Buying a house on St Croix

Have you visited St. Croix before? If not, I URGE you in the strongest terms possible to plan on renting a condo for a couple of months while you get a feel for the island. If you need to ship furniture, there are businesses to whom you can ship and they will store until you find what you want.

The island is so diverse and no area is all good or all bad. You really need to be here for a while before you drop that kind of money into a house.

Anyone else out there, please chime in!!!

Linda,
Thanks for your prompt response. Yes, we visited St Croix April 15-18 for my husband's job interview. We really liked the north central area plus the east end of the island. Though we live in Florida now, I am from New Mexico. We fell in love with the hilly terrrain, and magnificent views on the more arid eastern end.
We were rather shocked by the extremely high cost of homeowner insurance ($12k/yr for a $350k property !), but prices were no worse than South Florida and less than southern California.
We saw some condos we liked at Carombola golf course, but would really prefer a house if possible.
How bad is the tropical climate on your wood and upholstered furniture? Any suggestions and comments would be appreciated.

Margaret: I echo Linda J's advice of renting for 6 months to a year before you consider buying. Once you are settled in, you will know where you want to live and your favorite agents!

I live west, near the north shore. We collect rain water in our cistern and therefore have no H2O costs. City water is about 1 & 1/2 cents a gallon, I think. On the east end trucked water can cost $0.04 a gallon. Be sure to factor that into you cost estimates.

Yes, Carambola is lovely. Where is your husband working? One big disadvantage of where I live and Carambola is the drive into C'sted. I live 11 miles from my job and it take 30-45 minute to get there in the am.

We are looking at places on the near west side of C'sted for our move in August.

We are renting furnished for a year and will not be shipping our furniture until August. Being here has definitely shown me that all our furniture will NOT be making the trip. You should think about any heavily upholstered pieces. There are companies here that can termite-proof your really good stuff (i hear it's expensive). We haven't had any termites yet, knock wood, but they are a problem here. Mold and mildew are another problem.

Please feel free to e-mail me off-board with other questions, but again, I'd really rent before buying.

What good advice you have been given.

It is important to live here for a while before you invest in real estate.

Sometimes we get so excited about a move that we make premature decisions that we regret later.

Listen to the "experts" on this board, they will save you money and pain......

Just my two cents,
I would also strongly suggest that you follow the advice of Linda. Another problem you might find is that in looking at the price range you are, that is the quickest to sell. Homes in that ballpark are sold within days. You have to be on island to find these 'deals'. If the homes you see make it to the MLS listings in that range, than there usually is something wrong with it. It could be location or need a lot of work. Most reputable agents will not take offers on properties 'sight unseen' either. Everytime my husband and I see something we like, we have to fly down to view it. It would be a lot easier to just live there and do all this on-island. If we don't find what we want by October, we are selling out everything and just moving ourselves there. That way when something comes up we're only, at most, 25 miles away.

Eve,
Thanks for your insight. You made some very good points. We will be living in company furnished modular housing until our household goods arrive from NW Florida. We may want to defer our buying choice until we actually return to the island in several more weeks.
How much do you know about the St Croix housing market ?
Do you have friends or relatives living in any of their subdivisions or condos ?
Based on mold, fungus, termites, and humidity, would you recomended renting or buying a furnished place, or transporting your stateside furniture ?
We are in our 50s and plan to work on St Croix in professional engineering and teaching jobs for at least 5 years.

I really don't know to much about the housing market. This info comes from people I have met on the board doing the same thing right now. HipCrip just got back last week from house hunting and it sounds like she and her husband were successful. KB also is in StX right now doing the same thing. Both of them were having problems until they actually arranged to be on-island. You have to be in constant telephone (not email) contact with the agents and be ready to go at a moments notice. That is how both were successful. (Well hopefully KB is successful).
My husband and I are looking more into the commercial markets and its been a pain.
I would suggest you wait til on-island and than start your search. Move valubles to storage and when you find your choice, like Linda said, you'll know by than what you want to actually want/need for your five year interem. Hey, maybe you'll end up staying and want everything!
I really don't know a person on-island. I went down on my own to begin our search. When KB and HipCrip get there, (within the next two months), I'll have those two contacts.
Mark and I have inherited a bunch of sticks we call furniture, We really don't have much to worry about in that way either. I consider us lucky in that aspect. We don't even want to keep our bed. We will be able to go whichever way when the time comes. When we made this decision, we decided to stop replacing furniture and save $$ instead for out move and to buy new after the move.

Eve,
Thanks for the update. I've already made contacts with administrators at two of the leading private schools plus some of the women at Hovensa. My husband
now has several engineering contacts at the refinery. They all live in company housing, so we will probably need to get more info from recent arrivals and island vets with experience dealing with the island trials and shortcomongs.

Margaret
Now you have it right. You can stay in the company housing (Hovensa) long enough to "learn" what is right for you. St Croix is not like moving to Dallas or even New Orleans . Nothing... is the same.
You need to to get a feel for the island to find the place that is the best for you.

No HURRY... My spouse and and I have been in housing ...less than desirable...but it enabled us to find what is really right...

good luck...you make our island better

stxer

Anyone who's looking in the 300K - 500K range --- good luck! EDC has cleaned out that price range, and what still is there/being offered is artificially inflated due to the fact that there's nothing available. We had a house under contract and found out it was grossly misrepresented in the MLS (square footage incorrect, condition far from the "excellent" listed). After we backed out of that contract, we managed to pretty much see every house that is currently offered in the price range of 300K - 600K. One is almost better off building than buying someone else's problem. The disheartening fact is, that it will probably get even worse: there is some kind of expansion of Hovensa in the talks, and the EDC companies are still buying. We have decided to let my husband start his job, get a rental, and, should things work out at a later time, join him then.

The Realtors are cheering... It has been a long hard time since St Croix properties have been in such demand. (probably before Hugo in 1989) the EDC has given the extra price incentives necessary for some long term listings to sell. However, this is an artificial price support. It is unlikely that true demand will keep these prices up over the next few years. If I were trying to buy property on the USVI right now...I WOULD NOT BUY(unless I had EDC qualifications)...Instead I would wait for the next crash and pick up my bargains then. It might be two or three years, but it will happen. Sorry to say...

Hi STXer,

I must have missed the thread that began talking about EDC. What do the initials "EDC" stand for?

Thanks,
Bill Montgomery
ex-Hawaiian Islander
Future V. Islander

The thread and EDC is found in Just Returned from House Hunting auther KBuckley

Hello Bill,

It stands for Economic Development Commission
Visit them Online at

http://www.usvieda.org/

--Islander