To secure yourself a Florida property for ?80,000, you’ll need a cool head and the patience of a saint. Many Florida property agents are currently displaying surprisingly attractive properties at super-low prices that positively scream value for money to those of us getting excited about the two-for-one exchange rate.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of drawbacks. Firstly, in many cases, the agents in question have absolutely no intention of selling you a Florida property for as little as ?80,000; they merely wish to introduce themselves to you before heading you in the direction of more lucrative Florida property options. The second is that the two-for-one exchange rate is currently slipping away; at the time of writing, the greenback is back with a vengeance, trading at around 1.83 against sterling. There’s still a long way to go before the dollar gets back to pre-credit-crunch levels, but it’s definitely heading in the wrong direction for buyers.
But just look at what comes with a Florida property: the delights of year-round sunshine; vast expanses of beautiful coastline; the world’s greatest theme and leisure parks (Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, and Epcot, to name but a few). And we haven’t even started on the golf courses.
But is the tide for Florida property now turning? Have Florida property prices now fallen low enough for us to consider taking the plunge? That’s difficult to gauge in a market that’s going through such unusually dramatic turmoil. The trouble is, while the bottom has famously fallen out of the market, the top remains in denial, pedalling furiously in mid-air like Wile E. Coyote. Whether or not the coyote will miraculously run right across the chasm this time and continue on its merry way, only time will tell, but Florida property at a less rarefied level has certainly taken a huge nosedive.
Lee Weaver of The British Homes Group, which specialises in providing a one-stop shop service for Brits searching for Florida property, says: “In all our 30 years helping UK buyers find Florida property, the market has never been so full of bargains. For example, Countrywide Financial Corporation, the US’s number one home lender, is currently marketing over 1,600 Florida homes with some houses listed at 40 per cent less than their market value two years ago.”
With this in mind, Homes Overseas has done some sleuthing and come up with Florida property on the market for less than the price of a new Jaguar.
Orlando, in central Florida, is far and away the most important destination for British buyers, who are lured by its unbeatable combination of family fun, top-quality golf courses and historically reliable rental returns. It is, in fact, the world’s biggest tourist destination, with more than 50 million visitors a year; yet surprisingly has been hit harder than most areas in Florida by the credit crunch. For example, a studio apartment is currently offered by Feltrim at Horizons at the Grenelefe golf resort. This attractive and substantial development boasts three golf courses (one of them Arnold Palmer-designed), as well as a huge water park, a marina, spa, sports and fitness facilities, bars, shops and restaurants. The apartment is newly-refurbished and is now on the market for just $80,000 (?43,500).
In Canary Island Circle, just 14 kilometres from Disney, Feltrim is offering a spacious family home with four bedrooms (yes, four) and two bathrooms, a heated and screened swimming pool and its own garden. The property sits within a gated community that boasts an 18-hole golf course and fishing lakes. This Florida property is currently on the market for just $125,000 (?68,000).
However, before you pack your bags (and your chequebook), it should be remembered that, when the price of a property seems too good to be true, it usually is. Residential appraiser Al Franks sounds this note of caution for overseas buyers: “In some places I see signs of stability, and in other places I don’t. A home may look good on paper, but then you drive by and a lot of the neighbouring homes have grass up to your knees.”
There are also pitfalls for the unsuspecting overseas buyer, such as a two-tier tax system, which is not favourable for non-residents; and the fact that, if you’re seeking a Florida property as a holiday rental, you must ensure it sits within an authorised short-term rental zone.
Golf development property is usually a good bet for those with rental returns and long-term growth on their minds, and another Orlando apartment from Feltrim, at the Southern Dunes Golf and Country Club, could prove a winner with singles and couples, as the development boasts one of the top-ranked courses in Florida. This upmarket development is well located for Disney and Orlando and has lots of on-site facilities and nearby sport and leisure amenities, including a large communal swimming pool and a fishing lake. All that, yet the one-bedroom condominium is on the market for only $115,000 (?62,500).
For those still wondering whether the time is right to jump into the turbulent waters of the Florida property market, it should be said that there are signs of change. Orlando’s residential resale market recorded its second-best sales month of the year in July, and local realtors are saying an improvement in the number of pending contracts bodes well for the rest of 2008.
Prices of property in Kissimmee are a touch higher, but in a very attractive area another large single family home on the market with the British Homes Group – and boasting four bedrooms, a luxury kitchen, swimming pool and large garage – could be yours for just $175,000 (?95,000). On the face of it, this is out of our price range; but let’s not forget that this is a buyer’s market and you should arrive ready to negotiate hard.
For confirmation that the Florida property market is truly being cut down to size, we move south down the coast, to Delray Beach, situated between the seriously upmarket resorts of West Palm Beach and Boca Raton. Here, an attractive two-bedroom apartment with vaulted ceilings is currently on the market, offering numerous facilities on the doorstep, such as a pool, gym, spa, clubhouse and tennis courts. Downtown Delray and the beach are a mere ten minutes’ drive away and the property is on the market for $145,000 (?78,800).
Of course, if you’re looking for something a little more luxurious for your ?80,000, you might want to consider vacation ownership (yes, it’s timeshare, but that’s not a dirty word in the States).
The high-end Starwood Hotels and Resorts has a Vacation Ownership arm that owns Sheraton Vistana Villages, a luxury resort with some 1,500 one-, two- and three-bedroom villas. The development boasts three pools plus a children’s pool, tennis courts, poolside restaurant, staffed recreation centre, two fitness centres and lavish tropical landscaping throughout, and buyers automatically gain access to Starwood’s international Vacation Network. Annual weeks at Vistana Villages can be purchased from around $10,000 (?5,450).
Those selling Florida property will always say now is the right time to buy. However, there does seem to be a groundswell of opinion pointing in the direction of at least a bottoming out of property prices by the end of the year. One thing’s for sure, if you love Florida and you can afford to throw ?80,000 at a Florida property, you’ve just about run out of reasons not to buy.
Posts Tagged ‘Florida Property’
The Rental Market and Florida Property
Monday, October 13th, 2008
The Florida real estate market was particularly hard-hit, even devastated, by the implosion of the housing bubble that characterized the past 10 years. The Miami market, like all urban markets, saw sharp decreases in home value, an increasingly tight credit market and the loss of jobs and reduced incomes caused many homeowners to put their homes on the market or, in the worst cases, fall into foreclosure and end up moving not of their own accord. This sad situation has been repeated all over the nation in the months since but signs of recovery, slow and steady, are beginning to show.
In Miami, investors have shown significant interest in purchasing distressed properties. Distressed properties are those that have fallen into foreclosure and are usually available at significantly discounted prices compared to their standard market value. Banks generally want to unload these properties as soon as they can and savvy investors, looking for a way to turn an economic tragedy into a source of new opportunity, have begun to take an interest in these properties.
Homeownership was touted, especially over the last 10 years, as the most sensible dream of any responsible American. However, many individuals-the majority, in fact-in the US are renters. These individuals prefer the freedom and excitement that comes with being able to change homes for only the cost of another deposit and the move. Investors in the South Beach, Miami Beach and Sunny Isles, Florida region seem to have noticed this market on the edges of their radar and realized that there is potential profit to be made in providing for the needs of this segment of society.
While owning a seaside home may be out of the financial range of most Americans, rending one may be well within it. Investors purchasing the distressed properties left in the wake of the real estate bubble’s utter collapse have begun purchasing these properties in the aforementioned areas, oftentimes at surprisingly low prices, and turning them into rentals. As more Americans have come to view a mortgage as a not-entirely positive way to manage their money, the market for rental homes is sure to increase. Purchasing these homes at distressed property prices and converting them into rental homes not only helps the investors, it helps many families get into a new home and possibly one they could never afford to purchase outright.
The Unconstitutionality of the Florida Property Tax
Monday, July 21st, 2008
If you held title to a particular residential property in Delray Beach, Florida the annual property tax due to the town could be either $600 or $2,800. What determines the value owed? The answer may shock you. Your status as a person domiciled full time in the state of Florida vs. your status as a seasonal resident, aka, “snow birds”. The answer to this question seems to violate the strict scrutiny standard of the equal protection clause of the constitution.
The legislature has seen fit to allow towns to tax “snow birds” several times the amount of tax as they do full time residents. The people who fall into the higher tax bracket would also seem to fall into a protected class of seasonal sate residents. Moreover, this class has a fundamental right to travel pursuant to Federal case law. In a relevant case, seasonal residents alleged that the Department of Labor and Industries wrongfully denied workers compensation rights as unconstitutional because it violated their fundamental right to travel. The court held that the exclusion for seasonal workers unconstitutionally infringed on the seasonal residents’ right to travel and denied them equal protection of the law. The court held that the exclusion constituted a penalty on the seasonal residents’ fundamental right to travel. Macias v. Dep’t of Labor & Industry 100 Wn.2d 263 (1983).
Any such discrimination against an individual in violation of his or her fundamental rights, through state action can only be upheld by a court where the discrimination is justified by a compelling governmental interest, the policy must be narrowly tailored to achieve desired goal and there can not be a less restrictive way to effectively achieve the compelling government interest. McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Com., 514 U.S. 334 (1995); H-CHH Associates v. Citizens for Representative Government 193 Cal.App.3d 1193 (1987).
As a person who has no stake in the subject matter of this article, and an unbiased observer of this tax practice, I can not comprehend what the motivation of the state is for the additional tax outside of simply raising additional revenue by discriminating against those individuals who want to assert their fundamental right to travel. The Florida trial court has held that the a Florida statute providing for additional homestead protection for those residents who lived in the state for more than five years violated the “right to travel and equal protection of the laws under the United States Constitution. Osterndorf v. Turner, 426 So.2d 539 (1983).
In preparing this article, I have questioned several permanent Florida residents regarding the aforementioned tax practice and they all agree that though the state and individual towns clearly need additional police, fire fighters, improved public schools and repair of streets and highways, the burden should not fall on the shoulders of those who utilize the services the least, if at all.
One possible solution to the problem may be a temporary resident tax paid by those who rent through properties more than four months a year, thereby garnishing revenue for the commercial use of residential real estate in Florida. The obvious problem with this solution is that it may have a significant detrimental affect on tourism, the lifeblood of the Floridian economy. Another proposed solution is to bring back the impound tax on automobiles. This tax’s automobiles brought into the state for a prolonged period of time for those cars registered in another state, or owned by “snow birds”. The idea of this tax seems to be more appropriate, in that those who are using the Florida roads will pay a tax for its use, where they are not paying the state for registration.
What is the gist of all of this? There are no easy answers, but disparate treatment through the tax code of a protected class of individuals by way of attempting to limit one’s right to travel is certainly not the least restrictive means to an end.