So many people think of Florida as the south peninsula, or the Gulf Coast. However, for second home living, great value can be found in mid-Florida as well. Here’s a true story from one of our readers on how they’ve made their dream life and future retirement a sure thing in Martin County, Florida. Patricia writes:
Richard, my husband, bought a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom house on 2.1 acres in Stuart, Florida, with screened pool, cabana and hot tub. Richard, who at 6'4" does not want to live in tiny accommodations, will upgrade the house and landscape the property, putting in solar power for pool and house water heating. We live four blocks from the water where rights to moor a boat go with the land title. The airports in Stuart and in Indiantown are close by which is great as we are planning on buying a small plane for family visits. Golf courses are everywhere, and shopping is five minutes away for everything we need. At our previous home in El Granada, California we had to drive "over the hill" to the economical big box stores.
In December last year, I bought a small multi-family property in Jensen Beach, Florida. It is four units. The main house is a duplex, each dwelling with one bedroom and one bathroom. There are also two small efficiency cottages, and an empty double garage.
My properties are popular because they are so small and cheap to lease to single persons moving into the area to work. People are crowding into Martin County because this is almost the last area where new houses are available. The market is less expensive than the bottom half of Florida which is now built up solidly.
I will rent these properties until it makes sense to re-mortgage them and buy another duplex with the equity. Since I am a pensioner, this gives me a great income. It also is my retirement package. I intend to renovate all of the cottages and landscape everything, so that I have a private, tropical paradise to live in when Richard and I are no longer able to live in large surroundings his house provides.
We both paid about $300,000 each for our properties. We think that they have both appreciated about 20% in the 8 months since purchase.
We think paradise is attainable. Nobody mentions this area of Florida in any of the escape writings, and people are flocking here. Amazingly, medical clinics and specialties are everywhere. Anti aging clinics are a way of life. In this climate we are connected to the outdoors, which was not the case when we lived on the Northern California coast, where often it was too cold to be outside. Becoming older, metabolism changes, and warmer weather suits our bones.
These choices we made are not very usual, but suit us as two lately married older peoples with families from earlier marriages.... we are separate but together, and happily planning a future in the tropics that we and our respective children can appreciate, and, separately, inherit. We call that having our cake and eating it, too.
Patricia Kays, Port Salerno, FL 34992
(Editors Note: Some of the other towns in Martin County include Jensen Beach, Port Salerno, Rio, Hobe Sound, IndianTown, Golden Gate, and Palm City.)