Florida

[Wait & See]

Florida

$129,000 WTF!!

[LuckyOne]

£80k in real money.

A bit nicer than what you can get here for similar money. Climate is a bit nicer too ......

[AteMoose]

POOLs nearby

no pool?! (but $5k to build one sounds cheap)

what's it made out of?

Edited July 28, 2009 by moosetea

[stew]

It's gone up... it was £119k!!, and £109k before that... weird

Edited July 28, 2009 by stew

[LuckyOne]

It's gone up... it was £119k!!, and �109k before that... weird

It is probably priced in dollars but shown in the sterling equivalent on a UK website.

The sterling equivalent is rising as our currency weakens relative to the dollar.

[thecrashingisles]

£80k in real money.

A bit nicer than what you can get here for similar money. Climate is a bit nicer too ......

Although to be fair here you don't have to dodge gators and pythons.

[stew]

I put an '£' instead of a '$'..doh... I mean the price changed using the Property Bee add-on. Is that still down to exchange rate? Surely not??

Edited July 28, 2009 by stew

[Guest_James Toney_*]

looks great,

just think what you can get for that money here?

mmmm

[Tokyo_Expat]

looks great,

just think what you can get for that money here?

mmmm

They have more land than the UK

[squire]

It is probably priced in dollars but shown in the sterling equivalent on a UK website.

The sterling equivalent is rising as our currency weakens relative to the dollar.

Pound is around $1.65. It's been hovering there for a while, which is a bit higher than average, although lower than the peak obviously. I think the pound has strengthened over the past while meanig the converted price has come down.

Edit to add: ridiculous what you can get over there compared to here for similar money!

Edited July 28, 2009 by squire

[Tokyo_Expat]

Also termites are a BIG problem in Florida, so much so that you have to have separate termite insurance.

The upkeep costs on Florida properties are high, and unless you have a 3/4 bed house w/ pool within 10 min of a major tourista attraction your short term rental yields are gonna suck a bag of dicks.

[LuckyOne]

I put an '�' instead of a '$'..doh... I mean the price changed using the Property Bee add-on. Is that still down to exchange rate? Surely not??

You are right ... I was wrong .... It is priced in dollars so the fx has nothing to do with it .....

[scappers]

Edit to add: ridiculous what you can get over there compared to here for similar money!

You can't get anything over here for that money can you ? Not just 'similar' money.

[LuckyOne]

Also termites are a BIG problem in Florida, so much so that you have to have separate termite insurance.

The upkeep costs on Florida properties are high, and unless you have a 3/4 bed house w/ pool within 10 min of a major tourista attraction your short term rental yields are gonna suck a bag of dicks.

I was in that part of Florida 18 months ago.

It is quite far from either coast (1.5 hours one way and 2 hours the other way) but incredibly cheap but really quite nice.

A house like this was probably pushing $350k at the peak of the bubble from what I can remember about local prices and is now down to $130k. A nice 63% drop.

I still fail to see why people argue that prices can't fall by that much here.

[Agentimmo]

Apart from going to Disney World or the shopping outlets twice a week, what else is one going to do in one's 5 bed property ?

For the price of the local taxes and upkeep, you could rent a great place for 3 weeks of the year or stay in a great 4-5 star hotel for the same period. Stress free. No worries about break-ins, squatters, etc. And you'd still have your $129K in the bank.

A no brainer.

[Gareth79]

Problem is that Florida has a limited job market, and most of the employers are cutting wages and hours. Also most houses are in homeowner's association areas, so you need to pay an organisation a subscription so that they can tell you what colour you can paint your house, and what you can and can't park out the front.

[Tokyo_Expat]

I was in that part of Florida 18 months ago.

It is quite far from either coast (1.5 hours one way and 2 hours the other way) but incredibly cheap but really quite nice.

A house like this was probably pushing $350k at the peak of the bubble from what I can remember about local prices and is now down to $130k. A nice 63% drop.

I still fail to see why people argue that prices can't fall by that much here.

Yes, I really liked the Kissimee area too. Some great properties there and really cheap now. But my point still stands: you've got to know exactly why you are buying a property there as a non-resident, and becareful of those maintenance costs. Some of the HOA can be really tough on how you maintain your property, and you could find yourself with a money pit that is still losing value on its resale.

[LuckyOne]

Problem is that Florida has a limited job market, and most of the employers are cutting wages and hours. Also most houses are in homeowner's association areas, so you need to pay an organisation a subscription so that they can tell you what colour you can paint your house, and what you can and can't park out the front.

Fair enough although you could also say the following :

Problem is that the UK has a limited job market, and most of the employers are cutting wages and hours. Also most houses are in conservation areas or are listed , so you need to pay taxes so that the planning and conservation officers can tell you what colour you can paint your house. The government also tell you where and when you can park and how much extra it will cost you.

[LuckyOne]

Yes, I really liked the Kissimee area too. Some great properties there and really cheap now. But my point still stands: you've got to know exactly why you are buying a property there as a non-resident, and becareful of those maintenance costs. Some of the HOA can be really tough on how you maintain your property, and you could find yourself with a money pit that is still losing value on its resale.

Agreed. The climate in Florida is tough on houses.

As you point out, HOA research is key. Some of them are insane and the politics around the board members can get out of hand.

[Austin Allegro]

The difference in the US is 'jingle mail' - repossessed owners are not liable for debt so just walk away. Coupled with the almost non-existence of sitting tenancies in the US except in the old centres of big cities, this means entire neighbourhoods can go downhill very rapidly and become ghost towns overnight. The phrase 'there goes the neighbourhood' is not a joke in the US. I would imagine this is the type of area you would be buying into. There are even plans for 'shrinking cities' in places like Detroit, where the state authorities will bulldoze these areas to save money on utilities.

[LuckyOne]

The difference in the US is 'jingle mail' - repossessed owners are not liable for debt so just walk away. Coupled with the almost non-existence of sitting tenancies in the US except in the old centres of big cities, this means entire neighbourhoods can go downhill very rapidly and become ghost towns overnight. The phrase 'there goes the neighbourhood' is not a joke in the US. I would imagine this is the type of area you would be buying into. There are even plans for 'shrinking cities' in places like Detroit, where the state authorities will bulldoze these areas to save money on utilities.

I agree. I have seen this first hand in some of the desert cities in California (Riverside county in particular). I am sure that the same thing will happen to some parts of Florida too. I think that much of the Kissimee area is established enough that it might avoid that fate.

The houses in California and Florida that are in isloated developments, adjacent to highways and without access to a golf course etc are destined to go the same way as many city centre flats here. No-one will want to live in them.

Depopulation in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana etc will result in the same fate there.

The Mid Atlantic states (Virginia, the Carolinas etc) are probably the least risky. They have a relatively temperate climate, a job market which is shrinking at a slower than national rate and, most importantly, they did not participate in the bubble as much as many other parts of the country.