Melbourne but not in Australia

[jewels]

Some shots of Melbourne, Florida.

[genuinegirly]

Striking dunes! Now that's someplace that would be fun to visit. Was this a recent vacation, or is it closer to home?

[mixedmedia]

Nice, jewels!

Are you in or around Melbourne?

[jewels]

That was part of our spring break vacation, gg. We spent some time in Brevard to buy a house and were in Orlando for a day at Sea World and am now well versed in both the Florida Mall and the Millenia Mall

I'll be less than an hour from Orlando in a couple of months, mm. We'll definitely have to get together after the girls and I settle!

[mixedmedia]

Awesome. I'd like that.

[host]

Originally Posted by jewels

That was part of our spring break vacation, gg. We spent some time in Brevard to buy a house and were in Orlando for a day at Sea World and am now well versed in both the Florida Mall and the Millenia Mall

I'll be less than an hour from Orlando in a couple of months, mm. We'll definitely have to get together after the girls and I settle!

Nice photos....I spent a week each fall along that coast for a number of years, just north of Melbourne. I always looked forward to my next visit.

How did you know how much to pay....and when home prices will stop falling?

http://m.floridatoday.com/news.jsp?key=67136&rc=bz
Foreclosure filings see slight drop
BY SCOTT BLAKE
FLORIDA TODAY
April 09, 2008 06:43 AM

Mortgage foreclosure filings on the Space Coast continued at a record-breaking pace in March, new statistics show. There were 717 filings last month in Brevard County, down from a record 766 in February but still the second-highest number of monthly filings ever recorded here, according to the Brevard County Clerk of the Court, which records foreclosure cases. March marked the third consecutive month in which filings have totaled more than 700, a number unseen in the monthly filings until it appeared for the first time in January. Fueled by a nationwide housing market slump that has been particularly acute in Florida, the 2,189 foreclosure filings so far this year exceed each year's annual total from 2002 through 2006. Through the first quarter of the year, Brevard is on pace to record 8,756 foreclosure filings in all of 2008, well above last year's record 5,153 filings. In contrast, there were 1,144 foreclosure filings in Brevard during all of 2005, when housing prices peaked. A foreclosure filing generally occurs when a homeowner or other mortgage holder falls at least three months behind in mortgage payments. However, it could take several weeks or months before a foreclosure becomes final. Brevard Clerk of the Court Scott Ellis said his office is holding auctions for about 300 homes a month that have been foreclosed upon. Sometimes, however, a homeowner can avoid foreclosure by working out a deal with the lender to sell a home at a significantly reduced price, known as a short sale. Realtors President Cindy Kelley[sbl: cq: ] said many of the homes that local Realtors are trying to sell now are in some stage of foreclosure, and cities such as Palm Bay and Titusville are being hit hardest. "It's hard to sell anything that's not a short-sale foreclosure," Kelley said. "It's very frustrating." Because of the high number of foreclosure cases, banks and other lenders are playing a more active role in housing markets in Brevard and elsewhere. "I'm feeling like the banks and the lenders, all of a sudden, have taken control," Kelley said. She said some homeowners facing foreclosure, angry at their lenders because they could not work out a short sale, are taking fixtures, appliances and other features from their homes before they are evicted. Contact Blake at 242-3644 or sblake@floridatoday.com.

Do you plan to have your daughters attend public schools? How are the schools?

I had first hand experience in '87, in Cocoa Beach. It was a year after the shuttle exploded, and the space coast emptied out due to suspension of the shuttle program. A family member bought a 14th floor two brm two bath unit on the beach in one of the then newest and impressive condominiums, furnished, for less than $140,000.

What made you do it, if you don't mind me asking? I don't think the level of short sales, auctions, and foreclosures is going to diminish, this year or next.

[lotsofmagnets]

those photos could have just as easily come from my hometown of melbourne australia. it´s all in the name

[jewels]

Originally Posted by host

How did you know how much to pay....and when home prices will stop falling?

Do you plan to have your daughters attend public schools? How are the schools?

Since I don't control the economy, I don't know when they'll stop falling, although indications are that they should now be leveling off, at least temporarily.

What made me do it? Lots of things I may get into another time. The short story? Fort Lauderdale is turning to shit. I know there's crime everywhere but the mass mindset here has been eating at me for the past 5 - 10 years. It's not like this anywhere else I've been. The school system is run by a bunch of flunkies and my daughter's Magnet school received an "F" this year. City planning is a joke, the roads are built ten years after (great band, BTW) the growth's occurred. The population is transient, too many ambulances, it's filthy dirty. Spanish speakers now give me a headache (although I've been married to two Latino men and can get along fairly well in conversation) and the sense of entitlement, driver mentality ... and that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

But I've been planning this for over two years (finding the area that I wanted to live, searching and watching and studying home prices and the length of time on market, etc) and the timing was right for my kids, for me, the interest rate was getting comfortable and I found a house at a price I felt I couldn't refuse. It was time to go. The chips fell into place and it felt right.

Just so you know, the beach pictures were taken around 8 a.m. I won't be living on or across the street from the beach. When we drive up ther, we leave home around 4 or 5 a.m. to avoid traffic in Palm Beach on weekdays so end up with time to kill and enjoy.

Don't know if I mentioned, they're pushing for a 4/30 closing but I still won't physically move until the girls are out of school, and still trying to figure out a way to get paid for lots of accumulated sick time, so I may possibly stay here as late as early July. I'll keep TFP posted.

[mixedmedia]

Melbourne is very nice. I think you'll like it.

Cocoa, just up the road, is great, too.

I go to that area quite often on photo excursions.

[Manic_Skafe]

Wonderful photos Jewels, reminds me of my trip to Florida last december - beautiful water with incredible sunrises and sunsets.