Real Estate agent Larry Walker compares having a Brevard County condo for sale to roadside watermelon dealers. The market is still saturated with property for sale, but he makes the analogy that holding on to a condominium to get a higher price, when other units in your same building have sold and are selling for less, is like holding onto a $5 watermelon, when the roadside vendor next to you is selling equally tasty watermelons at $4.

The condo comparison is appropriate since units in the same buildings are often identical or having so little differences as to be worth mentioning.

But even in the home market, Brevard residents are seeing a few people still holding homes that won’t be, quite simply, sold at those prices. Of course, each seller can hold onto their home as long as they like. Those with disposable income may be able to afford to hold them in the hopes that the market will even out, and even rise, before they have spent their savings on mortgage payments.

What the market really needs is for everyone to lower their home prices by about 20 percent. Ready? Go! If everyone did it together, the glut of excess property would sell next week. And the market would start to rise (due to all the sales). But, of course, that isn’t going to happen. So those who are cutting their losses early are probably going to be the long-term winners.

What areas are homes selling faster than others? And what’s the worst area to own a home right now? Any ideas? As of today, Brevard MLS reports 6,931 single-family residential homes for sale in Brevard County. That doesn’t count condos and townhomes. That’s an awful lot of selection for a potential buyer. Or maybe we should say “the” potential buyer.

Home sellers have been desperately littering our streets and byways with disposable signs. The enforcement officers employed by the county, according to Florida Today, pulled up 1,365 signs last week, barely making a dent. Many have pointed out on Florida Today’s forums the failure of the county and cities to maintain the intersections and roadways in the first place, which allowed this infestation to germinate, along with their overall failure to aggressively pursue the repeat offenders. We all know which signs are causing these problems. Most of the problem has stemmed from the following:

• Open House Signs: Every weekend (and weekday) appears to be an Open House for some homes.
• Rent to Own: Out of area companies with toll-free numbers post signs (or pay others to do so) around busy intersections. These often are fronts for second-rate mortgage companies looking for potential applicants.
• 100 Signs Like This for $300: These people are encouraging others to buy even more signs and litter up our streets even more.
• Old Garage Sale Signs: The penalty for not getting “all” your garage sale signs is non-existent. Garage Sale signs should be required to have a full street address on them and owners should be fined $250 for each sign left up after the garage sale has closed.

What’s surprising has been the silence of the local environmental groups to assist in identifying repeat offenders.

Also, some measure of code enforcement’s actual work needs to be established. It seems questionable that some of the officers could even be making an effort. But since they don’t live in every area of the county, it’s perhaps understandable that their actual concern over a particular area may not be as strong as the residents who live there.

Therefore, perhaps a neighborhood sign coordinator (like the VCOPS program) could be established. Each city could establish a neighborhood “sign watch” person who could login to a secure website maintained by the city to verify sign permits. They could be a volunteer under the city, receive a day’s training, and perhaps be given authority to remove the signs to their garage to be delivered twice monthly to the city (or county) to be processed for fines and/or penalties. This would also be a great part-time job for honor roll students and those applying for scholarships who could log their hours as credits toward college tuition.

As long as owners are going to hold onto their watermelons, this problem is only going to get worse.