threat and most homes with dogs have fences to help. Florida is full of potential dangers from poisonous snacks, hungry gators and some nasty spiders, but the good Black Racer snakes, plenty of lizards and birds do help with controlling many of those issues.

I lived on lakefront property for 10 years, saw two snakes, a black one got in my pool through a hole in the screen and one in the grass which looked like a coral or king snake, my neighbor killed it. No gators. In the house I saw a few small scorpions and lizards, but the house was infested with pharaoh ants, I needed 3 exterminators from different companies to get rid of them. What I couldn't stand besides the ants were the no-see-um bugs biting, they are small enough to get through the pool screen, and I couldn't sit on my grass with the fire ants biting. I'm happily relocated in the NE with much less pests around, many dying off in the winter!

[AngelaRetired]

Originally Posted by quattrohead

Most of the empty lots have been filled in with new homes. There has been a massive building spree in the whole Brevard/IRC area. They are now even reviving developments that were abandoned at the last crash.

Thanks for the feedback on Palm Bay I am monitoring the single-family home rentals there as "rumor" says rental priced are going down.

[AngelaRetired]

Originally Posted by MI2FLA

I moved to Melbourne in 2009 and lived there until 2013 before moving to St. Augustine. I moved back to Melbourne in 2019 and love it here. I love the proximity of it. A little over an hour to the theme parks in Orlando, a drive up 95 to Daytona Beach or St Augie for a day trip, and the beach is almost a walkable distance from my house. A vibrant downtown with lots of quaint shops and restaurants. Port Canaveral is a short drive for cruises, along with KSC right there which is an underrated attraction IMO. I'm a healthcare worker so the numerous hospitals in Brevard make it very attractive as well. Add in the fact that this area isn't too bad for hurricanes and its nearly perfect. The only con is that it's gotten a bit over crowded in Brevard, specifically Melbourne.

Do you have any hospitals you "feel" are good for seniors? Lol, we have some aches and pains a seasoned doctor can help us with. The clinic I am presently using, I age out of when I turn 65 next year. I am still sad thinking of this. Have been going there for 4 years and my doctor is a senior like myself. He understands. We have only 2 hospitals here and the doctors at this clinic are affiliated with one of them. Yes, you guessed it, this hospital owns the clinic and feels it cannot handle Medicare patients.

[AngelaRetired]

Originally Posted by Nypafl4u

We live in Merritt Island on a canal front (technically backed) property since Aug 2021. Coming from LI, NY, it is a different life down here. The obvious weather is a huge difference but I don't miss the cold and enjoy the fact I can go outside everyday, even when hot and enjoy life. It is slower here and more people stop to chat and everyone waves when driving by. For me, it is being close to the water that makes the most impact. I love watching the fish, occasional dolphins and birds, right in my backyard. Being by the water also ensures a nice breeze almost everyday, which takes the edge off the hot sun.
What I miss up north is the variety and quality of food. We had some better restaurants that were closer. I am not saying all restaurants are bad here. We have many we love even better than up north. But overall, you have to hunt them down, which I guess is part of the fun. Just frustrating with gas so high in recent months.
Another thing I find down here is that prices are not really less than up north. Sure, no state income tax and real estate is overall lower. But insurance is much higher per what is covered. Also grocery prices are no better and sometimes worse. The biggest negative for us though is the pay scale. Jobs overall just pay less. If you are of working age and don't have a specialty in the space industry or engineering, you likely will find it tough to get paid as you did up north.
Overall, we are happier here. Warm weather just makes life less irritable from my experience. I can't compare to other parts of Florida, but we like the laid back and casual nature of Brevard.

Yes, I am not looking forward to the Florida payscale but cannot wait to be near my daughter.

[AngelaRetired]

Originally Posted by Reddog53

Thank you, Nypafl4u, for the great information. The following question should be relevant to the post, et al.

Have you or do you expect to have issues with homeowners insurance rate increases or cancellations in the foreseeable future? Any suggestions related to this are appreciated. We are planning on purchasing a reasonable mobile home in a 55+ park to give ourselves time for prices to come down, then look for a permanent home on Merritt Island. Thank you.

Best,
Reddog53

How are your relocation plans going?

[AngelaRetired]

Originally Posted by wp169

I lived on lakefront property for 10 years, saw two snakes, a black one got in my pool through a hole in the screen and one in the grass which looked like a coral or king snake, my neighbor killed it. No gators. In the house I saw a few small scorpions and lizards, but the house was infested with pharaoh ants, I needed 3 exterminators from different companies to get rid of them. What I couldn't stand besides the ants were the no-see-um bugs biting, they are small enough to get through the pool screen, and I couldn't sit on my grass with the fire ants biting. I'm happily relocated in the NE with much less pests around, many dying off in the winter!

Yikes, your post reminded me of a huge black snake that was trying to get into my Palm Bay house. Grateful I saw it outside my sliding door before I opened my front door. Apparently they were cleaning out the surrounding growth and displaced it. At the time my daughter was about 8 and we were both freaking out. I called my landlords to come rescue us/lol. The husband came over and "encouraged" the snake to go find somewhere else to live. My hero

[AngelaRetired]

Originally Posted by Tulippsy

We just bought in a 55+ manufactured home community in Indian River County. We had a few options for homeowners insurance and they varied greatly. I suggest calling a few different brokers since they all seem to work with different insurance companies. Ask a neighbor or someone in the park office for recommendations. We had to replace the roof (from 2004) in order to get coverage, so be prepared for that eventuality depending on the age of the roof.

Are all Florida manufactured homes okay IF a hurricane decides to visit?

[Tulippsy]

Originally Posted by AngelaRetired

Are all Florida manufactured homes okay IF a hurricane decides to visit?

It depends on the strength of the hurricane, the location of your house and whether it’s a direct hit or not. Living in a manufactured home in a hurricane zone certainly wasn’t my first choice, but we were priced out of the real estate market in Florida for a brick and mortar home. Google tells me there are over 600,000 manufactured homes in the state of Florida so obviously quite a few have weathered some storms. There are lots of regulations regarding their safety and Florida’s regulations are some of the strictest in the nation. The newer ones are supposed to withstand winds up to 110 MPH, or a Cat 2. However residents in manufactured homes do have to evacuate whenever there’s a hurricane warning. We have hurricane shutters, a metal roof and tie-downs. Hope this helps.