UF Survey on Real Estate

Oh but it does. The care and upkeep of SoWal/Destin area is totally supported by service workers (many of them barely getting by on meager wages) who depend on subprime mortgages and refi's. Additionally, lots of the visitors and even some high-powered residents' well-being is teathered to the real estate/retail/tourist market whose care and feeding depends on the availability of easy money and cheap labor.
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This debate has been going on since 1980. It seems "we" workers always find a place to live.

This debate has been going on since 1980. It seems "we" workers always find a place to live.

In the 1980's and early 90's a bunch of kids from NJ or NY would crowd into a Mom & Pop motel in Destin or PCB and work at the bars and resturants, make a good bit of cash, pay minimal living expenses and head back up north when the season ended. Life was good.

In the early 80's there was not very much between where Destin ended and PCB began except for Seaside and some really great seaside towns. Living was cheap and locals were able to easily fill the jobs. Life was good.

Silver Sands opened in the early 90s and things took off from there. More and more service-worker-sucking businesses popped up as working-class neighborhoods were bought up and turned into "upscale" subdivisions and condos.

Lower income service workers were forced out of the South Walton County area to more affordable areas like FWB and PC which also experienced a retail/restaurant boom of their own--providing service-sector jobs so folks living in those towns didn't have to commute for hours on steamy, dangerous, traffic-clogged roads only to make a few shekels more per hour.

In the last 5 years the disappearance of affordable housing in SoWal has made it a no-man's land for low-paid service workers. With the increase in property prices, gas prices (again), insurance, property taxes, and stagnant wages, FWB and PC are also finding it difficult to fill all the jobs.

I've lived through 1980 here...it IS different this time. Unless someone can turn back the clock, the chances of businesses finding enough good, reliable and affordable people to fill all the current and growing number of service sector jobs that support life and tourism in SoWal will be impossible.

This debate has been going on since 1980. It seems "we" workers always find a place to live.

Oh but it does. The care and upkeep of SoWal/Destin area is totally supported by service workers (many of them barely getting by on meager wages) who depend on subprime mortgages and refi's. Additionally, lots of the visitors and even some high-powered residents' well-being is teathered to the real estate/retail/tourist market whose care and feeding depends on the availability of easy money and cheap labor.

It may be true that folks with "means" are in a better position to sit on properties and absorb losses as the market "corrects"....but that can also mean they are in a better position to leave their money on the table, walk away, and add the property to the growing inventory too.

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Shelly, I would be curious to know how many subprime mortgages were made in the Sowal market. I would be be willing to bet an extremely small percentage. I never personally did retail subprime loans myself (did not like working with that type of Borrower), but did buy them for Banks a looong time ago, and the majority of subprime loans were made to individuals purchasing in low income neighborhoods, or owned a house free and clear (inherited) and had credit issues, etc.
I do not see Sowal as being that type of market.
Perhaps in less expensive markets like Fort Walton Beach or north of Sowal, but not sowal.
Subprime loans should really be band-aid loans until they can qualify for prime mortgage.(Yes, I know, you'll say that brokers just wanted to do the loan, who cares if they pay or not)
The folks who do have these types of mortgages in the service industry who took them in the last 3 years (since 3/1 arms were mostly offered, 30 yrs were available, but why take it if you plan to clean up your act so you can refi) will be the ones to get hurt trying to refinance now.
Before that, there should be sufficient equity to refinance into a prime loan considering if they paid on time, and have no other major derogatory credit issues. I am still betting though, that they are a small minority of the working class. It's not like you saw this huge influx of service workers migrating to the area to work over the last 3 years.

I have some friends who work at HSBC, and I am going to see if I can get some information from them regarding where the largest defaults are occurring. I would be willing to bet in the Florida market it will be the Miami -dade area as opposed to the sowal/destin.

I have some friends who work at HSBC, and I am going to see if I can get some information from them regarding where the largest defaults are occurring. I would be willing to bet in the Florida market it will be the Miami -dade area as opposed to the sowal/destin.

or possibly orlando. it was amazing to see, while i down there last week, signs at intersections offering "must sell this week"... this was in the windermere area.

Here is an article fresh from MSN.com. This is the type of stuff I am always talking about that people get their info from.... This stuff does not effect our market but put more "fear" and doubt in buyers.



link to article

Really hard to get a read on it. Often in the real estate section people post comments that seem across the board. It is almost as if they get their info from MSN.com. In some areas the market was way under value and it will go only go back to 2005. In some cases it was already too high so it may go back to 2003. It is impossible to get an exact read on an entire market. I know we are selling Real Estate. I know it will be better then 2006. I know it is not as bad as many of these boards portray. The season is just starting and their are allot of folks in town wanting buy Real estate in SoWAL. Price it right and they will come.

:clap_1: I have heard from several Realtor friends they are busy right now - let's hope that translates into sales!! Good to hear you are seeing a pick up in your business and are having a good year so far, too, Bobby!

As far as the issue of not being able to find service labor due to the fact we don't have affordable housing ... Sowal is NOT unique in this dilemma and, compared to many other resort areas around the country, this is a new phenomenon for us. As such, the area is still in the preliminary stages of looking at the problem and, hopefully, will at some point rally together to find viable solutions. We need to look to those resorts that have been dealing with this for a long time for input and feedback.

This is our new reality, folks, and I personally don't think it will ever change. It will always be a core issue so instead of boo hooing about it, we need to start a dialogue of how we can accomodate the change and work with it. If we don't, the integrity of small business ownership is threatened (actually, I think that is already the case with the insane commmercial lease prices and insurance prices here - anyone notice how many "FOR RENT" signs there are around Sowal!) and those that "make it" here will be those with deep pockets.