Monday, Sep 27, 2010
When America Sneezes - Could this be the start of a long UK cold?
Eastate Agent Today: Bleak Disney Where prices Come Crashing Down Again
For those who think it can't happen - just look what is happening in America. Hope none of you bought in Disney?
Posted by mystie010 @ 04:30 PM (1134 views) Add Comment
19 Comments
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1. mrflibble said...
The British Homes Group, which specialises in selling properties in the area to Brits, has a five-bedroom, three-bathroom 2,000 sq ft home with private pool in an attractive residential community close to Disney for just $ 149,000 (£94,940). This home was launched with a price tag of over $ 350,000 (£222,964).
Says it all really. What sort of place can you buy in the UK for less that £100k? A shithole...
2. Crunchy said...
Mickey Mouse money for Mickey Mouse houses. Sounds fair to me.
One might be able to afford to actually take the kids to Disneyland more than once in a lifetime, as disfunctional that may sound to
bankers and politicians. Cut out the needless "middlemen", I say.
Slam Dunk!
3. Crunchy said...
...........Affordable houseprices pegged to wage inflation should scare the vampires off. lol
"Can you see what it is yet?"
4. drewster said...
Selling houses in Florida to Brits seems like a bad idea right now. Both the last government and this one are keen to tax air travel - especially long-haul - until the airlines go bust.
If you want a second home in the sun (I'd still like a first home, but hey one can dream) Spain makes a lot more sense. They've also had a house price crash, particularly in coastal towns popular with expats. Spain is closer, the flights are cheaper and quicker, and you can even drive there if need be. As an EU member you can live their year-round without worrying about visas; and reciprocal healthcare arrangements with the UK make it a cheaper place to fall ill. Finally, American property taxes are usually much higher than in Europe (though it varies greatly across the country).
I can't understand why any Briton would choose a second home in Florida over Spain.
5. mark said...
I have seen first hand all the empty and run down houses in the states because of foreclosures, some houses would have sold at peak for over 500k yet now the banks can't give them away, rural estates in colorado overlooking lakes etc, vegas homes in the sun..
the USA market is still in decline with the odd up blip it is destined to fall heavily there is a huge level of foreclosures in the system, the banks hold huge amounts of houses they either cant sell or wont sell hoping for a higher price, the big problem is this is costing the banks, the likes of taxes, HOA fees etc are all due each month, eventually these costs will outweigh the advantages of a slow offload onto the market.
6. str 2007 said...
That's very interesting anecdotal evidence.
You certainly ring loads of £5-10k houses in the states on rightmove, I haven't quite figured out the catch. I guess if you can't sell them at that price I guess you'll never rent them out as it's much cheaper to buy & if your tenant can't get a £10k loan for a house, would you want them as a tenant ?
As for Florida I've had a holiday there once (not disney) but travelled all-round over a couple of weeks.
It's ok, bit dodgy in quite a few places. Very flat, can be very hot, have hurricanes and poisonous snakes.
Houses are very impressive for the money, if you like that style of thing.
You can't help thinking £95k for a 5 bed 3 bath with pool is a bit of a steal, but if I bought one I doubt I'd visit it more than once.
As said above plane flights are due a massive uplift in cost IMO as they'rebad for the environment.
7. mark said...
Hey a plane is better than 400 people driving , more economical
according to that TV show..
8. str 2007 said...
Mark
Not sure if it is to be honest as it's not only the emmissions, but where they are emitted ( should that be 1m or2).
Anyway, you only need to go as far as Paris to stand in queues.
A diesel car trip to Spain say 1000 miles at 50mpg carrying 3 passengers would use 20 gals of fuel each way multiplied by 100 cars for a total of 400 passengers is 2000 gals of fuel.
Anyone know how much fuel a plane uses & do they carry 400 people to Spain or is that 2 planes ?
9. mark said...
According to a TV show the airbus was getting 24mpg (equiv) when at cruising speed.
10. Crunchy said...
7. mark
According to a TV show global warming/cooling/freezing is real. lol However, they still can't explain why we had huge temprature shifts
before man.
If British Petrolium, one of the financiers of this profitable scam could only set an example. Hey we'll throw some Corexit in there too.
WTF.
Pollution? yes, and all money raised should go to that cause and not the banking elite. Hope you got my short drift.
11. str 2007 said...
Equivalent per person ?
If so that's 4 times worse than a 3.0 litre petrol car at least as they can carry 4 people.
Wiki says a 747 uses 1gallon per second (3600 for 3 hr flight to Spain) or 5 gals per mile (5000 gals to Spain).
Either way planes are much worse than cars even if you divide by passenger numbers etc.
But going back to the original post. You can go to Paris to stand in a queue which is a lot closer than Florida.
12. drewster said...
str2007,
I'm reliably informed that Disneyland® Paris isn't a patch on the Orlando version. Americans like to do everything on a vast scale, and Orlando's theme parks are no exception.
Also unlike Spain, houses in the USA tend to be built out of wood and thus don't last nearly as long as European houses.
13. str 2007 said...
Drewster
Cheers for the advise.
I guess if you get a good return on a £25k deposit for a Florida holiday home that is what it's all about out there and maybe at those prices it's worth the risk . But to be honest I've got this gut feeling that if I could afford a holiday home I'd want to be able to reach it by car, so northern Spain or Italy or south of France would be my limit I think.
14. vindicated said...
First hand experience of this.
I bought a place in Clermont (12 miles from Mickey Inc) in 2004 for $156k ( at the time, this worked out at £89k ish). It was a stunning large 3 bedroomed detached house in a security gated community with club house and pools. Contrary to Drewster's thoughts, the houses are primarily stucco and concrete block construction. It stood up to annual hurricane batterings.
I do agree with Drewster on the Theme parks. Beats France hands down I'm afraid. Additionally, the local hospitality beats the French hospitality hands down.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, we sold in 2007 as we plan to move to the states permanently. We sold for $212k a year into the crash. If we had listed in 2006, we'd have sold for $250k ish. That's some profit in three years but a very very quick turnaround from trough to peak to trough in my opinion. If the dollar was weaker right now, I'd definitely be buying another. Beats having the money sat around making Jack Schitt in a UK bank account.
15. drewster said...
vindicated,
Thanks for the info. Agree about the theme parks - Orlando has many other theme parks aside from Disneyworld. Hospitality in the states is miles ahead of anywhere in Europe; and the French can be particularly gruff.
Re the construction materials, good to hear that they are building better houses. I've read elsewhere that there can be problems with build quality; not a major issue if you occupy the house year-round and can be on-site to nip problems in the bud, but more serious if you're only there once a year.
If you're planning to move there full-time one day, then I can see that buying a house in Florida makes sense. But if it's just for annual holidays, especially with children, then Spain or France would seem more logical.
May I ask you, how much did the county charge in annual property taxes?
16. mark said...
I have no idea on equiv of, just repeating the airline tv show comment..lol
found this not sure how true it is
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/2628781/
17. str 2007 said...
I suppose my opinion is a bit biased as I'm personally not a fan of Theme Parks and can't bear the thought of 6-8 hours on a plane with millions of kids (including mine).
From a business perspective, Florida and particularly Orlando is a huge draw for people.
People keep having kids and when push comes to shuv, people put their kids missing out on something another kid in the class has done way above the environment etc.
That's not meant as an insult to anyone here, we're all different and the world would be a boring place if we weren't.
Re: the hospitality though :
Don't you find the 'have a nice day' just a bit fake.
But very true the French can be a miserable old bunch of to55ers who'll happily close their cafe at 2.00pm because it's time to, rather than serving anymore customers.
At over $1.58 exchange rate, things are starting to look up price wise in the states, for us. And when you see what you could get for your money it is very tempting indeed.
I certainly couldn't blame anyone for heading out that way.
I think maybe New England is more my thing than Florida.
18. vindicated said...
@ Drewster
I'll have to check back on State/County taxes. We paid by escrow so it was an automatic thing. I do remember them being pretty minimal though.
As for the permanent move, it won't be Florida! Fab place for a vacation but I couldn't live there year round. That's a whole other story.
On the problems with build quality etc, it's not something we experienced. It really was a well constructed house. We bought a residential place and not some 'off plan' new build that they're so keen to sell to Brits. Anyway, we did have a property management company who looked after the place in our/our renters absence. From what I can remember, the worst problems we had were a broken irrigation pop-up (a few dollars) and a new filter for the air con. I'm sure we really were lucky in the 3 years we owned the place.
I'll aim to get back to you on the taxes.
19. vindicated said...
@STR 2007
It was indeed a business. Our property was a vacation rental. As mentioned above, I would not live in FL. You couldn't pay me to.
I'm an eastern seaboard kind of a gal and yes, New England and the Carolinas are more my cup of tea. Unfortunately, property is more expensive, less desired (in New England) by short term renters and therefore maybe not as great a business opportunity.
And no, I love the 'have a nice day' thing. Couldn't care if its fake or not. It beats the miserable sheisters we're faced with here on a daily basis.