"Change will do you good" Cheryl Crow

Diversity

Although I live on Cocoa Beach, my wife and I have been doing a lot of business in Merritt Island and the Viera area.

There are several active blogs in the Cocoa Beach area, a couple are cheerleader type blogs that will tell you that it is the time to buy. There is another that is down to earth and is realistic to the market. It all boils down to the buyer’s motivation. In an effort to service all potential buyers, I am going to focus this blog on the Merritt Island and Viera area. Of course I live in Cocoa Beach so if I can answer questions or show you properties, please contact me at walkerbagwell@aol.com. Keep in mind that if a Real Estate professional ever says you can’t lose, then run don’t walk to the nearest exit.

I hope you continue reading and I will start sharing with you deals and not so good deals in the Merritt Island and Viera area. For people who are relocating to our area, the choices are great. For the young family transferring to start a life the price range on the mainland is much more varied.

Consider this:
The median priced canal home in Cocoa Beach is priced at $465,000, good condition with dock.

The median priced Merritt Island canal home is priced at $329,000, completely renovated, 100 sq ft larger than the Cocoa beach home.

A 4 bedroom home in Viera, median price of $459,900, 3 baths, 3 car garage, pool and built in 2003.

A 4 bedroom home in Cocoa Beach, median price of $459,000, 1 car garage, pool and built in 1958.

These areas are great if you are relocating to our area or if you are looking for a canal front home to get away to enjoy a weekend of fishing. The choices are almost unlimited in the number, prices and style of homes.

At the time of this post there were 631 single family homes active in Merritt Island priced from $74,900 to $4M, of these 61 are on the Banana River priced from $299,900 (a short sale) to $2.5M and also 98 on navigable canals priced from $199,900 (a short sale) to $1.1M. Now it seems that a canal front home is more affordable than they have been for years. More people than you realize keep a home on the canals with their boat on a lift and commute from Orlando for weekend fishing and other holiday events.

At the same time there were 598 homes in the Viera area priced from $72,000 (foreclosure) to $1.799M, there are 26 homes in this area over $1M and one of these is a short sale. There are some beautiful golf course homes that are becoming very affordable.

The next post will be on sales in these areas and any trends that I can decipher.

We also do a newsletter for our complex and 2 adjacent complexes. You can view this at www.cocoabeachwindward.com . Research shows that 1/1/05 thru 5/18/05 there were 7 units sold in these 3 complexes. In the same period of 2008 there were 12 units sold only the prices were changed to protect the buyers.

Your friend
Jim Bagwell