Semi-Rural is the Way to Go

I am dying here.

I can’t quit looking at real estate. Like I keep saying, I want to get out of Miami and get some land under me. And I infected my father with the bug, so he wants to buy, too. At first, I was looking for a moderately priced place for myself, and it turned out my unimpressive money would buy a magnificent place, as long as I got away from the Miami area. Now that the old man is involved, the plan is for him to buy a place big enough for both of us. And he can spend a lot more than I can, so the options are just plain sick. I can’t believe how inflated Miami prices are. For the price of a pretty nice Miami house on a smallish lot, you can have a bona fide compound in Indian River County.

My dad likes waterfront. I like inland properties. I used to be a rabid fisherman, but these days I don’t care if I ever fish again. I suppose that’s because it’s so much work. And it’s hard to get my friends to go, and I’m always the only person on the boat who knows how to do anything, so I run around like a slave all day, tying knots and showing people how to use the toilets and fixing stuff in the 150-degree engine room. Ideally, when you have a big boat, you end up with a regular crew of friends who know how to take the burden off of you, but my situation isn’t like that. Most of my friends are very helpful with cleaning up the boat after we dock, but that’s about all they know how to do. And some of them hide when it’s time to work. So when we fish, it’s a vacation for my father and my guests, but it’s two days of hard work for me.

I just found a 10-acre place in Vero Beach for an asking price of $350,000. Looks like it’s a former citrus grove, a few miles from the water. I can’t believe that. Ten acres! House included! I guess if you live in Iowa or Wisconsin, you’re wondering why I’m excited. I just found a couple of similar properties near Miami. Asking prices? One is $1.75 million, and the other is $2.7 million.

I guess there is no point in looking at it, since my father wants to get a place. But damn, what a difference between Miami and the rest of the state.

Think of all the stuff you could do on 10 acres. I wonder if I could shoot out there. Maybe, if I built a berm. Maybe I should get my own place, not too far from his, and divide my time between them. I don’t want him to be alone at his age.

I don’t know if the current economic problems are going to last. But I suspect that even if things bounce back for a while, we’re eventually headed for tough times. And if that happens, a city will be the last place you want to be.

I remember my grandmother telling me that in eastern Kentucky, people didn’t really notice the Depression. They were poor before and poor after, but the whole time, they had good food, shelter, and stability. Meanwhile, in cities, people lined up at soup kitchens. It would give me tremendous comfort to know that I could have a garden, some chickens, and a few hogs if I needed them. And the climate a hundred and fifty miles north of here is considerably better. Miami is a bit like Los Angeles. Only livable because technology allows us to conquer the inherent inhospitableness of the environment. If you couldn’t have air conditioning around the clock here, plus malathion trucks, living here would be torture.

I think real estate will continue to tank for at least six months. The supply of new housing and foreclosures is just too big, and a lot of new places are not available for occupancy yet. Once they are, rent prices will collapse, and that has to affect sale prices. But sooner or later it will be safe to shop.