Replies to post #20594 on The Friendly Money Making Board

[SPENDABUCK]

coydog, I live in florida.
On the east coast near melbourne. Depending on your price range the houses here are affordable now, especially if you can wait. There are 2 subdivisions within 1/4 mile that have all the utilities in but no houses because the buyers have dried up. We built are house 5 years ago and the subdivision filled in 6 months. Most houses around here could be built in the 250-$300,000 range and that would probable get you 2000-2400 sq ft under air maybe more right now but you are correct about houses not selling. I think there is probable 1-2 years worth of sideways to lower home prices before we can start seeing some modest gains. I would never buy an existing home when you can build. Of course south of here is vero and then Boca but those homes still fetch high prices because they are more developed. The space coast is nice though and mainly medium priced homes.

[Renavatio]

Two ways to look at it...

You can wait 2 years for the market to turn and then buy when prices aren't so soft. Or you can buy today at "two years from now" price by not falling in love with one particular house, and making 20-30% below asking price offers on several houses.

I don't know if we have 5 years worth of inventory in N. Florida...more like twice the inventory that we need for today. I do know that South Florida, especially S. West Florida is one of the nastiest markets in the country.

Ren