Brevard County Investment Property Analysis
Brevard County Buyer's Agent Services
Sue Goldthorp can help if you are looking for an investment property in Florida's Space Coast area. She has extensive knowledge of the residential rental market in the County. She can help you select a property and estimate how it will cash flow. Visulate allows you to analyze prospective properties by entering property details such as projected market rent and expected annual expenses. Call Sue on (321) 698 5198 for additional details.
Brevard County
Brevard County, known as the “Space Coast” of Florida, extends 72 miles north to south along Florida’s Atlantic coast and inland up to 20 miles east to west to the St. Johns River. Brevard County is divided into three distinct economic areas, referred to as North, Central and South Brevard.
North Brevard consists of the City of Titusville, Scottsmoor, Mims, and Port St. John. The beachside area of the North County contains the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the Canaveral National Seashore. There is no commercial or residential development in the beachside area of North Brevard. Scottsmore and Mims are mostly rural. Titusville is the County seat and the closest city to the Kennedy Space Center. However most of the local Government functions are located in a newer complex in Viera.
Central Brevard consists of the Cities of Cocoa and Rockledge and the unincorporated Merritt Island area. Beachside cities include Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. The Central Brevard beachside area is the largest tourist draw in the County due to its location along the ocean, Port Canaveral, and its proximity to Orlando’s theme park area.
South Brevard is the largest and the fastest growing area of the County. This area includes the Cities of Melbourne, West Melbourne, Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant/Valkaria, and the unincorporated Suntree/Viera area.
You can find out more about Brevard County at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevard_County,_Florida.
Market Conditions
Rents in North and Central Brevard are typically lower than they are in South Brevard. Most of my experience is based in North and Central Brevard. 2 bedroom apartments in North Brevard go from $450, 3 bedroom houses can be found from $700 and up. It is possible to find 3/4 bedroom pool homes around $1000.
Finding renters who can afford more than $1000 in this market is difficult. Therefore when looking for houses as investment potential that have ongoing cashflow they need to be selling for less than $100,000. 2/3 years ago people would buy properties for their potential appreciation and were not too worried about cash flow. Now that appreciation is probably nonexistent in the foreseeable future purchases must be made on the basis that they will at least cover their own costs with the rent received.
Until the situation with the Space Center is resolved and people are more confident about the availability of jobs in this area, houses prices and rents will stay relatively low. What it does mean if you are moving into this area because you have a job, then the prospects for a high standard of living for a low cost are there. You will have a lot of choices.
One way of getting a feel for a given market is to go to Googlemaps.com, put the area of interest or zipcode into the search area followed by the words real estate, then press search. You will then be given the choice on the left hand side what to look for - rental or sales, size of property and other criteria.