Into the Serengeti

It's that time again. Unlike the wildebeest waiting for the first rains, our mass migration starts on the same day every year, April Fools Day. The first and largest group staged during the night and with loaded SUVs began the river crossings on their northward migration early this morning. Stragglers will follow over the next few weeks but the herd's first big push is always on this day, April 1, when a large number of winter leases expire. With a late Easter this year, we can expect a few more weeks of medium activity with a crescendo the weekend of the Easter Surf Festival and then, crickets until school lets out for the year. It's a bittersweet time. I've said goodbye again to friends that I won't see until next winter. While we all look forward to greatly reduced traffic, restaurants and bars will see less revenue and many condo owners, especially those in buildings with three month or longer rental minimums, won't be receiving any rent checks possibly until next season. The Cocoa Beach golf course will become less crowded, the pace of play will speed up and summer prices will take effect. Those who can should consider visiting Cocoa Beach in May. It's one of the least crowded times of the year and rental prices are less (for most places).

Real estate sales activity isn't as affected and usually stays steady through the end of summer even though there are less people around between now and June. Our sales in March picked up considerably after a slow start to the year and we had a total of 68 condo units and 17 single family homes closed during the month, exceeding last March by a good margin.

Inventory continues to creep upward. We have 272 condo and townhome units and 69 single family homes for sale today in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral. Even with the increased supply, supply is still tight for certain property types. Those looking for a direct ocean unit above the ground floor with at least two bedrooms for less than $350,000 have two possibilities. Need three bedrooms with same criteria? There are none unless we increase the budget to $400,000 in which case we have six. As always, it pays to have reasonable expectations and to know "about" what your target property should be worth. Know that most everything is overpriced.

Confused love bugs have been hatching every day for the last week but I've not seen any hooking up. I don't know if this means we can expect a record hatch in May or if the early hatches will short circuit the May hatch. Time will tell.

"It makes sense to dance while the music is playing." __G. Maynard Krebs