Back to the Future

Treasure Beach is back to the Future   In the wake of our global economics I would like to focus homeward bound this month. You might want to save this article for the future or just to make a bright day and share some thoughts with our locals about our future.   This past month we all received our property tax assessment, the news was good and bad. Sure your taxes went down, but so did your home values. Somehow this has been met with most locals getting happy but asking a lot of questions about value. It might not sound like an issue unless you're selling a home, but if you're going to re-mortgage, or apply for an equity loan, its suddenly a stick in the mud for most now. After doing some research and some soul searching too, its a market value that I've seen before. The real estate offices nearby are all doom and gloom on our selling prices. You know, there isn't a day goes by, that someone locally in or around TB doesn't tell me about getting beat'in down by a local real estate agent and told their place is worth far less than they can even imagine. A few residents have told me about applying for an equity loan with the banks saying, worthless property in Treasure Beach. Its almost become a sick and a very short sighted joke with the area. Yes, the market demand for our area has dropped, but what we seem to miss is the future here. Property value is a key issue and yet everyone, real estate agents included are not even talking positive about it. The future of this area is still great ! So, lets look this month at the past and into the future for the area and what's missing from the gloomy picture we are told about that keeps our prices down. First off there is more commercial operations on A1A around us than ever before, with newer and bigger stores than in the past. From the plaza out front of TB we see new businesses like the Palm's Grill doing well enough that his open hours have been extended to include dinners. Now just up the road is the Dollar General in the new plaza, and more new commercial stores are getting open. If you think about our past, this represents growth and should add value to the area. But before you say, hey big deal ! There is another area that runs about the same line and yet we are not looking at it. Treasure Beach and this area sits on an island. Some how we need to understand something before the developer's and low ball buyers figure out we're in a limited area of real estate here. A few years ago, the last largest land track of land for development on Anastasia Island was sold to a developer. In the long term of time, this island has limited property and its disappearing, or filling in if you like. This one and single issue should hit any islander's home if you look towards the future, it means a virtual land shortage. In terms of waterfront we are not only limited in supply but the area itself is an island with more and more developments being built on it, so for the long term of investment TB and its area are sitting quietly today but supply is running out. In the past few island properties can rival the prices and changes of Manhattan Island for an extreme example, but I hope my point is well taken. To say the least supply and demand are both important factors. Now lets put another item on the market here that is also yet to show up, but they say its coming. In a lot of newspapers up North from Toronto to New York, studies are showing that the peak of the famous baby boomer era is drawing closer. If we check the peak, most of the baby boomers are now in their low to mid 50s of age and are getting ready to seek retirement properties, and a nice place in the sun. To date, this item may have stalled due to our global economic changes, but the peak is still years away. If we consider that a large number of them might go into early retirement than we can expect a surge for Florida property in the next 7 to 10 years. If this is not enough for your smile, than think about this next item. This past year national home magazines and travel placed Saint Augustine in the top ten cities to live in !  Wow, did you fall off your chair yet ? One of the many reasons points the national magazines picked Saint Augustine Florida included the boating and fishing activities available to the area residents ! Ok, now you who live in TB can fall off your chair. TB has canals and water access, so this adds national value to each and everyone that lives here. From our humble start as a retirement single wide trailer community, we've grown. Some of the oldest single wide trailers have left and in place we are seeing slab constructed homes. In most developments I cannot even chart this change. Its normal for a few new homes to say pop up in an older area, but Treasure Beach is seeing older low cost homes removed and has for some time. This factor means the overall "worth" of all homes in Treasure Beach should be going up. Most streets still have a few empty lots that for one reason or another have not sold or are just waiting to finance a new home to be built on them, but we are getting close now to zero lots left on each street. This is just another point I want to make this month, but driving around Treasure Beach say ten years ago, and driving around it now, you'd almost faint at the difference. We have been said to be under the radar for waterfront seeking buyers for many years, but we've been under construction for some time now. This year we've seen several new homes built again, and a handful of residents are "planning" for the near future to build slab homes here. Unlike any development around us, Treasure Beach has been going through this change for some time now, and it only adds to the value to each property within. About 7 years ago the development showed a total of 5% slab homes to trailers ratio. Just looking at Ventura Rd in Treasure Beach today, it is now at 50% slab to trailers ratio. Changes that seem to go unnoticed, yet it happened quietly. Several of the street residents report they are planning on building within the next 2 to 3 years. Bottom line ? Next time you are told about value for a loan, or to sell your home, ask them to read this article and " don't let the door " .....on their way out. The future is bright for long term investment no matter what the global economy is doing. Smile, you're in Treasure Beach.   L.A. Panchuk ( Author: The Devils Magnet ) Reporter : Xzone radio Writer: DS news services