Real Estate is paradise... how do they do it?

[spartanws6]

OK, I admit, I am guilty of what a lot of us spend a fair amount of time doing.... the nice daydream of dropping what you are doing in life right now, and jumping to some sunny paradise to work and live permanently.

Flash back to reality. Take, for example, the keys. I love the keys. But, for grins as I search the net and look at real estate in the keys, the average home down there is around 600,000.

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know, I know, it is a paradise, blah blah blah. But, unlike other popular cities that are expensive, there are areas where the working joe live. My question is what are the working people living in in the Keys? Hell, a mobile home (single wide mind you) goes for more than I bought my house here in Vegas. So where is the checkout girl at K-Mart living? Or what about the pizza gal I spoke to who lives there and works full time at a bar? Are there any key locals on the board that can shed some light on this?

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Well I did the first bit you said, I dropped real life and moved to a sunny paradise to live and work.

 

[spartanws6]

Well I did the first bit you said, I dropped real life and moved to a sunny paradise to live and work.

I'm jealous

 

[archman]

A lot of the locals are multi-generation residents, who hold onto their old family homes and property. But you'll still see a bunch of locals living in trailer communities, and having roommates is pretty common. Living spaces are generally smaller than what most americans are used to... for a time I lived in a 25 foot sailboat with about 100 square feet of usable space!

 

[TRIG]

OK, you struck a nerve. It's been awhile, but in 1970, I was in Key Largo and took a dirt road off the main drag, just looking around. Right on the Gulf, there was this old stone mansion , big fountain in a cellular drive way, windows broke out, weeds everywhere, nice big dock , a handy man fixer upper. I thought , man this wound be great to get and fix up, but didn't check on it. About two weeks later, a neighbor said he bought it for 10 thousand cash. I still get weak thinking about it.

__

 

[Hoosier]

Oh~~~man.

It is common to pay one million for 120 sq yard apartment at Tokyo, London, and Seoul. You guys are still living in Paradise...

 

[wreckchick]

Well, we live in tiny apartments or crappy trailers or rent a house with roommates.

There is actually about to be a serious housing issue down here for all the reasons you mentioned. The problem is that 10 years ago houses were significantly less expensive and a lot of working class people could buy into the market. Now that same house is worth upwards of $700k and people are cashing out. I can't say that I blame them, but it's creating a problem in that the new owners want renters to cover the mortgage payments or they're just vacation homes or vacation rentals. You might imagine that 3 regular people would have a hard time covering a mortgage payment for a 3/4 million dollar home.

Just for the sake of comparison, a Sweetwater stilt home (prefab) with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths totalling about 1400 square feet on a canal is going for $750,000. Most of the ocean front properties are over a million.

Rachel

 

[Loneranger]

Thats just the sticker price. If that does not wake you up the insurance and taxes will. Most of South Florida property is climbing quicker than the salaries. Everything has a price and that is the price of paradise.

 

[CBulla]

Thats just the sticker price. If that does not wake you up the insurance and taxes will. Most of South Florida property is climbing quicker than the salaries. Everything has a price and that is the price of paradise.

This is a truism that is hitting so close to home its not even funny. In fact, this months power bill is up $20 (only a 22 KWH difference over last year same time) for nothing more than the 'fuel charges' going up. This is confusing because half of the power companies supply comes from nuclear and the other half is natural gas plants... its their way of masking the fact they are passing the cost of replacing thousands of telephone poles on to their customers.

On the flip side houses and property taxes have gone to insane amounts. A friend of mine here had her $900 a month mortgage shoot up to $1600 with the tax adjustment this year. She had to go from one roomie to two just to cover the difference and she really hadn't recieved much of a change in pay herself. She works as a corrections officer for the County and is just taking the state LEO exam today which should help...

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place myself. I can't afford to stay here, but I can't afford to move either. I'm making money with the lawn/landscaping but its showing a little stagnation with the housing market this month. All the realtors I know are stating house sales have hit a brick wall, i.e. 8-10 houses a month last year and this month one of my friends was so excited she had a contract on a house she called me just to tell someone she had a contract on a house!

Given that the average house here in Southwest Florida is near 300k, consider this:

Your Monthly Payment for 30 Years

for an Interest Rate of 5.750 %
on a Loan Amount of $ 300,000.00:
$ 1,750.72 a Month

A quick check to the Lee County Economic Development website shows the Median household and family income to be at $45k and 54k respectively, meaning that even being generous and taking into account that roughly 1/3 of their income is going towards paying for the house, it still falls short of the monthly payment. Concievably its more like 45-55% of a persons income in this area actually goes towards providing a place to live.

Add in poor infrastructure to get around the area by most any vehicle, poor bussing systems that are unreliable at best and sit in the same car traffic and you've basically got a great place to be homeless.

Employee's to fill out a businesses needs are in high demand but the ability to pay decent wages to keep them is not. It's not uncommon to see the owner of a business out working with their crews to help get jobs done, not playing supervisor.
Am I complianing? Not to much.. I'm eeking by and have come to the conclusion I won't truely have any sort of 'prosperity' in Southwest FL as I can raise my prices so much and stay competitive. One thing is for sure, I won't be staying here for much longer.. another year or two at best.

 

[DeputyDan]

But if you own it may be the right time to sell.

I purchased a home in Arizona (N. Scottsdale ) in 2000 for $400,000.

Realtors call about once a month wanting to purchase it unseen on the inside for $900,000. It's not on the market. - just cold calling.

If I can clear a million its gone. That in itself could be retirement.