Posted on 03/21/2011 9:50:20 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
It's not always easy to feel sorry for sunny Florida. But it just got hit with another blow.
On Thursday, the Census Bureau revealed that 18% -- or 1.6 million -- of the Sunshine State's homes are sitting vacant. That's a rise of more than 63% over the past 10 years.
Having this amount of oversupply on the market will keep home prices depressed and slow any recovery.
During the housing boom, Florida was among the hottest real estate markets in the nation. Homes were snapped up by the state's growing population as well as hordes of investors confident that prices would continue to soar.
"You'd drive through downtown Miami and see 30 or 40 cranes sticking up in the air," said Michael Larson, a housing market analyst for Weiss Research.
The bust brought an end to that. Development ground to a halt. Retirees stopped relocating. And prices started falling and vacancies rising.
"Housing went from being the preeminent investment of choice to toxic waste," added Richard DeKaser, an economist with the Parthenon Group.
The vacancy problem is more dire in Florida than in any other bubble market: In California, only 8% of units were vacant, while Nevada, the state with the nation's highest foreclosure rate, had about 14% sitting empty. Arizona had a vacancy rate of about 16%.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
All part of that Socialist “hope and change” gig.
There is just no encouraging news to report.
My niece rented a house that unknowingly was in foreclosure. Owner took money and then the bank threw them out 9 months later. 2 other of her friends fell into the same situation. Big scammers down there....
This is great news. Now’s the time to buy. If I had a cool million, I’d definitely have a 2nd home in FL.
Not from what my husband read, and related to me....FLORIDA is not a place to “invest” unless you want to wait 20-30 years for a return...
Well, builders ran roughshod over the state for 20+ years, bribing and bullying and borrowing and screwing and basically turning it into a flipping junkyard, all in pursuit of a buck and what it can buy.
At this rate you could buy your 2nd through 10th houses for a million.
It’s not the vacancies that are the problem, it’s the overbuilding that occurred. When more are built than can be sold, inventories rise, why should that not also be the case with houses?
and like autos, after they set unoccupied for a long time they’ll start to deteriorate or be vandalized. Not good.
A neighbor who has a 2nd home in FL said that some of the vacant houses or condos were damages by hurricanes and never repaired. Apparently, they removed the damaged material and just left it.
Stimulus would have been better spent razing vacant homes.
Transplant the Japanese.
I’m not talking about “investing.” I’m talking about owning a winter home in FL. Although I’ve looked at Panama City (in Panama, not in FL) for retirement options as well.
This does happen quite often. You can peruse craigslist right now for different parts of FL and find scam rentals.
Fortunately I think FL has one of the best open records laws. For example, you can go to this website for Seminole County Records and lookup civil suits and foreclosures. Given the economy, I would recommend looking up this info for a prospective rental property no matter what state you are in. And then continue to keep an eye on it *after* you move in.
I know some owners here in L.A. who won sites that are located in Panama. Heck, almost every warez’ site is located there.
Oh, don't be so negative. It's all "better than expected".
My wife and I just bought our retirement place down here, and some friends think we're crazy - bad investment and all. But, it's only an investment if you plan on selling. We're planning on dying here. We bought a place that sold for a third of what it sold for three years ago.
Same thing happened to our neighbors when their landlord fell into foreclosure with the bank. It makes no sense to me that a bank would throw out tenants who are paying fair value rent. Maybe there is some legal restriction with a bank acting as landlord. Otherwise, it surely seems like a waste of guaranteed income versus empty non-rev property, and lost opportunity for a rent-to-own arrangement.
Many banks don't when it's fair value. I think Fannie had an explicit policy to just that, allow renters to continue to rent - although I don't follow it closely enough to know if it's still the policy.
A popular scam that's run is the landlord (who's in arrears and facing imminent foreclosure), will ask for a a big deposit up-front, and then charge below market-rate rent (sometimes WAY below) to some unsuspecting dupe who thinks they're getting a great price.
Four or five months later, the sheriff is posting a notice to vacate on the door. It's crappy, but it happens a lot, especially in FL.
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