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I Love Palm Beach
I Love Palm Beach
The Allure of South Florida: Real Estate Opportunities and Entertainment Hotspots
Ready to dive into the captivating world of South Florida real estate? Join us, Rebecca Giacobba and Stephanie Coe, as we reveal the perks of living in this tropical paradise, from the luxurious lifestyle to the unbeatable benefit of no state income tax. Hear from our expert guest, Stephanie, as she shares her insights on whether now is the best time to buy in South Florida, while discussing the intense competition and rising prices in this highly sought-after market.
As we explore Florida's growing population, we'll also delve into the exciting entertainment trends sweeping the state. Discover the concept of "eater-tainment" and how other cities are using outdoor activities like pickleball and shuffleboard to draw in customers. Learn how technology, social media, and marketing have transformed the way people spend their free time, and get an insider's guide to the stunning Palm Beach area with our local expert, Rebecca. Don't miss this chance to gain a deeper understanding of South Florida's real estate market and the vibrant lifestyle it offers!
Hi, this is Rebecca Giacobo with I Love Palm Beach, the podcast, and we are back. We've been gone for about a year. We did previously air 42 episodes, but now we're back. We're going to be on every week And I have a wonderful new partner here. Stephanie Coe wanted to bring in some young blood And she is a mortgage loan originator, loan officer, whatever you want to call her, but she is an expert in loans in South Florida real estate And today's going to be a real estate addition, because that's what we're good at And we want to know if now is the best time to buy in South Florida. Stephanie, what's your opinion?
Speaker 2:Hey guys, thanks so much for having me, rebecca Excited to be on this podcast journey with you. Gosh, what a big topic right now, and it seems like the whole country wants to know that. For some reason, south Florida has caught everyone's attention, and I don't know if it's just because of the demand and the political climate, with a lot of our political representatives being from South Florida too, or Florida in general, and Florida seems to be leading the charge on a lot of political movements and stuff too. And then, on top of that, miami's prices South Florida's prices seem to be an area in the United States where prices really haven't wavered much. I mean, they haven't gone down in the way that people were maybe expecting or hoping.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. But I have to say our lifestyle is just incredible. I mean everybody I meet. They always say I wish I would have been here sooner.
Speaker 2:And I agree Absolutely. I think that's honestly the biggest piece to it all. I mean, i remember 20 years ago living where my family bought in Lake Mary Florida in Northern Florida, and there was nothing around. You would look and it's kind of that Florida jungle type of which I love which is great.
Speaker 2:But now their house has tripled in value and there's four hospitals and ERs and you know, hotels and highways and all of these big structures that have been put in the one mile radius of their home. There was nothing around, It was cow pastures. So there's definitely a lot of money that's been pumped into Florida and South Florida And there's a lot of luxuries that have been added, especially in our coastal cities. Absolutely The quality of life down here, the amount of things to do, you've got wildlife, you've got water, you have sunshine These are things that people crave in their day to day life.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's a very active lifestyle. And then onto the business side. We have no state income tax.
Speaker 2:Absolutely So. people are moving their business registration to Florida or into some of the other tax-free states. But when you have the great lifestyle in addition to the no state income tax, i mean come on.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why this podcast is I Love Pomby, Because we love pomby Absolutely. I am so excited when somebody new comes. I love my job because I get to show them all these amazing places.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So, where should we begin?
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk about what's really going on in the climate. So what I am seeing and I did check these stats the prices are still going up, but they've leveled off, Interest rates are still high And we have-.
Speaker 2:And you also seem to level off a little bit.
Speaker 1:But what's very ironic is, we have more loans this year than we did last year, when mortgage rates were lower, isn't?
Speaker 2:that wild.
Speaker 1:It's very, very crazy. We're still about 30% cash. Last year we were 40% cash buyers.
Speaker 2:Well, cash buyers were the only people that could compete last year, right? I think that that's something that people forget when rates drop. So let's speak to a couple different points about Great point. When you have interest rates low, everyone thinks that that's the perfect time to purchase. However, let's look at supply and demand. Just like any industry out there, any asset, when you have a ton of demand, the prices start going up and up. The barrier to entry starts going up.
Speaker 2:Sellers are more picky with their offers because they have 40 offers within the first day of being on the market, which is absolutely insane. You have lines of people out the door on open houses And with that they want money above what the property is worth when you have rates so low. So with all of that heightened competition, not everyone has the extra $100,000 cash to pay about asking Absolutely. And just a side note for some of the other CVU that are listening, the reason why you have to pay that extra cash is because if you're doing a loan, the loan's not gonna go against unrealized collateral. They need to make sure that the home's worth 400,000 at least if they're giving you a loan close to that amount. So anything, if the seller says, hey, we want 500 for it, take it or leave it, we have 70 offers, then you have to pay that difference cash.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So it weeded out a lot of the loan buyers in the past couple of years And it's been difficult because I mean I feel for these people, a normal average individual doesn't have that capacity to compete like that And now prices have just gone up because of that and we have high interest rates. So there's high payments now compared to what they were before. But the benefit is that now people are actually able to compete Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I am not seeing a lot of people at open houses. We're lucky if we get three or four people come. Houses are staying on the market. It's an average of like 42 days now. Wow, i didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, it's really and that's the average of everything on the market. Condo market brings that down. Condos are not doing as well And we are actually at 97% of ask value. Well, last year we were at 100% and over of ask value.
Speaker 2:Interesting, so you can negotiate a little bit. So now there's a negotiating power for those buyers.
Speaker 1:I got two deals done recently where the people had a house to sell And we got that done.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Are you seeing more I mean, I know I am Are you seeing more seller concessions, Where sellers are giving the buyers money for the closing costs?
Speaker 1:I've only done one of those, but I've seen a couple of them and it's starting to happen again.
Speaker 2:I'm seeing those more and more where people are getting creative in order to help each other out, in order to make the deal go through Versus. I feel like in the past couple of years, if there was so much as a blemish on the inspection report and you needed to get it done prior to closing, there was no negotiating, it was over and they would go onto a cash buyer.
Speaker 1:What a lot of people I'm hearing are doing. Only one of my clients has tried to do this. They've got their money for closing, but they wanna buy down their rate. So they're asking for that concession to buy down their rate. And then one thing I've been wanting to talk to you anybody doing adjustable mortgages these days- I don't think that.
Speaker 2:You know, with rates are the way that they are right now, there are some people that ask about them. I'd say that the majority of people don't want the additional risk on top of where rates are right now because, yes, it could go down, but it could also go up in an adjustable rate. Even though it's forecasted to go down, the market is a little bit uncertain in the market of what exactly is going to be happening.
Speaker 2:Because at the end of the day, rates are up because we're trying to curb inflation And the jobs report is a big factor in all of that too. So when the jobs report is acting unpredictably and it has been the last few notices that come out you know that's for the extra nerdy side of it all that we don't know which way rates are gonna go. But more practically than that, honestly, arms haven't been performing that well because of the lack of demand in them. Same thing with 15 years right now. You know, during when that refi boom was going on and low interest rates, 15 and 10 year loans had way better interest rates than a 30 year. Because there was a lot of demand for them. People could afford a 10 and a 15 year loan payment. But now, with rates higher double what they were then at least then people aren't really putting as much into a 10 or 15 year and the whole bonds market shifted. So the rate's not that much better on a 15 year than a 30 year right now.
Speaker 1:Right, well, i commit yourself to that higher payment. If you don't need to Again, you can always make that extra payment. I think people don't realize that. You know, making one extra payment a year on your mortgage can bring a 30 down to about a 17 year mortgage.
Speaker 2:That's typically a good rule of thumb on it all And you can always, you know, go to a mortgage calculator or talk to your lender and run the numbers on it all. But, like what you're saying, if there's not a great incentive, as in you're not getting a way better interest rate going to a 15 year, why lock yourself into that? Because you can always turn a 30 year into a 15 year effectively by putting extra towards it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, i agree with that, so all right. so what do you foresee for South Florida?
Speaker 2:next year. Oh man, you're not gonna like my answer. That's okay. I think prices are gonna continue to raise.
Speaker 1:I do too.
Speaker 2:I hate saying that, i hate thinking that, because you know there's so many people that are native to this area that are continuing to get priced out. I just think that people are starting to realize on a national scale how much of a gem of an area we're in. I think that it's gonna continue to go up the coast. Think areas like Melbourne and Fort Pierce are gonna develop a lot more, absolutely Just like Port St Lucie. There used to not be much there, i know, five years ago, 10 years ago, and now it's completely developed with new construction. Schools have gotten a lot better. A lot of the reasons that people were staying away from Port St Lucie are now the reasons that people are going there.
Speaker 2:As far as you, know, it's changed on the scale to where those are now good factors there. You know, it's one of those things that it all depends on what happens with interest rates too. If interest rates stay about where they are, i do think that homes are gonna stay around the same level in price point. But if interest rates drop, unfortunately I'm afraid that, especially in our market in South Florida and honestly most of Florida as a whole, if interest rate drops it's gonna stir up that pot of demand and then you're gonna have to have that insane competition type spirit to beat out deals, which means bidding higher and higher, therefore raising prices again.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:So I mean as much as it's a little bit of a risky strategy for some people. So I don't recommend it for everyone. If you can buy now, you can always refinance down your rate Now you wanna do it in a property that you're comfortable with the payment. I'm not trying to tee anyone up for foreclosure or being house poor or anything like that, but it is true that you can always refinance your principle down to a lower payment, but you can't refinance off your principle. So if you buy a property that's 400 now or 400,000 now at a higher rate, you can bring down that payment. But if you buy at 500,000 in a year, you can't just turn that into a $400,000 payoff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's what people need to think about. That's so poignant because people think there's gonna be a crash and it's just not gonna happen. here in South Florida, The demand is still too, too high. I think the stats are now 900 people a day are still moving to Florida, and that's a huge number I might expect that And it's not all retirees, it's a lot of families Like I know our area right here.
Speaker 1:When I first started visiting here it's been about 20 years now my mom was here. It was a more elderly population, but now it's a vibrant. There's young people, there's families, there's older people, and I like a mixed community. It makes it so much more vibrant than just a retirement city.
Speaker 2:And it's so interesting too because that also any shift in demographic. I mean it offers a great business opportunity for people moving down here. I mean those are the fun times to get involved in some sort of if you're entrepreneurial minded entering a city that is an affluent area overall, at least more than the average in the US and that has need for new operations. I mean I've heard several people in the last couple of weeks talk about wanting to open up what do they call it eater-tainment around here in Palm Beach Gardens. What's an eater-tainment?
Speaker 1:That's fun to me.
Speaker 2:It's a place where there's activities and you can get food at the same time. Oh.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:It's not necessarily, you know, go out to the clubs and party, but it's still a fun activity. Type date night bring the family. Maybe for some categories of it, some of them are more adults, you know date night type, but it's just, they're fun little concepts that are starting to pop up all over the US and we should have one here in Palm Beach Gardens.
Speaker 1:That sounds like lots of fun.
Speaker 2:Like those pop stroke or top golf places or whatever. Branching out beyond that, there's a bunch of cool ideas that I've heard of lately.
Speaker 1:I was in Austin, texas, recently and there were lots of bars that had outdoor areas. They were playing pickleball. Shuffleboard had like little tiny, like just like you know ranges that you hit your golf ball. What am I trying to say? A little pup hut, Puppy hut like not a full pup hut, but where you could just hit some balls, have fun, have cocktails, fire pits, live music we want to hang out with each other.
Speaker 1:And it was such a different concept than being. You know, we have our lovely Tiki bars around here. We've got amazing restaurants.
Speaker 2:Great waterfront.
Speaker 1:Views all of that, but it's fun to have something different to do. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I just sit back and wonder you know, does it have something to do with our attention span as generations come through with more and more technology? Right The days of us sitting down at a restaurant and chatting for two hours over dinner are maybe a little bit gone, and you know restaurants have realized that they make more money by turning over customers to you.
Speaker 1:So, they're trying to help you out the door just as much, not enforceably but still Well, that's a whole other podcast about technology And I might be older, but I am obsessed with technology and social media and how marketing works.
Speaker 2:But our quick attention spans like we want things that are fine. So I don't know, maybe you guys listening out there have some great ideas to bring down to Palm Beach Gardens, jupiter, any of the North Palm area or Palm Beach County as a whole. We'd love to have you. We'd love to answer any questions that you have about the area. Obviously, rebecca is a very well-known expert of the area around here. She's very deep roots in a lot of different ways And we're excited to share more of the updates with you guys.
Speaker 1:So thanks for tuning in Well thanks for joining us on our first podcast together, and we love Palm Beach.
Speaker 2:We love Palm Beach.
Speaker 1:Bye guys.