[uk-mike]

Thinking about buying property in Florida, Holiday Home/Retirement later?
What would be a good area with best value homes for money, Older propery 2 bedrooms.

Any areas to avoid.

Seen one in Cocoa?

Any advice?

Thanks

Mike

[MrTudo]

I like the east coast around brevard. I don't remember though if Cocoa was a bad place or not. I have family on Merrit Island and it's nice. Real estate is imploding however and you would do well to make offers based on pre-2004 valuations, maybe less based on the taxes nowadays.

[uk-mike]

Originally Posted by MrTudo

I like the east coast around brevard. I don't remember though if Cocoa was a bad place or not. I have family on Merrit Island and it's nice. Real estate is imploding however and you would do well to make offers based on pre-2004 valuations, maybe less based on the taxes nowadays.

Thank You, Do you mean that Property prices in Florida are falling?

What other outgoings would I have. Is it similar to the UK, That there are taxes levied to cover Local Services provided by the city, alongside Gas and Electricity? What about advice on buying, What other processes are included in buying in the US(Fla)?

[nytoflorida]

The property values in Florida are dropping. Definitely do your homework before you make any offers as to what houses are going for at the moment, and chances are you will be able to get whatever house you're interested in for at least 15-20% below asking price.

The areas of the east coast worth looking at in my opinon are from what they call the "space coast" which is basically the Kennedy Space Center area on down to Melbourne/Sebastian, followed by the "Treasure Coast" which is Vero Beach down to Stuart. From what I've seen of them, these areas are all decent, and some better than others. Just steer clear of Port St. Lucie - it has nothing going for it, and is not near the ocean. The property values in that area have plummeted, since it was overvalued from the start of the building boom there.

A lot of these areas (like Cocoa Beach and Vero Beach) are not suffering as bad as other areas, but the whole state has taken a hit on property value, it's basically gone down everywhere, except the super exclusive enclaves, like Palm Beach. So you might do well to buy now. Personally I would wait until after the new year, and see how things go if you're not in a rush. I have a feeling values will continue to go down until at least the beginning-middle of next year. Most people are not looking to buy once the winter/Christmas season rolls around, unless they have to.

Good luck

[uk-mike]

Thank you for that information, I will look further re Property Prices.

[LM1]

Your question is a little ambiguous.

First, bear in mind that the state of Florida is physically larger than the nation of England.
As such, the "bad areas" are usually very localized and would depend on where you were buying. The easiest way to determine if your area is a "bad" area or not is to look at a demographics map. If the area is predominantly black, then the property values are going to be dramatically lower, less desirable and the crime is going to be much higher (Sorry. It's the truth)

For the people who say "prices are going down", they are definitely right in most regards, however, the prices of raw land in most markets aren't seeing the steep drops in price as housing. Yes, there is come correcting going on and there will be some in the future, but you're not dealing with the same dynamics as housing. There are places in Florida where you can buy lots for the same price today as you could've 5 years ago.

You also need to ask yourself what it is you want.
Do you want "rural" property? Do you want to be close to a city?
Florida offers a lot and it's up to you to decide exactly what you want out of the state. Everyone wants the "quaint little seaside town" but sadly, they are getting very few and far between and those that remain aren't going to remain 'quaint' much longer.

[CBB]

Areas to avoid would fill books. And yes, your question is more than a little ambiguous.

Have you travelled to Florida a lot? Did you see areas you liked or disliked? Did you spend several vacations in the areas you liked? What do you want to do when you're retired? There are so many questions and considerations!

12 years ago we started to think about buying a house in the U.S. We had travelled the East Coast a lot and especially loved the South Carolina Lowcountry (coast between - roughly - Charleston and Savannah, GA). Seven years ago I started to do some intense research on the internet (via realtor.com), looking at places we had liked (several locations from Myrtle Beach to Miami plus some on the Gulf side like Sarasota-Bradenton and the Panhandle), learning about the towns, their subdivisions, their pros and cons, price development, etc. I did this weekly for several years and put all the information in an excel sheet.

Then I started to look at the weather in these places (we want to stay from November to April only). There are excellent statistics available in the www with data for the past 30 years. I also investigated hurricane statistics.

After that was done, I made a list of things we wanted. That is: a big city and an international airport nearby (leaving the car in the garage and taking a taxi to the airport when heading back to Europe for the summer), easy beach access, walking distance to shopping and dining, plenty of golf courses, no hurricanes and no crime (or as little as possible), not too hot/ too cold, not too touristy, reasonable real estate prices, and last but not least an attractive, well maintained area. There was some more criteria I may have forgotten. I checked all he places I was now pretty familiar with and rated them accordingly.

Now, everybody has his/her own preferences, but "our place" seemed to be Ponte Vedra Beach in North East Florida (which we came across on a day trip from Hilton Head Island to St. Augustine). We stopped travelling to other parts of the country and spent several vacations in PVB, about a month a year. I know - travelling to a place (even multiple times) is not close to living there, but at least you get some idea. I started to read local news daily so I knew what was being discussed at Town Meetings, what crime was being reported and where. Then, after years of investigation, we bought a home.

You may come up with something completely different and it doesn't need such a long time to decide, but you definitely have to do some real thorough home work first.

Connie

[tallrick]

Who wants to "invest" in something that will have you LOSING 2% of your money per year, under the best conditions? That's what property tax does. Even if real estate was appreciating at historical levels or with inflation, that's not a lot of return for so much risk. I would prefer commodities or stocks.

[CBB]

There was no mentioning of "investment" in the OP.

Originally Posted by uk-mike

Thinking about buying property in Florida, Holiday Home/Retirement later?

A home is not only an investment, it is a place to live. It would, nevertheless, be a very bad "investment" if it was a vacation home for the family and thus mostly vacant.

So - another consideration: it should be in an area where short term rentals are allowed so that the owners can put it on the vacation rental market. When they finally retire, they toss out everything and renovate for themselves.

[Carbondated]

Originally Posted by CBB

There was no mentioning of "investment" in the OP.

So - another consideration: it should be in an area where short term rentals are allowed so that the owners can put it on the vacation rental market. When they finally retire, they toss out everything and renovate for themselves.

I got the impression from the OP that it was an "investment" he's looking into. Can't blame him, the US Dollar is so poor against the Pound. It makes retail sales clerks in England rich enough to buy "investment" properties in the States.

As for short term vacation rentals, a lot of communities are now banning it. The transient nature of short term rentals is bad for community and thus bad for property values.