Vero Beach, a few days in Florida:
A couple weeks ago I related to you our most interesting train ride to Orlando to visit our friends in Vero Beach FL. As I left off we were out for a night of dining and dancing at this great little pub built right out over the water. We had a great time and the band of the evening was heavily influenced by its lead singer who did a pretty fair Elvis. Andrea and Neil still had to work for the rest of the week, so Vickie and I busied ourselves with planning dinner for them (Thursday night) and preparing stuff for a cocktail party (Friday night). We tried both afternoons to go to the beach but with typical Florida regularity, the mornings were beautiful, but it turned to thundershowers in the afternoon. We spent some time driving around and familiarized ourselves with at least part of Vero Beach. During one of the heavy afternoon rains, I watched the lawn maintenance guy mowing the grass. It wasn’t raining when he started, but when he was half through it started pouring. I heard him stop, and assumed he’d wait out the storm. Soon after that he returned to mowing. Seems he had had to retreat to his truck to get this real floppy looking hat so that the rain ran in his lap instead of hitting him in the head. He had one of those big powerful zero turn mowers and just kept mowing away. The water flying out the side of the mower looked like a fire hose. He probably couldn’t have done this where I live, the grass would have all plugged up under the mower. But in Florida, the grass of choice seems to be this very coarse wide bladed stuff that is almost uncomfortable to walk on in your bare feet. It is beautiful green, and is left quite long when cut. An interesting aside, when it was sunny and bright, I enjoyed sitting on the back-screened porch watching the legion of little lizards scurrying amongst the palm trees and landscaping.
On Friday night, Neil and Andrea invited some of their friends over for a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres party. We had brought along our Wii (pardon the pun) and introduced them all to the fun of indoor sports. A great time was had by all and we got to know a bunch of great people. Full time Florida residents are quite a melting pot of folks from everywhere else, especially the north.
Saturday we were invited up the street to hang out at a neighbor’s pool and have dinner. I really like the pools that are attached to the back of many Florida homes inside what they call Lanais but what I would call a screened in patio. We were graciously entertained by a cool lady named Alice with a Long Island accent. She served us very authentic pasta with a great sauce with chunks of several types of meat and sausage.
This brings me to an interesting subject. The whole time I was in Florida, I was interested in investigating the real estate market. Florida was one of the epicenters of the recent meltdown of the mortgage/sales/real estate market, along with LA, Arizona, Northern Virginia, Las Vegas etc. etc. I will immodestly tell anyone, that I predicted and watched the evolution of the whole debacle over the course of many years. Because of my long-term interest, I was particularly interested to talk to folks that were right in the middle of the whole thing.
As I watched the situation evolve, I kept asking myself---where is all this money coming from? As folks kept paying higher and higher record prices for homes, I was very concerned about the whole situation. It just seemed to me that the prices far outstripped the real intrinsic value of the homes being sold. And indeed, greed and the pursuit of a quick $$ drove a lot of it. People were taking loans they never intended on paying back just to “flip” homes and make a quick 40 or 50 thousand $$. However real folks with the ability to repay their loans got caught in the same trap as the flippers and folks with “Liar Loans” (I.E. they had no where near the income to qualify for the loans they were getting, but no one was asking any questions) What happened to the real folks was all the unscrupulous activity artificially inflated the prices (note I said prices not value) of the homes. Then in order to get financing at these over inflated prices, unscrupulous realtors conspired with unscrupulous appraisers to make it look like the houses were actually worth what the asking prices showed. Bottom line was a whole bunch of folks (not just a few here and there) ended up with houses they paid way over-inflated prices for. These are not deadbeat or dishonest folks, these might be good hard working folks who invested a great big hunk of equity from a house sold up North, and who want to pay their bills. But the bottom line is many of these hard working honest people now find themselves owing more than their home is worth on the now readjusted (and still readjusting) real estate market. They only have a few choices: 1. is to tough it out, pay the loan, and wait for the housing market to regain its strength, but this might be a 10-15 year proposition. 2. is to walk away from their loan and allow the bank to foreclose on the house. This is a painful and credit destroying p rocess. 3. is to negotiate with the bank to allow what is called a short sale where the bank forgives a portion of the debt to allow the house to be sold. This has the peril of the government deciding the forgiven portion of the loan is income and putting you in trouble with the IRS. This has created a lot of heartache for a lot of folks, and ripped the heart out of both the real estate and financial markets. What a mess. You can drive past mile after mile of recently built gated communities just in this one small Florida town knowing that a large percentage of the homeowners owe $$$$$ more than their homes are worth.
Strange upside to all of the above, if you have money and good credit (read excellent credit) there are now incredible buys in Florida (and I am sure other states) of very desirable real estate. I foresee mega rich speculators buying up reasonably priced properties to rent or just hold until the market regains some strength. Enough soapbox---sometimes I just have to do it.
On Sunday, we took Neil and Andrea’s boat out for a sort of shakedown cruise since he had moved it back to Florida from Pittsburgh. They have a great boat, and Neil is in the process of getting it back into tiptop shape. It is a 43-45’ Sea Ray Sedan Bridge, with 2 staterooms, 2 heads, air-conditioning, twin Cummins turbocharged diesels, full off shore instrumentation, and plenty of range. He keeps it in a snug harbor in a nice neighborhood near Ft. Pierce. From there it is a quick run out to the Intercostal Waterway, and the Atlantic. On Sunday, we picked up Alice, and the 5 of us headed out. We made a quick run out into the Atlantic, (just to say we did it) and came back and anchored at a popular hang out in Ft. Pierce Inlet. Needless to say, boating in Florida has taken on a new slant due to the fuel prices. (a boat of this type holds over 300 gallons of diesel, so you do the math) But what has evolved is a great flotilla where everyone anchors, parties, suns, and swims. Having a big boat to do this on is really great, cause there are lots of places to hang out, and a big swim platform on the back. We had a beautiful day with a great sea breeze, and great swimming temps. Even as Faye at this point was drowning The Keys.
After a great day of boating, we headed in, and spent a goodly amount of time making everything shipshape for the possibility of Faye’s appearance Monday night. We got back home, showered, and hit the Outback for dinner. After dinner we attempted to play 9 holes of Tiger Woods Wii golf but crashed after 7 holes, worn out from the recreation and boat work, anticipating work for them tomorrow and our return trip home.
More later.
Wes
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