Is now the time for Buyers?
March, 2009: It's still not general knowledge, but Brevard's real estate market is finally warming up... and more people are noticing the current positive trends in this market! As I write this, we are experiencing significant increases in buyer interest, more showings, more offers and more closings. This "turnaround" in buyer sentiment has been a long time coming, here in Central Florida our market peaked in the summer of 2005. At that time, our Brevard County median home price was just over $240,000, and we had over 900 residential closings per month through the Brevard MLS. In the following 3 1/2 years, home prices and buyer sentiment have turned around 180 degrees: from "everything is going up forever" to "everything is going down, hope it's not forever".
I've put together a little chart showing our pricing trendline from 1/2004 to early 2009. It is dramatic, with a peak median price of over $240k sliding steadily downward to just above $115k in about 3 1/2 years!

We feel that this trend of falling prices will most likely end in the next few months. The main reason prices will stop falling is increased buyer interest, and pent-up demand for profitable investments. Right now, there are already two types of greenlight (safe) investments in Brevard real estate.
- Smart investors are flipping modest 3 bedroom foreclosures in some of our older, but still desirable neighborhoods. These smaller homes were snapped up during the boom for $150k to $180k, often by speculators or homeowners who really could not afford them, but felt that they had "to buy something" or "get into the market". These properties are now in foreclosure and can be bought for $40k to $60k throughout the Eau Gallie and Melbourne areas. With some minor updates, landscaping, paint and flooring... profits of $15,000 to $20,000 can be had if you are willing and able to do the work.
- The second type of "greenlight" investment right now is rental/income properties between Palm Bay and Eau Gallie. There are opportunities to buy decent homes in these areas for $50,000 or less, that can be rented for up to $200/month more than the monthly mortgage payment would be. That's positive cash flow from Day 1, plus a very attractive upside for potential price appreciation down the road.
As more people become aware of the very attractive pricing on Brevard County real esate now we are seeing more first time buyers, investors and a lot of renewed interest in relocation. This is evidenced by our increasing levels of sales as reported in the Brevard MLS. As you can see in the chart below, demand (closings) peaked in the summers of 2004 and 2005. Summers are always busiest here. You can also see that the summer peaks occurred at lower and lower levels of activity and demand... through 2006, 2007 and 2008... even though prices were dropping as you can see above in the (blue) pricing chart.
But now, we're finally starting to see enough demand to stop the price slide... in my opinion. Once we get about 3 months of positive news on market activity, more buyers will get off the fence. This will turn the tide of price drops, and the market will stabilize price-wise. Once the price dropping ends and we get about 3 months of positive pricing news out we will have a stable and healthy real estate environment. This process is in motion now, and conditions will improve throughout the summer.
This may be of interest for analytical types. This is just a picture of the pricing graph overlayed on the demand graph. I put them together just to see what it looked like and after a few minutes realized that the lines crossed at two points. First they crossed where price peaked, and buyers began to walk away and they have just crossed again, as low prices and profit opportunities are bringing increasing numbers of buyers off the sideleines.

Searching the Brevard MLS for homes
Despite (and perhaps because of) the great selections of great deal on homes in homes in this area, buyers have a difficult time zeroing in on the best homes or properties that are appropriate for their needs. We have done everything possible here at www.BrevardForeclosure.com to provide easy to use search tools on this site, with more enhanced tools on the way as we develop them.
However due to restrictions on the amount of information that we are allowed to display on a public access website, our (expensive) "agents only" MLS software will always be faster, more accurate and more efficient at finding the best deals and getting you the updates that you need if you are serious about homebuying. For that reason, we have a system that may interest you, where we can program our MLS software to send you an alert when something special (based on paramters you set) hits the market or gets a price reduction. We call this a Shopping Assistant and it works for you 24/7, contacting you by email whne something happens that you want to know about by email. And you can cancel the emails at anytime with one click.
If you would like to set up a Shopping Assistant for your home search, just fill out the quick set-up form below.
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The Home Buying Process
As you begin to think about buying a home, you're probably acutely aware that this is likely to be your greatest investment ever (short of children or a good marriage), and you might be wondering if there's anything you really need to know as you go into this process. This is where your real estate professionals come in. With the help of a trained agent, you can come out on top of a closing that might otherwise have pushed your retirement ahead a decade! This happens all the time to buyers, who are left reflecting on the relatively small commission that would have brought a Realtor into the bargain to help them.
If you'd like to know about the home buying process, we'd love to tell you all about it. Contact us!
Five Reasons to buy your home with a REALTOR®
- Get access to all the listings.
- Know all the facts on properties you're interested in.
- Negotiate with the help of a real estate professional.
- Finance your home faster.
- Make a solid investment that pays off down the road.
New homes for sale hit the market daily. As your representative, we'll be in regular contact with sellers and other real estate agents to ensure you see all the newest listings right away, whether or not they're made public. Often, our clients can put in offers with little or no competition and walk away with an impressive deal on the property of their choice. Your agent will also make sure you see only the properties that meet your needs and investment preferences, so that you don't spend time on listings that aren't of interest. As you compare the best deals, we'll provide you with important information about the home, its neighborhood, zoning issues, utilities, and nearby plans for development.
Many real estate transactions include an extensive negotiating process, and as your buyer's Agency it will be Our job to represent you here and get the best deal possible. We'll also attend property inspections, make sure any and all agreed-on repair work is carried out, and handle paperwork related to the sale. We can also help set up the financing for your invesment, and work directly with a broker to provide you with a seamless service package.
Working with a dedicated agent on your next home purchase will save you time, and add professional assurance to every step of the process. With the guarantee of a solid investment, the decision could also make you more wealthy when it's time to sell. To get in touch with us today, please contact us whenever you'd like.
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