"Chicken Little"

Last week we had some very rare good news from the printed media about the Real Estate market. Home sales for Sep of 2007 in Brevard County totaled 313. Home sales for Sep of this year totaled 444. This represents a great turn year by year. I am normally skeptical about the trend on our market so what I did was to compare the sales of 10/07 to 10/08. From 10/01 to 10/29/07 the sales totaled 303; in the same period of Oct in 2008 the sales totaled 288. I would surmise that the sales for Oct 2008 will end up roughly the same as Oct 2007. This is not exactly bad news and I am grateful for any positive bump in the market. I feel it is not the time to be a “chicken little” agent and scream to all the buyers that the bottom is upon us. You can still get a great buy but it takes good comparables and negotiation to get the selling price to a point a year from now.

Condos

I was just looking at some riverfront condos in Merritt Island. There is a large complex on the Indian River called Island Point. This complex was built by “Homes by Town”; they are a very reputable builder and put together a quality condo. This is one condo complex where I would recommend buying from the developer since they have lowered their prices below the resale’s and sometimes we can negotiate a upgrade package. Right now they have a unit that is 3 bedroom 2 bath with 2275 sq ft with granite, tile etc. This model is never lived in and priced at $290,000. The units go all the up to $405,000 for the penthouse with 3 bedrooms 2 ½ baths and 2528 sq ft.

In Viera/Suntree area you can literally pay as little as $75,000 and on upwards to the $400,000’s. One that caught my eye was a 3 story townhome on the golf course with 2374 sq ft and a 2 car garage priced at $264,000. There are also some great buys in Heritage Isles which is an over 55 community with all the amenities on the Duran golf course.

On a side note we are a registered HUD broker which means we can get you in HUD homes and make bids for the buyer. There is now a small home on Merritt Island priced at $66,000. This could be a positive cash flow home as a rental.

It boils down to the fact that this can be a good time to invest in Real Estate if you are careful.

Jim Bagwell