Cape Canaveral, Florida Real Estate Market

Cape Canaveral, Florida has experienced a wide range of highs and lows in its residential real estate market since 2000.  Several factors, both local and national in nature, have affected these trends.  Both the wrapping up of NASA’s Space Shuttle program and the national economic downturn have direct effects on the real estate market in Cape Canaveral, and throughout Brevard County.  The current real estate market is such that Cape Canaveral has declared a moratorium on converting commercially zoned areas to residential for the time being.

As of the first quarter of 2011, the median sales price of existing homes in the Cape Canaveral area was higher than that figure calculated the same time a year earlier.  After 53 consecutive months of prices being lower than their year-ago counterparts, these increases were welcome.  For just the fourth time in 12 months, the sale of existing single-family homes in and near Cape Canaveral topped 600.

The median sales price of single-family homes sold in Brevard County during the first quarter of 2011 was almost $110,000, up from March and April 2010.  During those months, there was a 22-percent increase, marking the biggest one-month jump in prices in at least a decade. The last time there was a bigger year-over-year increase than last month’s 5 percent was in June 2005.

There was also an increase in the sale of condominiums in Cape Canaveral when compared to the figures from the same time period in 2010.  However, the median sales price was down approximately $10,000 when compared to April 2010.  Still, fewer buyers purchased previously occupied homes in April 2011, and sales of previously occupied homes fell 0.8 percent in April 2011.  On the other hand, purchases made by first-time homebuyers did increase, while the median sales price decreased about 5 percent from the same month one year ago.

In the Cape Canaveral area, annual foreclosures rose from a low of 1,144 in 2005 to 9,228 in 2008.  From 2007 to March 2010, there were 25,600 foreclosure filings.  In 2010, it was found that 1/3 or more of real estate sales were due to foreclosures.  Despite the number of foreclosures, the region was rated as one of five “best” places in America to retire by Kiplinger.com in 2010.  Factors evaluated included cost-of-living, weather, the number of doctors, taxes, crime rates and recreational opportunities.