Originally Posted by phinsup' post='876210' date='Jun 25 2007, 03:07 PM

there's a lot of factors, but many of them local to the area. First off Florida has put itself in a tough spot with rising insurance rates and rediculous taxes. Next comes the homestead exemption, in a normal housing market a very good portion of new home sales are from existing homeowners (upgrading) in florida with the homestead exemption it's near impossible to upgrade as you will be moving from a house with fixed taxes at say..... 150k, to a new house with taxes based on the purchase price. So if your house you sell is worth 250 and you upgrade to say 350, your effective tax rate went up over 100% even though your house is worth less then 50%.



Now, onto the more local issue, houes shot up over 50% in less 3 years, over inflated house prices and a local economy that was what...? building, pretty much every job here was associated with building in one form or another at least the people who could afford the homes that were being built and sold. So what happens when building permits drop 76% in 3 months? 11,000 people get laid off and there's NO place to go work thanks to the fact that martin and st lucie county having done everything possible to keep any major employer from moving into town and employing people.



So add all that up and you have a shitload of houses on the auction block and a shitload more trying to unload their "great investment".



Eventually it will bounce back, but real estate is like any other investment, you gotta buy low and sell high, the closer to the High mark you buy, the longer it takes to realize any profit. There isnt any investment that isn't dependant on the economy either locally, nationally or internationally..

Originally Posted by Rob x-7' post='876221' date='Jun 25 2007, 07:13 PM

I know quite a few real estate high rollers who are practically stealing property from people in Florida.



LOTS of pre-construction deals, people just walking away from thier investments because they cant close on the place. That new tax thing they started that makes it tough for people to buy and sell real estate down there as investment versus living there.



The bubble is burst, and real estate is not a short term thing, stick it out.



Why cant you just keep the house and sell it later on? Why the rush to get out of it?



I was going to buy another house here myself and rent mine out, but the banks are getting a

little more picky when it comes to giving someone a 3rd mortgage

Originally Posted by Rob x-7' post='876235' date='Jun 25 2007, 08:10 PM

living on the boat out of choice?

Originally Posted by Rob x-7' post='876235' date='Jun 25 2007, 08:10 PM

living on the boat out of choice?